Let $P$ be a polynomial with integral coefficients. Shapiro showed that if the values of $P$ at infinitely many blocks of consecutive integers are of the form $Q\left(m\right)$, where $Q$ is a polynomial with integral coefficients, then $P\left(x\right)=Q\left(R\right(x\left)\right)$ for some polynomial $R$. In this paper, we show that if the values of $P$ at finitely many blocks of consecutive integers, each greater than a provided bound, are of the form $m^q$ where $q$ is an integer greater than 1, then $P\left(x\right)={\left(R\left(x\right)\right)}^q$ for some polynomial $R\left(x\right)$.

By Descartes’ rule of signs, a real degree $d$ polynomial $P$ with all nonvanishing coefficients with $c$ sign changes and $p$ sign preservations in the sequence of its coefficients ($c+p=d$) has $\mathrm{pos}\le c$ positive and $\neg \le p$ negative roots, where $\mathrm{pos}\equiv c(mod2)$ and $\neg \equiv p(mod2)$. For $1\le d\le 3$, for every possible choice of the sequence of signs of coefficients of $P$ (called sign pattern) and for every pair $(\mathrm{pos},\mathrm{neg})$ satisfying these conditions there exists a polynomial $P$ with exactly $\mathrm{pos}$ positive and exactly $\neg$ negative roots (all of them simple). For $d\ge 4$...

For n ∈ ℕ, L > 0, and p ≥ 1 let ${\kappa }_p(n,L)$ be the largest possible value of k for which there is a polynomial P ≢ 0 of the form $P\left(x\right)={\sum }_{j=0}^n{a}_j{x}^j$, $|a_0\left|\ge L\right({\sum }_{j=1}^n|a_j{{|}^p)}^{1/p}$, $a_j\in ℂ$, such that ${(x-1)}^k$ divides P(x). For n ∈ ℕ, L > 0, and q ≥ 1 let ${\mu }_q(n,L)$ be the smallest value of k for which there is a polynomial Q of degree k with complex coefficients such that $\left|Q\left(0\right)\right|>1/L({\sum }_{j=1}^n{\left|Q\left(j\right)\right|}^q{)}^{1/q}$. We find the size of ${\kappa }_p(n,L)$ and ${\mu }_q(n,L)$ for all n ∈ ℕ, L > 0, and 1 ≤ p,q ≤ ∞. The result about ${\mu }_{\infty }(n,L)$ is due to Coppersmith and Rivlin, but our proof is completely different and much shorter even...

We consider nonsingular polynomial maps F = (P,Q): ℝ² → ℝ² under the following regularity condition at infinity $\left(J_{\infty }\right)$: There does not exist a sequence $(p_k,q_k)\subset ℂ²$ of complex singular points of F such that the imaginary parts $(\Im \left(p_k\right),\Im \left(q_k\right))$ tend to (0,0), the real parts $(\Re \left(p_k\right),\Re \left(q_k\right))$ tend to ∞ and $F(\Re \left(p_k\right),\Re \left(q_k\right)))\to a\in ℝ²$. It is shown that F is a global diffeomorphism of ℝ² if it satisfies Condition $\left(J_{\infty }\right)$ and if, in addition, the restriction of F to every real level set $P^{-1}\left(c\right)$ is proper for values of |c| large enough.

For a finite group $G$ denote by $N\left(G\right)$ the set of conjugacy class sizes of $G$. In 1980s, J. G. Thompson posed the following conjecture: If $L$ is a finite nonabelian simple group, $G$ is a finite group with trivial center and $N\left(G\right)=N\left(L\right)$, then $G\cong L$. We prove this conjecture for an infinite class of simple groups. Let $p$ be an odd prime. We show that every finite group $G$ with the property $Z\left(G\right)=1$ and $N\left(G\right)=N\left(A_i\right)$ is necessarily isomorphic to $A_i$, where $i\in \{2p,2p+1\}$.

In this paper, we examine a natural question concerning the divisors of the polynomial $x^n-1$: “How often does $x^n-1$ have a divisor of every degree between $1$ and $n$?” In a previous paper, we considered the situation when $x^n-1$ is factored in $\mathbb{Z}\left[x\right]$. In this paper, we replace $\mathbb{Z}\left[x\right]$ with ${𝔽}_p\left[x\right]$, where $p$ is an arbitrary-but-fixed prime. We also consider those $n$ where this condition holds for all $p$.

In this paper we prove the following theorems in incidence geometry. 1. There is $\delta >0$ such that for any $P_1,\cdots ,P_4$, and $Q_1,\cdots ,Q_n\in {ℂ}^2$, if there are $\le n^{(1+\delta )/2}$ many distinct lines between $P_i$ and $Q_j$ for all $i$, $j$, then $P_1,\cdots ,P_4$ are collinear. If the number of the distinct lines is $<c{n}^{1/2}$ then the cross ratio of the four points is algebraic. 2. Given $c>0$, there is $\delta >0$ such that for any $P_1,P_2,P_3\in {ℂ}^2$ noncollinear, and $Q_1,\cdots ,Q_n\in {ℂ}^2$, if there are $\le c{n}^{1/2}$ many distinct lines between $P_i$ and $Q_j$ for all $i$, $j$, then for any $P\in {ℂ}^2\setminus \{P_1,P_2,P_3\}$, we have $\delta n$ distinct lines between $P$ and $Q_j$. 3. Given...