Linear representations of regular rings and complemented modular lattices with involution

Faithful representations of regular $\ast$-rings and modular complemented lattices with involution within orthosymmetric sesquilinear spaces are studied within the framework of Universal Algebra. In particular, the correspondence between classes of spaces and classes of representables is analyzed; for a class of spaces which is closed under ultraproducts and non-degenerate finite dimensional subspaces, the latter are shown to be closed under complemented [regular] subalgebras, homomorphic images, and ultraproducts and being generated by those members which are associated with finite dimensional spaces. Under natural restrictions, this is refined to a $1$-$1$-correspondence between the two types of classes

Configuration spaces of rings and wickets

The main result in this paper is that the space of all smooth links in Euclidean 3-space isotopic to the trivial link of n components has the same homotopy type as its finite-dimensional subspace consisting of configurations of n unlinked Euclidean circles (the "rings" in the title). There is also an analogous result for spaces of arcs in upper half-space, with circles replaced by semicircles (the "wickets" in the title). A key part of the proofs is a procedure for greatly reducing the complexity of tangled configurations of rings and wickets. This leads to simple methods for computing presentations for the fundamental groups of these spaces of rings and wickets as well as various interesting subspaces. The wicket spaces are also shown to be K(G,1)'s.Comment: 28 pages. Some revisions in the expositio