Two-loop soft anomalous dimensions and NNLL resummation for heavy quark production

I present results for two-loop soft anomalous dimensions for heavy quark production which control soft-gluon resummation at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NNLL) accuracy. I derive an explicit expression for the exact result and study it numerically for top quark production via e+ e- -> t tbar, and I construct a surprisingly simple but very accurate approximation. I show that the two-loop soft anomalous dimensions with massive quarks display a simple proportionality relation to the one-loop result only in the limit of vanishing quark mass. I also discuss the extension of the calculation to single top and top pair production in hadron colliders.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; improved form of the analytical result; equation adde

The virtual cohomology dimension of Teichm\"uller modular groups: the first results and a road not taken

The paper is devoted to a detailed exposition of results outlined in author's 1983 note "On the virtual cohomology dimension of the Teichm\"uller modular group". The paper includes the full proofs and a discussion of the context which motivated both the results and the methods used. The reminiscences included into the last section are an integral part of this discussion. A key idea is to use the simply-connectedness of the Hatcher-Thurston complex. This idea was hardly developed further, but still keeps a promise.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure

On zero-divisors in group rings of groups with torsion

Nontrivial pairs of zero-divisors in group rings are introduced and discussed. A problem on the existence of nontrivial pairs of zero-divisors in group rings of free Burnside groups of odd exponent $n \gg 1$ is solved in the affirmative. Nontrivial pairs of zero-divisors are also found in group rings of free products of groups with torsion.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in Canadian Math. Bul