State Transitions in Ultracompact Neutron Star LMXBs: towards the Low Luminosity Limit

Luminosity of X-ray spectral state transitions in black hole and neutron star X-ray binaries can put constraint on the critical mass accretion rate between accretion regimes. Previous studies indicate that the hard-to-soft spectral state transitions in some ultracompact neutron star LMXBs have the lowest luminosity. With X-ray monitoring observations in the past decade, we were able to identify state transitions towards the lowest luminosity limit in 4U 0614+091, 2S 0918-549 and 4U 1246-588. By analysing corresponding X-ray pointed observations with the Swift/XRT and the RXTE/PCA, we found no hysteresis of state transitions in these sources, and determined the critical mass accretion rate in the range of 0.002 - 0.04 $\dot{\rm M}_{\rm Edd}$ and 0.003 - 0.05 $\dot{\rm M}_{\rm Edd}$ for the hard-to-soft and the soft-to-hard transition, respectively, by assuming a neutron star mass of 1.4 solar masses. This range is comparable to the lowest transition luminosity measured in black hole X-ray binaries, indicating the critical mass accretion rate is not affected by the nature of the surface of the compact stars. Our result does not support the Advection-Dominated Accretion Flow (ADAF) model which predicts that the critical mass accretion rate in neutron star systems is an order of magnitude lower if same viscosity parameters are taken. The low transition luminosity and insignificant hysteresis in these ultracompact X-ray binaries provide further evidence that the transition luminosity is likely related to the mass in the disc.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in MNRA

Tame Automorphisms Fixing a Variable of Free Associative Algebras of Rank Three

We study automorphisms of the free associative algebra K over a field K which fix the variable z. We describe the structure of the group of z-tame automorphisms and derive algorithms which recognize z-tame automorphisms and z-tame coordinates

Coordinates and Automorphisms of Polynomial and Free Associative Algebras of Rank Three

We study z-automorphisms of the polynomial algebra K[x,y,z] and the free associative algebra K over a field K, i.e., automorphisms which fix the variable z. We survey some recent results on such automorphisms and on the corresponding coordinates. For K we include also results about the structure of the z-tame automorphisms and algorithms which recognize z-tame automorphisms and z-tame coordinates

Embeddings of curves in the plane

In this paper, we contribute toward a classification of two-variable polynomials by classifying (up to an automorphism of $C^2$) polynomials whose Newton polygon is either a triangle or a line segment. Our classification has several applications to the study of embeddings of algebraic curves in the plane. In particular, we show that for any $k \ge 2$, there is an irreducible curve with one place at infinity, which has at least $k$ inequivalent embeddings in $C^2$. Also, upon combining our method with a well-known theorem of Zaidenberg and Lin, we show that one can decide "almost" just by inspection whether or not a polynomial fiber is an irreducible simply connected curve.Comment: 11 page

The strong Anick conjecture is true

Recently Umirbaev has proved the long-standing Anick conjecture, that is, there exist wild automorphisms of the free associative algebra K over a field K of characteristic 0. In particular, the well-known Anick automorphism is wild. In this article we obtain a stronger result (the Strong Anick Conjecture that implies the Anick Conjecture). Namely, we prove that there exist wild coordinates of K. In particular, the two nontrivial coordinates in the Anick automorphism are both wild. We establish a similar result for several large classes of automorphisms of K. We also find a large new class of wild automorphisms of K which is not covered by the results of Umirbaev. Finally, we study the lifting problem for automorphisms and coordinates of polynomial algebras, free metabelian algebras and free associative algebras and obtain some interesting new results.Comment: 25 pages, corrected typos and acknowledgement

Instantons on General Noncommutative R^4

We study the U(1) and U(2) instanton solutions of gauge theory on general noncommutative $\bf{R}^4$. In all cases considered we obtain explicit results for the projection operators. In some cases we computed numerically the instanton charge and found that it is an integer, independent of the noncommutative parameters $\theta_{1,2}$.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX; deleted some confusing statements in the U(1) 1-instanton case, added ref

Polynomial Retracts and the Jacobian Conjecture

Let $K[x, y]$ be the polynomial algebra in two variables over a field $K$ of characteristic $0$. A subalgebra $R$ of $K[x, y]$ is called a retract if there is an idempotent homomorphism (a {\it retraction}, or {\it projection}) $\varphi: K[x, y] \to K[x, y]$ such that $\varphi(K[x, y]) = R$. The presence of other, equivalent, definitions of retracts provides several different methods of studying them, and brings together ideas from combinatorial algebra, homological algebra, and algebraic geometry. In this paper, we characterize all the retracts of $K[x, y]$ up to an automorphism, and give several applications of this characterization, in particular, to the well-known Jacobian conjecture. Notably, we prove that if a polynomial mapping $\varphi$ of $K[x,y]$ has invertible Jacobian matrix {\it and } fixes a non-constant polynomial, then $\varphi$ is an automorphism