A unital ring is called clean (resp. strongly clean) if every element can be written as the sum of an invertible element and an idempotent (resp. an invertible element and an idempotent that commutes). T.Y. Lam proposed a question: which von Neumann algebras are clean as rings? In this paper, we characterize strongly clean von Neumann algebras and prove that all finite von Neumann algebras and all separable infinite factors are clean.

An analogue of the well-known $$ \frac{3}{{16}} $$ lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian for a congruence hyperbolic surface is proven for a congruence tower associated with any non-elementary subgroup$L$of SL(2,$Z$). The proof in the case that the Hausdorff of the limit set of$L$is bigger than $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ is based on a general result which allows one to transfer such bounds from a combinatorial version to this archimedian setting. In the case that delta is less than $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ we formulate and prove a somewhat weaker version of this phenomenon in terms of poles of the corresponding dynamical zeta function. These “spectral gaps” are then applied to sieving problems on orbits of such groups.

We obtain characterizations of positive Borel measures$μ$on$B$^{$n$}so that some weighted holomorphic Besov spaces$B$_{$s$}^{$p$}($ω$,$B$^{$n$}) are embedded in$L$^{$p$}($d$$μ$).

Asymptotically sharp Bernstein- and Markov-type inequalities are established for rational functions on C2 smooth Jordan curves and arcs. The results are formulated in terms of the normal derivatives of certain Green’s functions with poles at the poles of the rational functions in question. As a special case (when all the poles are at infinity) the corresponding results for polynomials are recaptured.

For the classical space of functions with bounded mean oscillation, it is well known that $\operatorname{VMO}^{**} = \operatorname{BMO}$ and there are many characterizations of the distance from a function$f$in $\operatorname{BMO}$ to $\operatorname{VMO}$ . When considering the Bloch space, results in the same vein are available with respect to the little Bloch space. In this paper such duality results and distance formulas are obtained by pure functional analysis. Applications include general Möbius invariant spaces such as$Q$_{$K$}-spaces, weighted spaces, Lipschitz–Hölder spaces and rectangular $\operatorname{BMO}$ of several variables.