We find the exact value of the best possible constant associated with a covering problem on the real line.

Let $\Lambda$ be a finite dimensional algebra and $G$ be a finite group whose elements act on $\Lambda$ as algebra automorphisms. Under the assumption that $\Lambda$ has a complete set $E$ of primitive orthogonal idempotents, closed under the action of a Sylow $p$-subgroup $S \leqslant G$, we show that the skew group algebra $\Lambda G$ and $\Lambda$ have the same finitistic dimension and the same strong global dimension if the action of $S$ on $E$ is free. Using a homological characterization of piecewise hereditary algebras proved by Happel and Zacharia, we deduce that $\Lambda G$ is piecewise hereditary if and only if $S$ acts freely on $E$ and $\Lambda$ is piecewise hereditary as well.

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We prove that uniform random quadrangulations of the sphere with$n$faces, endowed with the usual graph distance and renormalized by$n$^{−1/4}, converge as$n$→$∞$in distribution for the Gromov–Hausdorff topology to a limiting metric space. We validate a conjecture by Le Gall, by showing that the limit is (up to a scale constant) the so-called$Brownian map$, which was introduced by Marckert–Mokkadem and Le Gall as the most natural candidate for the scaling limit of many models of random plane maps. The proof relies strongly on the concept of$geodesic stars$in the map, which are configurations made of several geodesics that only share a common endpoint and do not meet elsewhere.

No abstract uploaded!