arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jason K. C. Polak.
We study permutation polynomials through the device of the \emph{polypermutation group} of an associative ring $R$, denoted by ${\rm Pgr}(R)$. We derive some basic properties and compute the cardinality of ${\rm Pgr}(\mathbb{Z}/p^k)$ when $p\geq k$. We use this computation to determine the structure of ${\rm Pgr}(\mathbb{Z}/p^2)$.
We classify three-tone and four-tone chords based on subgroups of the symmetric group acting on chords contained within a twelve-tone scale. The actions are inversion, major-minor duality, and augmented-diminished duality. These actions correspond to elements of symmetric groups, and also correspond directly to intuitive concepts in the harmony theory of music. We produce a graph of how these actions relate different seventh chords that suggests a concept of distance in the theory of harmony.
For a commutative ring $R$, a polynomial $f\in R[x]$ is called separable if $R[x]/f$ is a separable $R$-algebra. We derive formulae for the number of separable polynomials when $R = \mathbb{Z}/n$, extending a result of L. Carlitz. For instance, we show that the number of separable polynomials in $\mathbb{Z}/n[x]$ that are separable is $ϕ(n)n^d\prod_i(1-p_i^{-d})$ where $n = \prod p_i^{k_i}$ is the prime factorisation of $n$ and $ϕ$ is Euler's totient function.