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Advances in
Enterprise Engineering XI
7th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2017
Antwerp, Belgium, May 8–12, 2017
Proceedings
123
Lecture Notes
in Business Information Processing 284
Series Editors
Wil M.P. van der Aalst
Eindhoven Technical University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
John Mylopoulos
University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Michael Rosemann
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Michael J. Shaw
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Clemens Szyperski
Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7911
David Aveiro Robert Pergl
•
Advances in
Enterprise Engineering XI
7th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2017
Antwerp, Belgium, May 8–12, 2017
Proceedings
123
Editors
David Aveiro João Paulo Almeida
University of Madeira and Madeira Federal University of Espírito Santo
Interactive Technologies Institute Vitoria
Funchal Brazil
Portugal
Rodrigo Magalhães
Robert Pergl Kuwait Maastricht Business School
Czech Technical University in Prague Kuwait
Prague Kuwait
Czech Republic
Hans Lekkerkerk
Giancarlo Guizzardi Radboud University Nijmegen
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Nijmegen
Bolzano The Netherlands
Italy
Since 2005 the CEEN has organized the CIAO! Workshop and, since 2008, its
proceedings have been published as Advances in Enterprise Engineering in the
Springer LNBIP series. From 2011 on, this workshop was replaced by the Enterprise
Engineering Working Conference (EEWC). This volume contains the proceedings
of the 7th EEWC, held in Antwerp, Belgium. There were 40 submissions. Each sub-
mission was reviewed by three Program Committee members and the decision was to
accept 12 full papers and 4 short papers, which were carefully reviewed and selected
for inclusion in this volume.
The EEWC aims at addressing the challenges that modern and complex enterprises
are facing in a rapidly changing world. The participants of the working conference
share a belief that dealing with these challenges requires rigorous and scientific solu-
tions, focusing on the design and engineering of enterprises. The goal of EEWC is to
stimulate interaction between the different stakeholders, scientists as well as practi-
tioners, interested in making EE a reality.
EEWC 2017 was the seventh Working Conference resulting from a series of successful
CIAO! Workshops and EEWC Conferences over the last years. These events were
aimed at addressing the challenges that modern and complex enterprises are facing in a
rapidly changing world. The participants in these events share the belief that dealing
with these challenges requires rigorous and scientific solutions, focusing on the design
and engineering of enterprises.
This conviction has led to the effort of annually organizing an international working
conference on the topic of enterprise engineering, in order to bring together all
stakeholders interested in making enterprise engineering a reality. This means that not
only scientists are invited, but also practitioners. Next, it also means that the conference
is aimed at active participation, discussion, and exchange of ideas in order to stimulate
future cooperation among the participants. This makes EEWC a working conference
contributing to the further development of enterprise engineering as a mature
discipline.
The organization of EEWC 2017 and the peer review of the contributions to the
conference were accomplished by an outstanding international team of experts in the
fields of enterprise engineering. The organizational structure of EEWC 2017 is listed
herein.
Advisory Board
Antonia Albani University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Jan Dietz Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Conference Chairs
Jan Verelst University of Antwerp, Belgium
Henderik A. Proper Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology,
Luxembourg
Program Chairs
David Aveiro University of Madeira and Madeira Interactive
Technologies Institute, Portugal
Robert Pergl Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
VIII Organization
Session Chairs
Foundational Ontologies
Giancarlo Guizzardi Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
João Paulo Almeida Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil
Organizational Design
Rodrigo Magalhes Kuwait Maastricht Business School, Kuwait
Hans Lekkerkerk Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Organizing Chair
Jan Verelst University of Antwerp, Belgium
Program Committee
Alberto Silva INESC and University of Lisbon, Portugal
Carlos Mendes University of Lisbon, Portugal
Christian Huemer Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Duarte Gouveia University of Madeira, Portugal
Eduard Babkin Higher School of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Fernanda Araujo Baiao UNIRIO, Brazil
Florian Matthes Technical University Munich, Germany
Frank Harmsen Maastricht University and Ernst & Young Advisory,
The Netherlands
Frederik Gailly Ghent University, Belgium
Geert Poels Ghent University, Belgium
Giancarlo Guizzardi Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Gil Regev École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Graham McLeod University of Cape Town and Inspired.org, South Africa
Hans Mulder University of Antwerp, Belgium
Jan Dietz Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Jan Hoogervorst Sogeti Netherlands, The Netherlands
Jens Gulden University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Joop de Jong Mprise, The Netherlands
Jose Tribolet INESC and University of Lisbon, Portugal
Joseph Barjis Institute of Engineering and Management, San Francisco,
USA
Julio Nardi Federal Institute of Espírito Santo, Brazil
Junichi Iijima Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Linda Terlouw Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Luiz Olavo Bonino VU University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Marcela Vegetti Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Argentina
Organization IX
Formalisms
VISI Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Niek J. Pluijmert
Business Processes
Ontologies
Organisation Design
1 Introduction
c Springer International Publishing AG 2017
D. Aveiro et al. (Eds.): EEWC 2017, LNBIP 284, pp. 3–17, 2017.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57955-9 1
4 T. Suga and J. Iijima
A vast majority of the work in this area has focused on artifacts in the
category of Way of Thinking (WoT), Way of Modeling (WoM), and Way of
Working (WoW) in five ways in information system methodologies [3], such as
artifacts that are typically involved in the process of modeling. There is, however,
relatively limited research investigating theories that may support the process of
manipulating models, a possible contribution to Way of Supporting (WoS). In
particular, the requirements of submodels of enterprise models and operations
over the submodels remain unclear.
In this article, a submodel is a part of a given model that has been already
created. The given model is often called the global model. Submodels are used
for diverse reasons and purposes, such as to partition the enterprise, to focus on
only some part in question, to hide some part for readability or even because of
an access control policy, and so on. Logically speaking, regardless of the reasons,
the requirements of those partial models of enterprise models should be specified
if we rigidly define what “part of” means. Unless they are defined properly, we
might allow submodels that do not conform to preconditions of the global model,
including (but not limited to) its metamodel. An operation over one or more
models (i.e., inputs) means creating another model by input model(s). Once the
requirements of submodels have been established, we may leverage those sub-
models by considering operations over the submodels such as merge submodels.
Such operations may include merge, diff, split, slice, and so forth. Again, if we do
not define the operation rigorously, we might get a model that does not conform
to the requirements of the global model as a result of performing the operation.
In addition, we should study and then be aware of properties of the operation
such as the associative and the commutative properties.
Insufficient investigation of the formalization and manipulability of enterprise
models, i.e., a scarcity in WoS, stands in the way of the success of EE in the
market. Presently, such a model manipulation and the following model checking
require manual work by professionals with considerable expertise not only in
the business, per se, but also in the modeling framework and theories behind
it. However a certain part of the work could be taken over or even rendered
unnecessary by formalization and automation with computer-aided design tools.
Other disciplines, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and
computer science, demonstrate the successful implementation of computer-aided
design tools and automation.
Therefore, this research aims at investigating the structure and properties in
submodels and operations in DEMO PMs based on an earlier work on those in
DEMO CMs. Although the earlier work established the formalization of CMs,
PMs are characterized by components that are specific to PMs, such as process
step kinds and causal/waiting links. Another requirement for the formalization
of PMs is to capture the relationship between a CM and a PM when they are
integrated in one DEMO model. In this article, we say that a Process Structure
Diagram (PSD, a representation of a PM) is matched to an Organization Con-
struction Diagram (OCD, a representation of CMs) as defined formally later in
Definition 13.
Formal Specification of DEMO Process Model and Its Submodel 5
2 Literature Review
2.1 Background Concepts
DEMO. Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO) is a
modeling methodology for enterprises [2]. Although an enterprise—as an abstract
term referring to (an assembly of) collaborative activities by human beings—
has two perspectives (i.e., function and construction) in terms of systems engi-
neering, DEMO spotlights the construction perspective. In addition to its focus
on the construction of enterprises, DEMO also emphasizes the communications
within enterprises, namely from the language/action perspective. For detailed
information about DEMO, we refer the reader to [1,2].
DEMO is more suitable for the purpose and procedures of this research than
other enterprise modeling languages, including business process modeling lan-
guages. It is because it provides a strong connection between the syntax and
semantics. As shown in the rest of this article, elements of DEMO models are
formalized by mathematics and studied from their isomorphic mathematical rep-
resentations rather than the DEMO models themselves. Therefore, the strong
connection is beneficial and essential to ensure the alignment between meanings
(semantics) and symbols (syntax) when we encode DEMO models to mathemat-
ical representations and decode them back.
6 T. Suga and J. Iijima
Fig. 1. DEMO PM
Abstract Algebra. Set theory and structure jointly play significant roles in
mathematics. Intuitively, a set is simply a collection of objects known as ele-
ments that exist without any relation to each other. In contrast, a structure is a
set together with some relations among elements of the set. Informally, such a
structure is defined by specifying the elements and the relations. The rest of this
section introduces an algebraic structure, which is one of well-known structures
established by mathematicians.
Algebra of DEMO OCDs. Toward the algebra of DEMO OCDs, the previous
work [4] introduced an operation over sub-OCDs of a given global OCD which
performs the merger of the two sub-OCDs. Here we repeat the definition and its
behavior as formulated in the form of theorems.
Definition 6 (OCD Merge). Given an OCD A◦ , T ◦ and
its two
sub-OCDs
AX , TX and AY , TY , the merge operation ∇ : 2A × 2T × 2A × 2T → 2A × 2T
is defined as AX , TX ∇ AY , TY AX ∪ AY , TX ∪ TY .
Theorem 1. The family of sub-OCDs of a given OCD is closed under the merge
operation ∇.
This section provides a formalization of the DEMO PSD and its submodels,
which serves as the rigorous foundation for this research.
We use a common case study of Pizzeria [2] as a running example throughout
this paper. For convenience, the PSD of Pizzeria is repeated in Fig. 2. Although
it is a convention to draw actor roles with swim lanes, we omit them because
they are not included in the metamodel of the PM.
Formal Specification of DEMO Process Model and Its Submodel 9
In the universe of transaction kinds, we create the set of transaction kinds for
Pizzeria T ◦ ⊆ T as
T ◦ = {t1 , t2 , t3 , t4 } .
According to the names of the transaction kinds in Pizzeria, we have fT name :
t1 → “completion”, t2 → “preparation”, t3 → “payment”, t4 → “delivery”.
Based on this configuration, a transaction process step kind request of T1, for
instance, is encoded into (t1 , rq) ∈ T × I.
Example 2. The PSD of Pizzeria has three causal links from the promise of
T1 to T2, T3 and T4. In our formalism these are expressed by the relation
V ⊆ (T × I) × T. Thus, the relation for causal links in Pizzeria V ◦ ⊆ V is
Example 3. The PSD of Pizzeria also specifies three conditional links from the
accept of T2 to the execute of T4, from the accept of T4 to the request of
T3, and from the accept of T3 to the execute of T1. These are encoded into
the relation W ⊆ (T × I) × (T × I). In Pizzeria, W ◦ ⊆ W is
W ◦ = {((t2 , ac) , (t4 , ex)) , ((t4 , ac) , (t3 , rq)) , ((t3 , ac) , (t1 , ex))} .
Just for the purpose of labeling, we define a Transaction Process Step net (TPS-
net), which is a triple-wise subset of a given tuple of sets as defined below.
3
Although it is possible to impose more constraints such as “a wait condition must
bridge two distinct transaction kinds”, we aim for fidelity to the metamodel.
Formal Specification of DEMO Process Model and Its Submodel 11
In plain English, the first property imposes the uniqueness of the names of
transaction kinds as name equivalence; the second and third properties ensure
the source and target transaction kinds of a link are included in the PSD. By
definition, any PSD of T, V, W is also a TPS-net. As we assume the basic
transaction pattern in this article, we do not explicitly write I.
The second condition above states the PSD is aligned to the product structure
of the enterprise. Notably, based on our formalism, the product structure is
uniquely derived from the OCD. Precisely speaking, the OCD can be uniquely
transformed to the tree of organizational building blocks, and then uniquely
converted to the tree of the product structure. According to the composition
axiom [2], a root node is uniquely identified by a transaction kind that is initiated
by the environmental actor role, or initiated by its executor itself (i.e., a self-
activated transaction kind). In a simple case such as Pizzeria, the product struc-
ture is said to be a tree, which has one root transaction. The product structures
of more complex cases, including Library [2], must be a collection of trees with
sharing. The directed adjacency relation between transaction kinds, written as
R ⊆ T × T , is uniquely obtained as R = {(t, t ) | ∃a ∈ A, fex (t) = a = fin (t )}.
4 Algebra of PSDs
This section introduces an operation and explores its properties. As the first
step, we define the “merge” operation for two sub-PSDs of a given PSD. Then,
Formal Specification of DEMO Process Model and Its Submodel 13
in association with the merge operation of the OCD proposed in the earlier work
(see Sect. 2.2), we elaborate the behavior of the DEMO OCD and PSD during
the “merge” operation.
Based on this definition, we claim three notable properties. First, the result of the
operation is indeed a sub-PSD of the given PSD. Furthermore, this operation
frees users from concerns about the order of the input models; changing the
order of inputs does not change the result. These properties are formulated in
theorems.
T1 , V1 , W1 T2 , V2 , W2
and
4.2 Preserved Match Between the OCD Merge and PSD Merge
In addition to the behavior of the PSD merge as discussed so far, we claim the
final theorem in this article guarantees the consistency between the PSD merge
and OCD merge, as illustrated in Fig. 5.
X , TX Y , TY
match X , TX Y , TY match
TX , VX , WX match? TY , VY , WY
TX , VX , WX TY , VY , WY
Practitioners may take advantage of this theorem. A project to merge two sub-
OCDs and sub-PSDs can be divided into four smaller tasks as follows: (1) ensure
one sub-PSD is matched to one sub-OCD, (2) ensure the other sub-PSD is
matched to the other sub-OCD, (3) merge the two sub-OCDs, and (4) merge
the two sub-PSDs. The four tasks can be completed separately by different indi-
viduals and/or computers without collaboration. Moreover, nobody has to check
whether the result of task 4 (PSD merge) is matched to the result of task 3 (OCD
merge) because it is guaranteed by this theorem.
Formal Specification of DEMO Process Model and Its Submodel 15
Future research plans include three stages. The first is to improve the for-
malization of PSDs to reflect the dynamic aspects, for instance, by introducing
behavioral preorders and equivalence such as traces, failures, and (bi)similarity
of finite state machines instead of set-theoretic ones. Furthermore, the proposed
artifact could be validated through further case studies involving real organiza-
tions. Although these two steps have higher priority, the third one is to ultimately
expand the formalization by covering other operations such as set-theoretic inter-
section and complement to complete the algebra of DEMO PSDs. Nevertheless,
the authors are convinced this contribution is an abstract but important step
in evolving the research and development of Way of Supporting in engineering
enterprises.
Acknowledgments. This work was supported in part by Program for Leading Gradu-
ate Schools “Academy for Co-creative Education of Environment and Energy Science”,
MEXT, Japan.
Appendix: Proofs
References
1. Dietz, J.L., Hoogervorst, J.A., Albani, A., Aveiro, D., Babkin, E., Barjis, J.,
Caetano, A., Huysmans, P., Iijima, J., van Kervel, S.J., Mulder, H., Op’t Land,
M., Proper, H.A., Sanz, J., Terlouw, L., Tribolet, J., Verelst, J., Winter, R.: The
discipline of enterprise engineering. Int. J. Organisational Design Eng. 3(1), 86–114
(2013)
2. Dietz, J.L.G.: Enterprise Ontology: Theory and Methodology. Springer, Heidelberg
(2006)
3. Seligmann, P., Wijers, G., Sol, H.: Analyzing the structure of IS methodologies - an
alternative approach. In: Maes, R. (ed.) Proceedings of the First Dutch Conference
on Information Systems, Amersfoort, pp. 1–28 (1989)
4. Suga, T., Iijima, J.: Does ‘Merging DEMO Models’ satisfy the associative law?
- Validation of partial models and merge operation. In: Proceedings of the 7th
International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering
and Knowledge Management, Lisbon, vol. 2, pp. 467–478. SCITEPRESS - Science
and Technology Publications (2015)
5. Dietz, J.L.G.: DEMO specification language (version 3.3, November 2015) (2015).
http://www.ee-institute.org/download.php?id=165&type=doc. Accessed 15 Jan
2017
6. Dietz, J.L.G.: The DELTA theory - understanding systems. Technical report TR-
FIT-15-05, Czech Technical University in Prague (2015)
7. Barjis, J.: Automatic business process analysis and simulation based on DEMO.
Enterp. Inf. Syst. 1(4), 365–381 (2007)
8. Fatyani, T., Iijima, J., Park, J.: Transformation of DEMO model into coloured
petri net: Ontology based simulation. In: 6th International Conference on Knowl-
edge Engineering and Ontology Development, KEOD 2014, Italy, pp. 388–396.
SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.) (2014)
9. Wang, Y.: Transformation of DEMO models into exchangeable format. Master’s
thesis, Delft University of Technology (2009)
A DEMO Machine - A Formal Foundation
for Execution of DEMO Models
1 Introduction
The Enterprise engineering community has been working on formal theories and
methodologies for more than 15 years. The results were found to surpass the
state of the art of business process management (BPM) approaches in terms
of formal correctness, ontological completeness, and anomalies [1]. But, so far
an adoption of these principles in practice is very slow. One of the reasons is
that the largest benefit from these theories is provided to middle-sized or large
companies and these organizations tend to change very slowly. In addition, a
new technology adoption is associated with high risks. Large IT systems with
many complex features are required, as well, usually provided by large companies
such as IBM, Pega, Oracle, or Microsoft. There are no such large DEMO-based
IT systems so far. As argued in the FAR Ontology paper [2], it is not easy
to understand how the DEMO models are simulated. This work builds on van
Kervel’s work [3], simplifies it according to the Occam’s law and enables for
further extensions. It also builds on ForMetis company professional experience
in building DEMO-based systems.
The goal of this paper is to propose a theoretical computation foundations
that are easy to understand (like BPMN) and yet allow to express all the DEMO
c Springer International Publishing AG 2017
D. Aveiro et al. (Eds.): EEWC 2017, LNBIP 284, pp. 18–32, 2017.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57955-9 2
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12. EXTENSION OF KRONECKER'S
THEOREM ON ABELIAN FIELDS TO
ANY ALGEBRAIC REALM OF
RATIONALITY.
The theorem that every abelian number field arises from the
realm of rational numbers by the composition of fields of roots of
unity is due to Kronecker. This fundamental theorem in the theory of
integral equations contains two statements, namely:
First. It answers the question as to the number and existence of
those equations which have a given degree, a given abelian group
and a given discriminant with respect to the realm of rational
numbers.
Second. It states that the roots of such equations form a realm
of algebraic numbers which coincides with the realm obtained by
assigning to the argument in the exponential function all
rational numerical values in succession.
The first statement is concerned with the question of the
determination of certain algebraic numbers by their groups and their
branching. This question corresponds, therefore, to the known
problem of the determination of algebraic functions corresponding to
given Riemann surfaces. The second statement furnishes the
required numbers by transcendental means, namely, by the
exponential function .
Since the realm of the imaginary quadratic number fields is the
simplest after the realm of rational numbers, the problem arises, to
extend Kronecker's theorem to this case. Kronecker himself has
made the assertion that the abelian equations in the realm of a
quadratic field are given by the equations of transformation of elliptic
functions with singular moduli, so that the elliptic function assumes
here the same rôle as the exponential function in the former case.
The proof of Kronecker's conjecture has not yet been furnished; but I
believe that it must be obtainable without very great difficulty on the
basis of the theory of complex multiplication developed by H.
Weber[26] with the help of the purely arithmetical theorems on class
fields which I have established.
Finally, the extension of Kronecker's theorem to the case that, in
place of the realm of rational numbers or of the imaginary quadratic
field, any algebraic field whatever is laid down as realm of rationality,
seems to me of the greatest importance. I regard this problem as
one of the most profound and far-reaching in the theory of numbers
and of functions.
The problem is found to be accessible from many standpoints. I
regard as the most important key to the arithmetical part of this
problem the general law of reciprocity for residues of th powers
within any given number field.
As to the function-theoretical part of the problem, the
investigator in this attractive region will be guided by the remarkable
analogies which are noticeable between the theory of algebraic
functions of one variable and the theory of algebraic numbers.
Hensel[27] has proposed and investigated the analogue in the theory
of algebraic numbers to the development in power series of an
algebraic function; and Landsberg[28] has treated the analogue of
the Riemann-Roch theorem. The analogy between the deficiency of
a Riemann surface and that of the class number of a field of
numbers is also evident. Consider a Riemann surface of deficiency
(to touch on the simplest case only) and on the other hand a
number field of class . To the proof of the existence of an
integral everywhere finite on the Riemann surface, corresponds the
proof of the existence of an integer in the number field such that
the number represents a quadratic field, relatively unbranched
with respect to the fundamental field. In the theory of algebraic
functions, the method of boundary values (Randwerthaufgabe)
serves, as is well known, for the proof of Riemann's existence
theorem. In the theory of number fields also, the proof of the
existence of just this number offers the greatest difficulty. This
proof succeeds with indispensable assistance from the theorem that
in the number field there are always prime ideals corresponding to
given residual properties. This latter fact is therefore the analogue in
number theory to the problem of boundary values.
The equation of Abel's theorem in the theory of algebraic
functions expresses, as is well known, the necessary and sufficient
condition that the points in question on the Riemann surface are the
zero points of an algebraic function belonging to the surface. The
exact analogue of Abel's theorem, in the theory of the number field
of class , is the equation of the law of quadratic reciprocity[29]
which declares that the ideal is then and only then a principal ideal
of the number field when the quadratic residue of the number with
respect to the ideal is positive.
It will be seen that in the problem just sketched the three
fundamental branches of mathematics, number theory, algebra and
function theory, come into closest touch with one another, and I am
certain that the theory of analytical functions of several variables in
particular would be notably enriched if one should succeed in finding
and discussing those functions which play the part for any algebraic
number field corresponding to that of the exponential function in the
field of rational numbers and of the elliptic modular functions in the
imaginary quadratic number field.
Passing to algebra, I shall mention a problem from the theory of
equations and one to which the theory of algebraic invariants has led
me.
[26] Elliptische Funktionen und algebraische Zahlen.
Braunschweig, 1891.
[27] Jahresber. d. Deutschen Math-Vereinigung, vol. 6, and an
article soon to appear in the Math. Annalen [Vol. 55, p. 301]:
"Ueber die Entwickelung der algebraischen Zahlen in
Potenzreihen."
[28] Math. Annalen vol. 50 (1898).
[29] Cf. Hilbert, "Ueber die Theorie der relativ-Abelschen
Zahlkörper," Gött. Nachrichten, 1898.
13. IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE
SOLUTION OF THE GENERAL
EQUATION OF THE 7TH DEGREE BY
MEANS OF FUNCTIONS OF ONLY
TWO ARGUMENTS.
Nomography[30] deals with the problem: to solve equations by
means of drawings of families of curves depending on an arbitrary
parameter. It is seen at once that every root of an equation whose
coefficients depend upon only two parameters, that is, every function
of two independent variables, can be represented in manifold ways
according to the principle lying at the foundation of nomography.
Further, a large class of functions of three or more variables can
evidently be represented by this principle alone without the use of
variable elements, namely all those which can be generated by
forming first a function of two arguments, then equating each of
these arguments to a function of two arguments, next replacing each
of those arguments in their turn by a function of two arguments, and
so on, regarding as admissible any finite number of insertions of
functions of two arguments. So, for example, every rational function
of any number of arguments belongs to this class of functions
constructed by nomographic tables; for it can be generated by the
processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and
each of these processes produces a function of only two arguments.
One sees easily that the roots of all equations which are solvable by
radicals in the natural realm of rationality belong to this class of
functions; for here the extraction of roots is adjoined to the four
arithmetical operations and this, indeed, presents a function of one
argument only. Likewise the general equations of the th and th
degrees are solvable by suitable nomographic tables; for, by means
of Tschirnhausen transformations, which require only extraction of
roots, they can be reduced to a form where the coefficients depend
upon two parameters only.
Now it is probable that the root of the equation of the seventh
degree is a function of its coefficients which does not belong to this
class of functions capable of nomographic construction, i. e., that it
cannot be constructed by a finite number of insertions of functions of
two arguments. In order to prove this, the proof would be necessary
that the equation of the seventh degree
is not solvable with the help of any
continuous functions of only two arguments. I may be allowed to add
that I have satisfied myself by a rigorous process that there exist
analytical functions of three arguments which cannot be
obtained by a finite chain of functions of only two arguments.
By employing auxiliary movable elements, nomography
succeeds in constructing functions of more than two arguments, as
d'Ocagne has recently proved in the case of the equation of the th
degree.[31]
[30] d'Ocagne, Traité de Nomographie, Paris, 1899.
[31] "Sur la resolution nomographiqne de l'équation du septième
degré." Comptes rendus, Paris, 1900.
14. PROOF OF THE FINITENESS OF
CERTAIN COMPLETE SYSTEMS OF
FUNCTIONS.
In the theory of algebraic invariants, questions as to the
finiteness of complete systems of forms deserve, as it seems to me,
particular interest. L. Maurer[32] has lately succeeded in extending
the theorems on finiteness in invariant theory proved by P. Gordan
and myself, to the case where, instead of the general projective
group, any subgroup is chosen as the basis for the definition of
invariants.
An important step in this direction had been taken already by A.
Hurwitz,[33] who, by an ingenious process, succeeded in effecting
the proof, in its entire generality, of the finiteness of the system of
orthogonal invariants of an arbitrary ground form.
The study of the question as to the finiteness of invariants has
led me to a simple problem which includes that question as a
particular case and whose solution probably requires a decidedly
more minutely detailed study of the theory of elimination and of
Kronecker's algebraic modular systems than has yet been made.
Let a number of integral rational functions
of the variables be given,
Every rational integral combination of must evidently
always become, after substitution of the above expressions, a
rational integral function of . Nevertheless, there may
well be rational fractional functions of which, by the
operation of the substitution , become integral functions in
. Every such rational function of , which
becomes integral in after the application of the
substitution , I propose to call a relatively integral function of
. Every integral function of is evidently
also relatively integral; further the sum, difference and product of
relative integral functions are themselves relatively integral.
The resulting problem is now to decide whether it is always
possible to find a finite system of relatively integral function
by which every other relatively integral function of
may be expressed rationally and integrally.
We can formulate the problem still more simply if we introduce
the idea of a finite field of integrality. By a finite field of integrality I
mean a system of functions from which a finite number of functions
can be chosen, in terms of which all other functions of the system
are rationally and integrally expressible. Our problem amounts, then,
to this: to show that all relatively integral functions of any given
domain of rationality always constitute a finite field of integrality.
It naturally occurs to us also to refine the problem by restrictions
drawn from number theory, by assuming the coefficients of the given
functions to be integers and including among the
relatively integral functions of only such rational
functions of these arguments as become, by the application of the
substitutions , rational integral functions of with
rational integral coefficients.
The following is a simple particular case of this refined problem:
Let integral rational functions of one variable with
integral rational coefficients, and a prime number be given.
Consider the system of those integral rational functions of which
can be expressed in the form
where is a rational integral function of the arguments
and is any power of the prime number . Earlier
investigations of mine[34] show immediately that all such expressions
for a fixed exponent form a finite domain of integrality. But the
question here is whether the same is true for all exponents , i. e.,
whether a finite number of such expressions can be chosen by
means of which for every exponent every other expression of that
form is integrally and rationally expressible.