Let $P_1,\dots ,P_m\in \mathbb{Z} [y]$ be polynomials with distinct degrees, each having zero constant term. We show that any subset A of $\{1,\dots ,N\}$ with no nontrivial progressions of the form $x,x+P_1(y),\dots ,x+P_m(y)$ has size $|A|\ll N/(\log \log {N})^{c_{P_1,\dots ,P_m}}$. Along the way, we prove a general result controlling weighted counts of polynomial progressions by Gowers norms.

The logarithmic derivative of the marginal distributions of randomly fluctuating interfaces in one dimension on a large scale evolve according to the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) equation. This is derived algebraically from a Fredholm determinant obtained in [MQR17] for the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) fixed point as the limit of the transition probabilities of TASEP, a special solvable model in the KPZ universality class. The Tracy–Widom distributions appear as special self-similar solutions of the KP and Korteweg–de Vries equations. In addition, it is noted that several known exact solutions of the KPZ equation also solve the KP equation.

A meander is a topological configuration of a line and a simple closed curve in the plane (or a pair of simple closed curves on the 2-sphere) intersecting transversally. Meanders can be traced back to H. Poincaré and naturally appear in various areas of mathematics, theoretical physics and computational biology (in particular, they provide a model of polymer folding). Enumeration of meanders is an important open problem. The number of meanders with $2N$ crossings grows exponentially when $N$ grows, but the long-standing problem on the precise asymptotics is still out of reach.

We show that the situation becomes more tractable if one additionally fixes the topological type (or the total number of minimal arcs) of a meander. Then we are able to derive simple asymptotic formulas for the numbers of meanders as $N$ tends to infinity. We also compute the asymptotic probability of getting a simple closed curve on a sphere by identifying the endpoints of two arc systems (one on each of the two hemispheres) along the common equator.

The new tools we bring to bear are based on interpretation of meanders as square-tiled surfaces with one horizontal and one vertical cylinder. The proofs combine recent results on Masur–Veech volumes of moduli spaces of meromorphic quadratic differentials in genus zero with our new observation that horizontal and vertical separatrix diagrams of integer quadratic differentials are asymptotically uncorrelated. The additional combinatorial constraints we impose in this article yield explicit polynomial asymptotics.

We use the geometry of the stellahedral toric variety to study matroids. We identify the valuative group of matroids with the cohomology ring of the stellahedral toric variety and show that valuative, homological and numerical equivalence relations for matroids coincide. We establish a new log-concavity result for the Tutte polynomial of a matroid, answering a question of Wagner and Shapiro–Smirnov–Vaintrob on Postnikov–Shapiro algebras, and calculate the Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson classes of matroid Schubert cells. The central construction is the ‘augmented tautological classes of matroids’, modeled after certain toric vector bundles on the stellahedral toric variety.

We present a framework for tame geometry on Henselian valued fields, which we call Hensel minimality. In the spirit of o-minimality, which is key to real geometry and several diophantine applications, we develop geometric results and applications for Hensel minimal structures that were previously known only under stronger, less axiomatic assumptions. We show the existence of t-stratifications in Hensel minimal structures and Taylor approximation results that are key to non-Archimedean versions of Pila–Wilkie point counting, Yomdin’s parameterization results and motivic integration. In this first paper, we work in equi-characteristic zero; in the sequel paper, we develop the mixed characteristic case and a diophantine application.

We study the fields of values of the irreducible characters of a finite group of degree not divisible by a prime p. In the case where $p=2$, we fully characterise these fields. In order to accomplish this, we generalise the main result of [ILNT] to higher irrationalities. We do the same for odd primes, except that in this case the analogous results hold modulo a simple-to-state conjecture on the character values of quasi-simple groups.

We prove a generalisation of the Brill-Noether theorem for the variety of special divisors $W^r_d(C)$ on a general curve C of prescribed gonality. Our main theorem gives a closed formula for the dimension of $W^r_d(C)$ . We build on previous work of Pflueger, who used an analysis of the tropical divisor theory of special chains of cycles to give upper bounds on the dimensions of Brill-Noether varieties on such curves. We prove his conjecture, that this upper bound is achieved for a general curve. Our methods introduce logarithmic stable maps as a systematic tool in Brill-Noether theory. A precise relation between the divisor theory on chains of cycles and the corresponding tropical maps theory is exploited to prove new regeneration theorems for linear series with negative Brill-Noether number. The strategy involves blending an analysis of obstruction theories for logarithmic stable maps with the geometry of Berkovich curves. To show the utility of these methods, we provide a short new derivation of lifting for special divisors on a chain of cycles with generic edge lengths, proved using different techniques by Cartwright, Jensen, and Payne. A crucial technical result is a new realisability theorem for tropical stable maps in obstructed geometries, generalising a well-known theorem of Speyer on genus $1$ curves to arbitrary genus.

We prove in generic situations that the lattice in a tame type induced by the completed cohomology of a $U(3)$-arithmetic manifold is purely local, that is, only depends on the Galois representation at places above $p$. This is a generalization to $\text{GL}_{3}$ of the lattice conjecture of Breuil. In the process, we also prove the geometric Breuil–Mézard conjecture for (tamely) potentially crystalline deformation rings with Hodge–Tate weights $(2,1,0)$ as well as the Serre weight conjectures of Herzig [‘The weight in a Serre-type conjecture for tame $n$-dimensional Galois representations’, Duke Math. J. 149(1) (2009), 37–116] over an unramified field extending the results of Le et al. [‘Potentially crystalline deformation 3985 rings and Serre weight conjectures: shapes and shadows’, Invent. Math. 212(1) (2018), 1–107]. We also prove results in modular representation theory about lattices in Deligne–Lusztig representations for the group $\text{GL}_{3}(\mathbb{F}_{q})$.

We generalize the shuffle theorem and its $(km,kn)$ version, as conjectured by Haglund et al. and Bergeron et al. and proven by Carlsson and Mellit, and Mellit, respectively. In our version the $(km,kn)$ Dyck paths on the combinatorial side are replaced by lattice paths lying under a line segment whose x and y intercepts need not be integers, and the algebraic side is given either by a Schiffmann algebra operator formula or an equivalent explicit raising operator formula. We derive our combinatorial identity as the polynomial truncation of an identity of infinite series of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_{l}$ characters, expressed in terms of infinite series versions of LLT polynomials. The series identity in question follows from a Cauchy identity for nonsymmetric Hall–Littlewood polynomials.

Define the Collatz map ${\operatorname {Col}} \colon \mathbb {N}+1 \to \mathbb {N}+1$ on the positive integers $\mathbb {N}+1 = \{1,2,3,\dots \}$ by setting ${\operatorname {Col}}(N)$ equal to $3N+1$ when N is odd and $N/2$ when N is even, and let ${\operatorname {Col}}_{\min }(N) := \inf _{n \in \mathbb {N}} {\operatorname {Col}}^n(N)$ denote the minimal element of the Collatz orbit $N, {\operatorname {Col}}(N), {\operatorname {Col}}^2(N), \dots $ . The infamous Collatz conjecture asserts that ${\operatorname {Col}}_{\min }(N)=1$ for all $N \in \mathbb {N}+1$ . Previously, it was shown by Korec that for any $\theta> \frac {\log 3}{\log 4} \approx 0.7924$ , one has ${\operatorname {Col}}_{\min }(N) \leq N^\theta $ for almost all $N \in \mathbb {N}+1$ (in the sense of natural density). In this paper, we show that for any function $f \colon \mathbb {N}+1 \to \mathbb {R}$ with $\lim _{N \to \infty } f(N)=+\infty $ , one has ${\operatorname {Col}}_{\min }(N) \leq f(N)$ for almost all $N \in \mathbb {N}+1$ (in the sense of logarithmic density). Our proof proceeds by establishing a stabilisation property for a certain first passage random variable associated with the Collatz iteration (or more precisely, the closely related Syracuse iteration), which in turn follows from estimation of the characteristic function of a certain skew random walk on a $3$ -adic cyclic group $\mathbb {Z}/3^n\mathbb {Z}$ at high frequencies. This estimation is achieved by studying how a certain two-dimensional renewal process interacts with a union of triangles associated to a given frequency.

We describe a graded extension of the usual Hecke algebra: it acts in a graded fashion on the cohomology of an arithmetic group $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$. Under favorable conditions, the cohomology is freely generated in a single degree over this graded Hecke algebra.

From this construction we extract an action of certain $p$-adic Galois cohomology groups on $H^{\ast }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},\mathbf{Q}_{p})$, and formulate the central conjecture: the motivic $\mathbf{Q}$-lattice inside these Galois cohomology groups preserves $H^{\ast }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},\mathbf{Q})$.

We prove the extended delta conjecture of Haglund, Remmel and Wilson, a combinatorial formula for $\Delta _{h_l}\Delta ' _{e_k} e_{n}$ , where $\Delta ' _{e_k}$ and $\Delta _{h_l}$ are Macdonald eigenoperators and $e_n$ is an elementary symmetric function. We actually prove a stronger identity of infinite series of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_m$ characters expressed in terms of LLT series. This is achieved through new results in the theory of the Schiffmann algebra and its action on the algebra of symmetric functions.

We prove that any simple planar travelling wave solution to the membrane equation in spatial dimension $d\geqslant 3$ with bounded spatial extent is globally nonlinearly stable under sufficiently small compactly supported perturbations, where the smallness depends on the size of the support of the perturbation as well as on the initial travelling wave profile. The main novelty of the argument is the lack of higher order peeling in our vector-field-based method. In particular, the higher order energies (in fact, all energies at order $2$ or higher) are allowed to grow polynomially (but in a controlled way) in time. This is in contrast with classical global stability arguments, where only the ‘top’ order energies used in the bootstrap argument exhibit growth, and reflects the fact that the background travelling wave solution has ‘infinite energy’ and the coefficients of the perturbation equation are not asymptotically Lorentz invariant. Nonetheless, we can prove that the perturbation converges to zero in $C^{2}$ by carefully analysing the nonlinear interactions and exposing a certain ‘vestigial’ null structure in the equations.

We show that a complete, two-sided, stable immersed anisotropic minimal hypersurface in $\mathbf {R}^4$ has intrinsic cubic volume growth, provided the parametric elliptic integral is $C^2$ -close to the area functional. We also obtain an interior volume upper bound for stable anisotropic minimal hypersurfaces in the unit ball. We can estimate the constants explicitly in all of our results. In particular, this paper gives an alternative proof of our recent stable Bernstein theorem for minimal hypersurfaces in $\mathbf {R}^4$ . The new proof is more closely related to techniques from the study of strictly positive scalar curvature.

We construct natural operators connecting the cohomology of the moduli spaces of stable Higgs bundles with different ranks and genera which, after numerical specialisation, recover the topological mirror symmetry conjecture of Hausel and Thaddeus concerning $\mathrm {SL}_n$- and $\mathrm {PGL}_n$-Higgs bundles. This provides a complete description of the cohomology of the moduli space of stable $\mathrm {SL}_n$-Higgs bundles in terms of the tautological classes, and gives a new proof of the Hausel–Thaddeus conjecture, which was also proven recently by Gröchenig, Wyss and Ziegler via p-adic integration.

Our method is to relate the decomposition theorem for the Hitchin fibration, using vanishing cycle functors, to the decomposition theorem for the twisted Hitchin fibration, whose supports are simpler.

This paper completes the construction of $p$-adic $L$-functions for unitary groups. More precisely, in Harris, Li and Skinner [‘$p$-adic $L$-functions for unitary Shimura varieties. I. Construction of the Eisenstein measure’, Doc. Math.Extra Vol. (2006), 393–464 (electronic)], three of the authors proposed an approach to constructing such $p$-adic $L$-functions (Part I). Building on more recent results, including the first named author’s construction of Eisenstein measures and $p$-adic differential operators [Eischen, ‘A $p$-adic Eisenstein measure for unitary groups’, J. Reine Angew. Math.699 (2015), 111–142; ‘$p$-adic differential operators on automorphic forms on unitary groups’, Ann. Inst. Fourier (Grenoble)62(1) (2012), 177–243], Part II of the present paper provides the calculations of local $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$-integrals occurring in the Euler product (including at $p$). Part III of the present paper develops the formalism needed to pair Eisenstein measures with Hida families in the setting of the doubling method.

We prove the existence of a smoothing for a toroidal crossing space under mild assumptions. By linking log structures with infinitesimal deformations, the result receives a very compact form for normal crossing spaces. The main approach is to study log structures that are incoherent on a subspace of codimension 2 and prove a Hodge–de Rham degeneration theorem for such log spaces that also settles a conjecture by Danilov. We show that the homotopy equivalence between Maurer–Cartan solutions and deformations combined with Batalin–Vilkovisky theory can be used to obtain smoothings. The construction of new Calabi–Yau and Fano manifolds as well as Frobenius manifold structures on moduli spaces provides potential applications.

For a reductive group $G$ over a finite field, we show that the neutral block of its mixed Hecke category with a fixed monodromy under the torus action is monoidally equivalent to the mixed Hecke category of the corresponding endoscopic group $H$ with trivial monodromy. We also extend this equivalence to all blocks. We give two applications. One is a relationship between character sheaves on $G$ with a fixed semisimple parameter and unipotent character sheaves on the endoscopic group $H$, after passing to asymptotic versions. The other is a similar relationship between representations of $G(\mathbb{F}_{q})$ with a fixed semisimple parameter and unipotent representations of $H(\mathbb{F}_{q})$.

For the moduli spaces of Abelian differentials, the Euler characteristic is one of the most intrinsic topological invariants. We give a formula for the Euler characteristic that relies on intersection theory on the smooth compactification by multi-scale differentials. It is a consequence of a formula for the full Chern polynomial of the cotangent bundle of the compactification.

The main new technical tools are an Euler sequence for the cotangent bundle of the moduli space of multi-scale differentials and computational tools in the Chow ring, such as a description of normal bundles to boundary divisors.

We exhibit basic algebro-geometric results on the formal model of semi-infinite flag varieties and its Schubert varieties over an algebraically closed field ${\mathbb K}$ of characteristic $\neq 2$ from scratch. We show that the formal model of a semi-infinite flag variety admits a unique nice (ind-)scheme structure, its projective coordinate ring has a $\mathbb {Z}$-model and it admits a Frobenius splitting compatible with the boundaries and opposite cells in positive characteristic. This establishes the normality of the Schubert varieties of the quasi-map space with a fixed degree (instead of their limits proved in [K, Math. Ann. 371 no.2 (2018)]) when $\mathsf {char}\, {\mathbb K} =0$ or $\gg 0$, and the higher-cohomology vanishing of their nef line bundles in arbitrary characteristic $\neq 2$. Some particular cases of these results play crucial roles in our proof [47] of a conjecture by Lam, Li, Mihalcea and Shimozono [60] that describes an isomorphism between affine and quantum K-groups of a flag manifold.