We show that for an oriented 4-dimensional Poincaré complex X with finite fundamental group, whose 2-Sylow subgroup is abelian with at most 2 generators, the homotopy type of X is determined by its quadratic 2-type.

We investigate the joint distribution of L-functions on the line $ \sigma= {1}/{2} + {1}/{G(T)}$ and $ t \in [ T, 2T]$, where $ \log \log T \leq G(T) \leq { \log T}/{ ( \log \log T)^2 } $. We obtain an upper bound on the discrepancy between the joint distribution of L-functions and that of their random models. As an application we prove an asymptotic expansion of a multi-dimensional version of Selberg’s central limit theorem for L-functions on $ \sigma= 1/2 + 1/{G(T)}$ and $ t \in [ T, 2T]$, where $ ( \log T)^\varepsilon \leq G(T) \leq { \log T}/{ ( \log \log T)^{2+\varepsilon } } $ for $ \varepsilon > 0$.

Let $h : \mathbb{R}^2 \to \mathbb{R}^2$ be an orientation preserving homeomorphism of the plane. For any bounded orbit $\mathcal{O}(x)=\{h^n(x):n\in\mathbb{Z}\}$ there exists a fixed point $p\in\mathbb{R}^2$ of h linked to $\mathcal{O}(x)$ in the sense of Gambaudo: one cannot find a Jordan curve $C\subseteq\mathbb{R}^2$ around $\mathcal{O}(x)$, separating it from p, that is isotopic to h(C) in $\mathbb{R}^2\setminus\left(\mathcal{O}(x)\cup\{p\}\right)$.

We give a vanishing and classification result for holomorphic differential forms on smooth projective models of the moduli spaces of pointed K3 surfaces. We prove that there is no nonzero holomorphic k-form for $0<k<10$ and for even $k>19$. In the remaining cases, we give an isomorphism between the space of holomorphic k-forms with that of vector-valued modular forms ($10\leq k \leq 18$) or scalar-valued cusp forms (odd $k\geq 19$) for the modular group. These results are in fact proved in the generality of lattice-polarisation.

For odd n we construct a path $\rho\;:\;\thinspace \Pi_1(S) \to SL(n\mathbb{R})$ of discrete, faithful, and Zariski dense representations of a surface group such that $\rho_t(\Pi_1(S)) \subset SL(n,\mathbb{Q})$ for every $t\in \mathbb{Q}$.

In this paper we take up the classical sup-norm problem for automorphic forms and view it from a new angle. Given a twist minimal automorphic representation $\pi$ we consider a special small $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{Z}_p)$-type V in $\pi$ and prove global sup-norm bounds for an average over an orthonormal basis of V. We achieve a non-trivial saving when the dimension of V grows.

We study a pair consisting of a smooth 3-fold defined over an algebraically closed field and a “general” ${\Bbb R}$-ideal. We show that the minimal log discrepancy (“mld” for short) of every such a pair is computed by a prime divisor obtained by at most two weighted blow-ups. This bound is regarded as a weighted blow-up version of Mustaţă–Nakamura’s conjecture. We also show that if the mld of such a pair is not less than 1, then it is computed by at most one weighted blow-up. As a consequence, ACC of mld holds for such pairs.

Given any polynomial in two variables of degree at most three with rational integer coefficients, we obtain a new search bound to decide effectively if it has a zero with rational integer coefficients. On the way we encounter a natural problem of estimating singular points. We solve it using elementary invariant theory but an optimal solution would seem to be far from easy even using the full power of the standard Height Machine.

On the assumption of the Riemann hypothesis and a spacing hypothesis for the nontrivial zeros $1/2+i\gamma$ of the Riemann zeta function, we show that the sequence

\begin{equation*}\Gamma_{[a, b]} =\Bigg\{ \gamma : \gamma>0 \quad \mbox{and} \quad \frac{ \log\big(| \zeta^{(m_{\gamma })} (\frac12+ i{\gamma }) | / (\!\log{{\gamma }} )^{m_{\gamma }}\big)}{\sqrt{\frac12\log\log {\gamma }}} \in [a, b] \Bigg\},\end{equation*}

${\gamma }$

$a<b$

$m_\gamma$

$1/2+i{\gamma }$

${\gamma }$

$\gamma (\!\log T)/2\pi$

${\gamma }\in \Gamma_{[a, b]}$

$0<{\gamma }\leq T$

Let $\mathfrak{A}$ be a finite abelian group. In this paper, we classify harmonic $\mathfrak{A}$-covers of a tropical curve $\Gamma$ (which allow dilation along edges and at vertices) in terms of the cohomology group of a suitably defined sheaf on $\Gamma$. We give a realisability criterion for harmonic $\mathfrak{A}$-covers by patching local monodromy data in an extended homology group on $\Gamma$. As an explicit example, we work out the case $\mathfrak{A}=\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ and explain how realisability for such covers is related to the nowhere-zero flow problem from graph theory.

Let $G= N\rtimes H$ be a locally compact group which is a semi-direct product of a closed normal subgroup N and a closed subgroup H. The Bohr compactification ${\rm Bohr}(G)$ and the profinite completion ${\rm Prof}(G)$ of G are, respectively, isomorphic to semi-direct products $Q_1 \rtimes {\rm Bohr}(H)$ and $Q_2 \rtimes {\rm Prof}(H)$ for appropriate quotients $Q_1$ of ${\rm Bohr}(N)$ and $Q_2$ of ${\rm Prof}(N).$ We give a precise description of $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ in terms of the action of H on appropriate subsets of the dual space of N. In the case where N is abelian, we have ${\rm Bohr}(G)\cong A \rtimes {\rm Bohr}(H)$ and ${\rm Prof}(G)\cong B \rtimes {\rm Prof}(H),$ where A (respectively B) is the dual group of the group of unitary characters of N with finite H-orbits (respectively with finite image). Necessary and sufficient conditions are deduced for G to be maximally almost periodic or residually finite. We apply the results to the case where $G= \Lambda\wr H$ is a wreath product of discrete groups; we show in particular that, in case H is infinite, ${\rm Bohr}(\Lambda\wr H)$ is isomorphic to ${\rm Bohr}(\Lambda^{\rm Ab}\wr H)$ and ${\rm Prof}(\Lambda\wr H)$ is isomorphic to ${\rm Prof}(\Lambda^{\rm Ab} \wr H),$ where $\Lambda^{\rm Ab}=\Lambda/ [\Lambda, \Lambda]$ is the abelianisation of $\Lambda.$ As examples, we compute ${\rm Bohr}(G)$ and ${\rm Prof}(G)$ when G is a lamplighter group and when G is the Heisenberg group over a unital commutative ring.

We prove that the nonvarying strata of abelian and quadratic differentials in low genus have trivial tautological rings and are affine varieties. We also prove that strata of k-differentials of infinite area are affine varieties for all k. Vanishing of homology in degree higher than the complex dimension follows as a consequence for these affine strata. Moreover we prove that the stratification of the Hodge bundle for abelian and quadratic differentials of finite area is extremal in the sense that merging two zeros in each stratum leads to an extremal effective divisor in the boundary. A common feature throughout these results is a relation of divisor classes in strata of differentials as well as its incarnation in Teichmüller dynamics.

Erdős, Graham and Selfridge considered, for each positive integer n, the least value of $t_n$ so that the integers $n+1, n+2, \dots, n+t_n $ contain a subset the product of whose members with n is a square. An open problem posed by Granville concerns the size of $t_n$, under the assumption of the ABC conjecture. We establish some results on the distribution of $t_n$, and in the process solve Granville’s problem unconditionally.

We demonstrate that the phenomenon of popular differences (aka the phenomenon of large intersections) holds for natural families of polynomial patterns in rings of integers of number fields. If K is a number field with ring of integers $\mathcal{O}_K$ and $E \subseteq \mathcal{O}_K$ has positive upper Banach density $d^*(E) = \delta > 0$, we show, inter alia:

1. (1) if $p(x) \in K[x]$ is an intersective polynomial (i.e., p has a root modulo m for every $m \in \mathcal{O}_K$) with $p(\mathcal{O}_K) \subseteq \mathcal{O}_K$ and $r, s \in \mathcal{O}_K$ are distinct and nonzero, then for any $\varepsilon > 0$, there is a syndetic set $S \subseteq \mathcal{O}_K$ such that for any $n \in S$,

   \begin{align*}d^* \left( \left\{ x \in \mathcal{O}_K \;:\; \{x, x + rp(n), x + sp(n)\} \subseteq E \right\} \right) > \delta^3 - \varepsilon. \end{align*}
   Moreover, if ${s}/{r} \in \mathbb{Q}$, then there are syndetically many $n \in \mathcal{O}_K$ such that
   \begin{align*}d^* \left( \left\{ x \in \mathcal{O}_K \;:\; \{x, x + rp(n), x + sp(n), x + (r+s)p(n)\} \subseteq E \right\} \right)> \delta^4 - \varepsilon; \end{align*}

2. (2) if $\{p_1, \dots, p_k\} \subseteq K[x]$ is a jointly intersective family (i.e., $p_1, \dots, p_k$ have a common root modulo m for every $m \in \mathcal{O}_K$) of linearly independent polynomials with $p_i(\mathcal{O}_K) \subseteq \mathcal{O}_K$, then there are syndetically many $n \in \mathcal{O}_K$ such that

   \begin{align*}d^* \left( \left\{ x \in \mathcal{O}_K \;:\; \{x, x + p_1(n), \dots, x + p_k(n)\} \subseteq E \right\} \right)> \delta^{k+1} - \varepsilon. \end{align*}

These two results generalise and extend previous work of Frantzikinakis and Kra [21] and Franztikinakis [19] on polynomial configurations in $\mathbb{Z}$ and build upon recent work of the authors and Best [2] on linear patterns in general abelian groups. The above combinatorial results follow from multiple recurrence results in ergodic theory via a version of Furstenberg’s correspondence principle. The ergodic-theoretic recurrence theorems require a sharpening of existing tools for handling polynomial multiple ergodic averages. A key advancement made in this paper is a new result on the equidistribution of polynomial orbits in nilmanifolds, which can be seen as a far-reaching generalisation of Weyl’s equidistribution theorem for polynomials of several variables:

1. (3) let $d, k, l \in \mathbb{N}$. Let $(X, \mathcal{B}, \mu, T_1, \dots, T_l)$ be an ergodic, connected $\mathbb{Z}^l$-nilsystem. Let $\{p_{i,j} \;:\; 1 \le i \le k, 1 \le j \le l\} \subseteq \mathbb{Q}[x_1, \dots, x_d]$ be a family of polynomials such that $p_{i,j}\left( \mathbb{Z}^d \right) \subseteq \mathbb{Z}$ and $\{1\} \cup \{p_{i,j}\}$ is linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$. Then the $\mathbb{Z}^d$-sequence $\left( \prod_{j=1}^l{T_j^{p_{1,j}(n)}}x, \dots, \prod_{j=1}^l{T_j^{p_{k,j}(n)}}x \right)_{n \in \mathbb{Z}^d}$ is well-distributed in $X^k$ for every x in a co-meager set of full measure.

For a given genus $g \geq 1$, we give lower bounds for the maximal number of rational points on a smooth projective absolutely irreducible curve of genus g over $\mathbb{F}_q$. As a consequence of Katz–Sarnak theory, we first get for any given $g>0$, any $\varepsilon>0$ and all q large enough, the existence of a curve of genus g over $\mathbb{F}_q$ with at least $1+q+ (2g-\varepsilon) \sqrt{q}$ rational points. Then using sums of powers of traces of Frobenius of hyperelliptic curves, we get a lower bound of the form $1+q+1.71 \sqrt{q}$ valid for $g \geq 3$ and odd $q \geq 11$. Finally, explicit constructions of towers of curves improve this result: We show that the bound $1+q+4 \sqrt{q} -32$ is valid for all $g\ge 2$ and for all q.

Given a set $S=\{x^2+c_1,\dots,x^2+c_s\}$ defined over a field and an infinite sequence $\gamma$ of elements of S, one can associate an arboreal representation to $\gamma$, generalising the case of iterating a single polynomial. We study the probability that a random sequence $\gamma$ produces a “large-image” representation, meaning that infinitely many subquotients in the natural filtration are maximal. We prove that this probability is positive for most sets S defined over $\mathbb{Z}[t]$, and we conjecture a similar positive-probability result for suitable sets over $\mathbb{Q}$. As an application of large-image representations, we prove a density-zero result for the set of prime divisors of some associated quadratic sequences. We also consider the stronger condition of the representation being finite-index, and we classify all S possessing a particular kind of obstruction that generalises the post-critically finite case in single-polynomial iteration.

We consider families of exponential sums indexed by a subgroup of invertible classes modulo some prime power q. For fixed d, we restrict to moduli q so that there is a unique subgroup of invertible classes modulo q of order d. We study distribution properties of these families of sums as q grows and we establish equidistribution results in some regions of the complex plane which are described as the image of a multi-dimensional torus via an explicit Laurent polynomial. In some cases, the region of equidistribution can be interpreted as the one delimited by a hypocycloid, or as a Minkowski sum of such regions.

We study the space of slice torus invariants. In particular we characterise the set of values that slice torus invariants may take on a given knot in terms of the stable smooth slice genus. Our study reveals that the resolution of the local Thom conjecture implies the existence of slice torus invariants without having to appeal to any explicit construction from a knot homology theory.

Marstrand’s theorem states that applying a generic rotation to a planar set A before projecting it orthogonally to the x-axis almost surely gives an image with the maximal possible dimension $\min(1, \dim A)$. We first prove, using the transversality theory of Peres–Schlag locally, that the same result holds when applying a generic complex linear-fractional transformation in $PSL(2,\mathbb{C})$ or a generic real linear-fractional transformation in $PGL(3,\mathbb{R})$. We next show that, under some necessary technical assumptions, transversality locally holds for restricted families of projections corresponding to one-dimensional subgroups of $PSL(2,\mathbb{C})$ or $PGL(3,\mathbb{R})$. Third, we demonstrate, in any dimension, local transversality and resulting projection statements for the families of closest-point projections to totally-geodesic subspaces of hyperbolic and spherical geometries.

We prove that there exists a universal constant D such that if p is a prime divisor of the index of the Fitting subgroup of a finite group G, then the number of conjugacy classes of G is at least $Dp/\log_2p$. We conjecture that we can take $D=1$ and prove that for solvable groups, we can take $D=1/3$.