We prove that in each degree divisible by 2 or 3, there are infinitely many totally real number fields that require universal quadratic forms to have arbitrarily large rank.

Conditional on the extended Riemann hypothesis, we show that with high probability, the characteristic polynomial of a random symmetric $\{\pm 1\}$ -matrix is irreducible. This addresses a question raised by Eberhard in recent work. The main innovation in our work is establishing sharp estimates regarding the rank distribution of symmetric random $\{\pm 1\}$ -matrices over $\mathbb{F}_p$ for primes $2 < p \leq \exp(O(n^{1/4}))$ . Previously, such estimates were available only for $p = o(n^{1/8})$ . At the heart of our proof is a way to combine multiple inverse Littlewood–Offord-type results to control the contribution to singularity-type events of vectors in $\mathbb{F}_p^{n}$ with anticoncentration at least $1/p + \Omega(1/p^2)$ . Previously, inverse Littlewood–Offord-type results only allowed control over vectors with anticoncentration at least $C/p$ for some large constant $C > 1$ .

Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity and F-signature are numerical invariants of commutative rings in positive characteristic that measure severity of singularities: for a regular ring both invariants are equal to one and the converse holds under mild assumptions. A natural question is for what singular rings these invariants are closest to one. For Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity this question was first considered by the last two authors and attracted significant attention. In this paper, we study this question, i.e., an upper bound, for F-signature and revisit lower bounds on Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity.

For a domain G in the one-point compactification $\overline{\mathbb{R}}^n = {\mathbb{R}}^n \cup \{ \infty\}$ of ${\mathbb{R}}^n, n \geqslant 2$ , we characterise the completeness of the modulus metric $\mu_G$ in terms of a potential-theoretic thickness condition of $\partial G\,,$ Martio’s M-condition [ 35 ]. Next, we prove that $\partial G$ is uniformly perfect if and only if $\mu_G$ admits a minorant in terms of a Möbius invariant metric. Several applications to quasiconformal maps are given.

We prove that analogues of the Hardy–Littlewood generalised twin prime conjecture for almost primes hold on average. Our main theorem establishes an asymptotic formula for the number of integers $n=p_1p_2 \leq X$ such that $n+h$ is a product of exactly two primes which holds for almost all $|h|\leq H$ with $\log^{19+\varepsilon}X\leq H\leq X^{1-\varepsilon}$ , under a restriction on the size of one of the prime factors of n and $n+h$ . Additionally, we consider correlations $n,n+h$ where n is a prime and $n+h$ has exactly two prime factors, establishing an asymptotic formula which holds for almost all $|h| \leq H$ with $X^{1/6+\varepsilon}\leq H\leq X^{1-\varepsilon}$ .

For G a profinite group, we construct an equivalence between rational G-Mackey functors and a certain full subcategory of G-sheaves over the space of closed subgroups of G called Weyl-G-sheaves. This subcategory consists of those sheaves whose stalk over a subgroup K is K-fixed.

This extends the classification of rational G-Mackey functors for finite G of Thévenaz and Webb, and Greenlees and May to a new class of examples. Moreover, this equivalence is instrumental in the classification of rational G-spectra for profinite G, as given in the second author’s thesis.

We investigate which higher rank simple Lie groups admit profinitely but not abstractly commensurable lattices. We show that no such examples exist for the complex forms of type $E_8$ , $F_4$ , and $G_2$ . In contrast, there are arbitrarily many such examples in all other higher rank Lie groups, except possibly $\textrm{SL}_{2n+1}(\mathbb{R})$ , $\textrm{SL}_{2n+1}(\mathbb{C})$ , $\textrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{H})$ , or groups of type $E_6$ .

How many 2-cells must two finite CW-complexes have to admit a common, but not finite common, covering? Leighton’s theorem says that both complexes must have 2-cells. We construct an almost (?) minimal example with two 2-cells in each complex.

We show that the geometric realisation of the poset of proper parabolic subgroups of a large-type Artin group has a systolic geometry. We use this geometry to show that the set of parabolic subgroups of a large-type Artin group is stable under arbitrary intersections and forms a lattice for the inclusion. As an application, we show that parabolic subgroups of large-type Artin groups are stable under taking roots and we completely characterise the parabolic subgroups that are conjugacy stable.

We also use this geometric perspective to recover and unify results describing the normalisers of parabolic subgroups of large-type Artin groups.

Given a singular modulus $j_0$ and a set of rational primes S, we study the problem of effectively determining the set of singular moduli j such that $j-j_0$ is an S-unit. For every $j_0 \neq 0$ , we provide an effective way of finding this set for infinitely many choices of S. The same is true if $j_0=0$ and we assume the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis. Certain numerical experiments will also lead to the formulation of a “uniformity conjecture” for singular S-units.