NTS ABSTRACT

Return to NTS Spring 2017

Jan 19

Bianca Viray

On the dependence of the Brauer-Manin obstruction on the degree of a variety

Let X be a smooth projective variety of degree d over a number field k. In 1970 Manin observed that elements of the Brauer group of X can obstruct the existence of a k-point, even when X is everywhere locally soluble. In joint work with Brendan Creutz, we prove that if X is geometrically abelian, Kummer, or bielliptic then this Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of a k-point can be detected from only the d-primary torsion Brauer classes.

Jan 26

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Feb 2

Arul Shankar

Bounds on the 2-torsion in the class groups of number fields

(Joint with M. Bhargava, T. Taniguchi, F. Thorne, J. Tsimerman, Y. Zhao) Given a number field K of fixed degree n over Q, a classical theorem of Brauer--Siegel asserts that the size of the class group of K is bounded by O_\epsilon(|Disc(K)|^(1/2+\epsilon). For any prime p, it is conjectured that the p-torsion subgroup of the class group of K is bounded by O_\epsilon(|Disc(K)|^\epsilon. Only the case n=p=2 of this conjecture in known. In fact, for most pairs (n,p), the best known bounds come from the "convex" Brauer--Siegel bound. In this talk, we will discuss a proof of a subconvex bound on the size of the 2-torsion in the class groups of number fields, for all degrees n. We will also discuss an application of this result towards improved bounds on the number of integral points on elliptic curves.

Feb 9

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Feb 16

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Feb 23

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Mar 2

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Mar 9

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Mar 30

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Apr 6

Celine Maistret

Apr 13

Frank Thorne

Levels of distribution for prehomogeneous vector spaces

One important technical ingredient in many arithmetic statistics papers is upper bounds for finite exponential sums which arise as Fourier transforms of characteristic functions of orbits. This is typical in results obtaining power saving error terms, treating "local conditions", and/or applying any sort of sieve. In my talk I will explain what these exponential sums are, how they arise, and what their relevance is. I will outline a new method for explicitly and easily evaluating them, and describe some pleasant surprises in our end results. I will also outline a new sieve method for efficiently exploiting these results, involving Poisson summation and the Bhargava-Ekedahl geometric sieve. For example, we have proved that there are "many" quartic field discriminants with at most eight prime factors. This is joint work with Takashi Taniguchi.

Apr 20

Yueke Hu

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Apr 27

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May 4

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