NTS ABSTRACT

Return to NTS Fall 2015

Sep 03

Kiran Kedlaya

On the algebraicity of (generalized) power series

A remarkable theorem of Christol from 1979 gives a criterion for detecting whether a power series over a finite field of characteristic p represents an algebraic function: this happens if and only if the coefficient of the n-th power of the series variable can be extracted from the base-p expansion of n using a finite automaton. We will describe a result that extends this result in two directions: we allow an arbitrary field of characteristic p, and we allow "generalized power series" in the sense of Hahn-Mal'cev-Neumann. In particular, this gives a concrete description of an algebraic closure of a rational function field in characteristic p (and corrects a mistake in my previous attempt to give this description some 15 years ago).

Sep 10

Sean Rostami

Fixers of Stable Functionals

The epipelagic representations of Reeder-Yu, a generalization of the "simple supercuspidals" of Gross-Reeder, are certain low-depth supercuspidal representations of reductive algebraic groups G. Given a "stable functional" f, which is a suitably 'generic' linear functional on a vector space coming from a Moy-Prasad filtration for G, one can create such a representation. It is known that the representations created in this way are compactly induced from the fixer in G of f and it is important to identify explicitly all the elements that belong to this fixer. This work is in-progress.

Sep 17

David Zureick-Brown

Tropical geometry and uniformity of rational points

Let X be a curve of genus g over a number field F of degree d = [F:Q]. The conjectural existence of a uniform bound N(g,d) on the number #X(F) of F-rational points of X is an outstanding open problem in arithmetic geometry, known to follow from the Bomberi-Lang conjecture. We prove a special case of this conjecture - we give an explicit uniform bound when X has Mordell-Weil rank r ≤ g-3. This generalizes recent work of Stoll on uniform bounds on hyperelliptic curves. Using the same techniques, we give an explicit, unconditional uniform bound on the number of F-rational torsion points of J lying on the image of X under an Abel-Jacobi map. We also give an explicit uniform bound on the number of geometric torsion points of J lying on X when the reduction type of X is highly degenerate. Our methods combine Chabauty-Coleman's p-adic integration, non-Archimedean potential theory on Berkovich curves, and the theory of linear systems and divisors on metric graphs. This is joint work with Joe Rabinoff and Eric Katz.

Sep 22

Joseph Gunther

Embedding Curves in Surfaces and Stabilization of Hypersurface Singularity Counts

We'll present two new applications of Poonen's closed point sieve over finite fields. The first is that the obvious local obstruction to embedding a curve in a smooth surface is the only global obstruction. The second is a proof of a recent conjecture of Vakil and Wood on the asymptotic probability of hypersurface sections having a prescribed number of singularities. Note: The day of this seminar is Tuesday.

Sep 24

Brandon Alberts

The Moments Version of Cohen-Lenstra Heuristics for Nonabelian Groups

Cohen-Lenstra heuristics posit the distribution of unramified abelian extensions of quadratic fields. A natural question to ask would be how to get an analogous heuristic for nonabelian groups. In this talk I take and extend on recent work in the area of unramified extensions of imaginary quadratic fields and bring it all together under one Cohen-Lenstra style heuristic.

Oct 08

Ana Caraiani

On vanishing of torsion in the cohomology of Shimura varieties

I will discuss joint work in progress with Peter Scholze showing that torsion in the cohomology of certain compact unitary Shimura varieties occurs in the middle degree, under a genericity assumption on the corresponding Galois representation.

Oct 15

Valentin Blomer

Arithmetic, geometry and analysis of a senary cubic form

We establish an asymptotic formula (with power saving error term) for the number of rational points of bounded height for a certain cubic fourfold, thereby proving a strong form of Manin's conjecture for this algebraic variety by techniques of analytic number theory.

Dec 17

Nathan Kaplan

Coming soon...

Coming soon...