Let L/K be a finite Galois extension of number fields. We use complexes arising from the étale cohomology of $\Bbb Z$ on open subschemes of Spec $\cal O$L to define a canonical element of the relative algebraic K-group K0($\Bbb Z$[Gal(L/K)], $\Bbb R$. We establish some basic properties of this element, and then use it to reinterpret and refine conjectures of Stark, of Chinburg and of Gruenberg, Ritter and Weiss. Our results precisely explain the connection between these conjectures and the seminal work of Bloch and Kato concerning Tamagawa numbers. This provides significant new insight into these important conjectures and also allows one to use powerful techniques from arithmetic algebraic geometry to obtain new evidence in their favour.

We investigate Cartan subalgebras in nontracial amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras ${\mathop{M{}_{1} \ast }\nolimits}_{B} {M}_{2} $ over an amenable von Neumann subalgebra $B$. First, we settle the problem of the absence of Cartan subalgebra in arbitrary free product von Neumann algebras. Namely, we show that any nonamenable free product von Neumann algebra $({M}_{1} , {\varphi }_{1} )\ast ({M}_{2} , {\varphi }_{2} )$ with respect to faithful normal states has no Cartan subalgebra. This generalizes the tracial case that was established by A. Ioana [Cartan subalgebras of amalgamated free product ${\mathrm{II} }_{1} $factors, arXiv:1207.0054]. Next, we prove that any countable nonsingular ergodic equivalence relation $ \mathcal{R} $ defined on a standard measure space and which splits as the free product $ \mathcal{R} = { \mathcal{R} }_{1} \ast { \mathcal{R} }_{2} $ of recurrent subequivalence relations gives rise to a nonamenable factor $\mathrm{L} ( \mathcal{R} )$ with a unique Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy. Finally, we prove unique Cartan decomposition for a class of group measure space factors ${\mathrm{L} }^{\infty } (X)\rtimes \Gamma $ arising from nonsingular free ergodic actions $\Gamma \curvearrowright (X, \mu )$ on standard measure spaces of amalgamated groups $\Gamma = {\mathop{\Gamma {}_{1} \ast }\nolimits}_{\Sigma } {\Gamma }_{2} $ over a finite subgroup $\Sigma $.

A fundamental object in the theory of arithmetic surfaces is the Green's function associated to the canonical metric. Previous expressions for the canonical Green's function have relied on general functional analysis or, when using specific properties of the canonical metric, the classical Riemann theta function. In this article, we derive a new identity for the canonical Green's function involving the hyperbolic heat kernel. As an application of our results, we obtain bounds for the canonical Green's function through covers and for families of modular curves.

In this paper we show that any good toric contact manifold has a well-defined cylindrical contact homology, and describe how it can be combinatorially computed from the associated moment cone. As an application, we compute the cylindrical contact homology of a particularly nice family of examples that appear in the work of Gauntlett et al. on Sasaki–Einstein metrics. We show in particular that these give rise to a new infinite family of non-equivalent contact structures on S2×S3 in the unique homotopy class of almost contact structures with vanishing first Chern class.

The purpose of this article is to develop the theory of differential modular forms introduced by A. Buium. The main points are the construction of many isogeny covariant differential modular forms and some auxiliary (nonisogeny covariant) forms and an extension of the ‘classical theory’ of Serre differential operators on modular forms to a theory of ‘δ-Serre differential operators’ on differential modular forms. As an application, we shall give a geometric realization of the space of elliptic curves up to isogeny.

Let Γ ⊂ X be a smooth curve on a 3-fold which has only index 1 terminal singularities along Γ. In this paper we investigate the existence of extremal terminal divisorial contractions E ⊂ Y→Γ ⊂ X, contracting an irreducible surface E to Γ. We consider cases with respect to the singularities of the general hypersurface section S of X through Γ. We completely classify the cases when S is Ai, i ≤ 3, and D2n for any n.

Let k be a perfect field with cohomological dimension [les ] 2. Serre's conjecture II claims that the Galois cohomology set H1(k,G) is trivial for any simply connected semi-simple algebraic G/k and this conjecture is known for groups of type 1An after Merkurjev–Suslin and for classical groups and groups of type F4 and G2 after Bayer–Parimala. For any maximal torus T of G/k, we study the map H1(k, T) → H1(k, G) using an induction process on the type of the groups, and it yields conjecture II for all quasi-split simply connected absolutely almost k-simple groups with type distinct from E8. We also have partial results for E8 and for some twisted forms of simply connected quasi-split groups. In particular, this method gives a new proof of Hasse principle for quasi-split groups over number fields including the E8-case, which is based on the Galois cohomology of maximal tori of such groups.

We introduce a homotopy 2-category structure on the collection of dg-categories, dg-functors, and their derived transformations. This construction provides for a conceptual proof of Deligne's conjecture on Hochschild cochains.

We show that complete conformally flat manifolds of dimension $n\geq 3$ with nonnegative Ricci curvature enjoy nice rigidity properties: they are either flat, or locally isometric to a product of a sphere and a line; or are globally conformally equivalent to ${\mathbb R}^n$ or to a spherical spaceform ${\mathbb S}^n/\Gamma$. This extends previous results due to Cheng, Noronha, Chen, Zhu and Zhu.

We define invariants of the blow-Nash equivalence of Nash function germs, in a similar way to the motivic zeta functions of Denef and Loeser. As a key ingredient, we extend the virtual Betti numbers, which were known for real algebraic sets, to a generalized Euler characteristic for projective constructible arc-symmetric sets. Actually we prove more: the virtual Betti numbers are not only algebraic invariants, but also Nash invariants of arc-symmetric sets. Our zeta functions enable one to distinguish the blow-Nash equivalence classes of Brieskorn polynomials of two variables. We prove moreover that there are no moduli for the blow-Nash equivalence in the case of an algebraic family with isolated singularities.

Let K be the function field of a connected regular scheme S of dimension 1, and let $f : X\to Y$ be a finite cover of projective smooth and geometrically connected curves over K with $g(X)\ge 2$. Suppose that f can be extended to a finite cover ${\mathcal X} \to {\mathcal Y}$ of semi-stable models over S (it is known that this is always possible up to finite separable extension of K). Then there exists a unique minimal such cover. This gives a canonical way to extend $X\to Y$ to a finite cover of semi-stable models over S.

Given a diagram D of a knot K, we give easily computable bounds for Rasmussen’s concordance invariant s(K). The bounds are not independent of the diagram D chosen, but we show that for diagrams satisfying a given condition the bounds are tight. As a corollary we improve on previously known Bennequin-type bounds on the slice genus.

Let $X$ be a smooth projective Fano variety over the complex numbers. We study the moduli space of rational curves on $X$ using the perspective of Manin’s conjecture. In particular, we bound the dimension and number of components of spaces of rational curves on $X$. We propose a geometric Manin’s conjecture predicting the growth rate of a counting function associated to the irreducible components of these moduli spaces.

We characterise the class of finite solvable groups by two-variable identities in a way similar to the characterisation of finite nilpotent groups by Engel identities. Let $u_1=x^{-2}y\min x$, and $u_{n+1} = [xu_nx\min,yu_ny\min]$. The main result states that a finite group G is solvable if and only if for some n the identity $u_n(x,y)\equiv 1$ holds in G. We also develop a new method to study equations in the Suzuki groups. We believe that, in addition to the main result, the method of proof is of independent interest: it involves surprisingly diverse and deep methods from algebraic and arithmetic geometry, topology, group theory, and computer algebra (SINGULAR and MAGMA).

Nichols algebras naturally appear in the theory of quantized enveloping algebras of Kac–Moody algebras and in the classification of finite-dimensional pointed Hopf algebras. Assuming that the base field has characteristic zero a list of finite-dimensional rank 2 Nichols algebras of diagonal type is given. Each of them is described in terms of generators and relations. Kharchenko's restricted Poincaré–Birkhoff–Witt basis is visualized using full binary trees.

Motivated by a result of Bost, we use the relationship between Faltings' heights of abelian varieties with complex multiplication and logarithmic derivatives of Artin L-functions at $s=0$ to investigate these heights. In particular, we prove that the height of an elliptic curve with complex multiplication by $Q√-d$ is bounded from below by an effective affine function of log d.

We develop some foundational results in a higher-dimensional foliated Mori theory, and show how these results can be used to prove a structure theorem for the Kleiman–Mori cone of curves in terms of the numerical properties of $K_{{\mathcal{F}}}$ for rank 2 foliations on threefolds. We also make progress toward realizing a minimal model program (MMP) for rank 2 foliations on threefolds.

This paper generalizes the Gan–Gross–Prasad (GGP) conjectures that were earlier formulated for tempered or more generally generic L-packets to Arthur packets, especially for the non-generic L-packets arising from Arthur parameters. The paper introduces the key notion of a relevant pair of Arthur parameters that governs the branching laws for ${{\rm GL}}_n$ and all classical groups over both local fields and global fields. It plays a role for all the branching problems studied in Gan et al. [Symplectic local root numbers, central critical L-values and restriction problems in the representation theory of classical groups. Sur les conjectures de Gross et Prasad. I, Astérisque 346 (2012), 1–109] including Bessel models and Fourier–Jacobi models.

Generalizing a classical theorem of Carlson and Toledo, we prove that any Zariski dense isometric action of a Kähler group on the real hyperbolic space of dimension at least three factors through a homomorphism onto a cocompact discrete subgroup of PSL2(ℝ). We also study actions of Kähler groups on infinite-dimensional real hyperbolic spaces, describe some exotic actions of PSL2(ℝ) on these spaces, and give an application to the study of the Cremona group.

We identify the Poisson boundary of the dual of the universal compact quantum group Au(F) with a measurable field of ITPFI (infinite tensor product of finite type I) factors.