If (V, 0) is an isolated complete intersection singularity and X a holomorphic vector field tangent to V, one can define an index of X, the so-called GSV index, which generalizes the Poincaré–Hopf index. We prove that the GSV index coincides with the dimension of a certain explicitly constructed vector space, if X is deformable in a certain sense and V is a curve. We also give a sufficient algebraic criterion for X to be deformable in this way. If one considers the real analytic case one can also define an index of X which is called the real GSV index. Under the condition that X has the deformation property, we prove a signature formula for the index generalizing the Eisenbud–Levine Theorem.

In this article we study higher preprojective algebras, showing that various known results for ordinary preprojective algebras generalize to the higher setting. We first show that the quiver of the higher preprojective algebra is obtained by adding arrows to the quiver of the original algebra, and these arrows can be read off from the last term of the bimodule resolution of the original algebra. In the Koszul case, we are able to obtain the new relations of the higher preprojective algebra by differentiating a superpotential and we show that when our original algebra is $d$-hereditary, all the relations come from the superpotential. We then construct projective resolutions of all simple modules for the higher preprojective algebra of a $d$-hereditary algebra. This allows us to recover various known homological properties of the higher preprojective algebras and to obtain a large class of almost Koszul dual pairs of algebras. We also show that when our original algebra is Koszul there is a natural map from the quadratic dual of the higher preprojective algebra to a graded trivial extension algebra.

Let M be a manifold of X = $\Bbb C$n, A a small analytic disc attached to M, zo a point of ∂A where A is tangent to M, z1 another point of ∂A where M extends to a germ of manifold M1 with boundary M. We prove that CR functions on M which extend to M1 at z1 also extend at zo to a new manifold M2. The directions M1 and M2 point to, are related by a sort of connection associated to A which is dual to the connection obtained by attaching ‘partial analytic lifts’ of A to the co-normal bundle to M in X.

We use the theory of Kolyvagin systems to prove (most of) a refined class number formula conjectured by Darmon. We show that, for every odd prime p, each side of Darmon’s conjectured formula (indexed by positive integers n) is ‘almost’ a p-adic Kolyvagin system as n varies. Using the fact that the space of Kolyvagin systems is free of rank one over ℤp, we show that Darmon’s formula for arbitrary n follows from the case n=1, which in turn follows from classical formulas.

Serre's nonnegativity conjecture for intersection multiplicities has recently been proven by O. Gabber. In this paper we investigate Serre's positivity conjecture using the methods which he developed. We show in particular that the positivity conjecture has implications for properties of symbolic powers of prime ideals in regular local rings.

We prove that the higher direct images of the structure sheaf under a birational and projective morphism between excellent and regular schemes vanish.

This paper introduces a new Lagrangian surgery construction that generalizes Lalonde–Sikorav and Polterovich’s well-known construction, and combines this with Biran and Cornea’s Lagrangian cobordism formalism. With these techniques, we build a framework which both recovers several known long exact sequences (Seidel’s exact sequence, including the fixed point version and Wehrheim and Woodward’s family version) in symplectic geometry in a uniform way, and yields a partial answer to a long-term open conjecture due to Huybrechts and Thomas; this also involved a new observation which relates projective twists with surgeries.

The celebrated Smith–Minkowski–Siegel mass formula expresses the mass of a quadratic lattice $(L,Q)$ as a product of local factors, called the local densities of $(L,Q)$. This mass formula is an essential tool for the classification of integral quadratic lattices. In this paper, we will describe the local density formula explicitly by observing the existence of a smooth affine group scheme $\underline{G}$ over $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ with generic fiber $\text{Aut}_{\mathbb{Q}_{2}}(L,Q)$, which satisfies $\underline{G}(\mathbb{Z}_{2})=\text{Aut}_{\mathbb{Z}_{2}}(L,Q)$. Our method works for any unramified finite extension of $\mathbb{Q}_{2}$. Therefore, we give a long awaited proof for the local density formula of Conway and Sloane and discover its generalization to unramified finite extensions of $\mathbb{Q}_{2}$. As an example, we give the mass formula for the integral quadratic form $Q_{n}(x_{1},\dots ,x_{n})=x_{1}^{2}+\cdots +x_{n}^{2}$ associated to a number field $k$ which is totally real and such that the ideal $(2)$ is unramified over $k$.

In this paper, we give a formal algebraic notion of exponents for linear differential systems at any singularity as eigenvalues of the residue of a regular connection on a maximal lattice (that we call ‘Levelt's lattice’). This allows us to establish upper and lower bounds for the sum of these exponents for differential systems on ${\mathbb P}^{1}(\mathbb{C})$.

Let $(X,B)$ be a projective log canonical pair such that $B$ is a $\mathbb{Q}$-divisor, and that there is a surjective morphism $f: X\to Z$ onto a normal variety $Z$ satisfying $K_X+B\sim _{\mathbb{Q}} f^*M$ for some big $\mathbb{Q}$-divisor $M$, and the augmented base locus ${\mathbf{B}}_+(M)$ does not contain the image of any log canonical centre of $(X,B)$. We will show that $(X,B)$ has a good log minimal model. An interesting special case is when $f$ is the identity morphism.

Let X be a proper, smooth, connected curve, defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p>0 and of genus g ≥ 2. We show that there exists a finite solvable group G, of order prime to p, and a Galois étale cover Y → X, with Galois group G, which is not ordinary.

For certain algebraic Hecke characters χ of an imaginary quadratic field F we define an Eisenstein ideal in a p-adic Hecke algebra acting on cuspidal automorphic forms of GL2/F. By finding congruences between Eisenstein cohomology classes (in the sense of G. Harder) and cuspidal classes we prove a lower bound for the index of the Eisenstein ideal in the Hecke algebra in terms of the special L-value L(0,χ). We further prove that its index is bounded from above by the p-valuation of the order of the Selmer group of the p-adic Galois character associated to χ−1. This uses the work of R. Taylor et al. on attaching Galois representations to cuspforms of GL2/F. Together these results imply a lower bound for the size of the Selmer group in terms of L(0,χ), coinciding with the value given by the Bloch–Kato conjecture.

We generalise Simpson’s nonabelian Hodge correspondence to the context of projective varieties with Kawamata log terminal (klt) singularities. The proof relies on a descent theorem for numerically flat vector bundles along birational morphisms. In its simplest form, this theorem asserts that given any klt variety $X$ and any resolution of singularities, any vector bundle on the resolution that appears to come from $X$ numerically, does indeed come from $X$. Furthermore, and of independent interest, a new restriction theorem for semistable Higgs sheaves defined on the smooth locus of a normal, projective variety is established.

Gross and Rubin have made conjectures about special values of equivariant L-functions associated to abelian extensions of global fields. We describe a common refinement, due to Burns, and give evidence in favour of this conjecture for quadratic extensions and cyclotomic fields. We also note that the statement provides a new interpretation of further conjectures of Darmon and Gross.

Let k be a field of characteristic zero, let G be a connected reductive algebraic group over k and let 𝔤 be its Lie algebra. Let k(G), respectively, k(𝔤), be the field of k-rational functions on G, respectively, 𝔤. The conjugation action of G on itself induces the adjoint action of G on 𝔤. We investigate the question whether or not the field extensions k(G)/k(G)G and k(𝔤)/k(𝔤)G are purely transcendental. We show that the answer is the same for k(G)/k(G)G and k(𝔤)/k(𝔤)G, and reduce the problem to the case where G is simple. For simple groups we show that the answer is positive if G is split of type An or Cn, and negative for groups of other types, except possibly G2. A key ingredient in the proof of the negative result is a recent formula for the unramified Brauer group of a homogeneous space with connected stabilizers. As a byproduct of our investigation we give an affirmative answer to a question of Grothendieck about the existence of a rational section of the categorical quotient morphism for the conjugating action of G on itself.

A complex projective manifold is said to be weakly special if none of its finite étale covers has a dominant rational map to a positive-dimensional manifold of general type. Weakly special manifolds are conjectured by Harris and Tschinkel (Rational points on quartics, Duke Math. J. 104 (2000), 477–500) to be potentially dense if defined over a number field. In a previous paper by F. Campana (Special varieties, orbifolds and classification theory, Ann. Inst. Fourier (Grenoble) 54 (2004), 499–665), the stronger notion of special (complex projective) manifolds was introduced. These are conjectured in (9.20) of that work to be exactly the potentially dense manifolds (when defined over a number field). The two notions of specialness and weak-specialness coincide up to dimension 2, but differ from dimension 3 on, as shown by examples $X$ constructed by Bogomolov and Tschinkel (Special elliptic fibrations, in Proc. Fanu Conf., Torino, 2003, ed. A. Conte), answering a question raised in Campana's paper. These examples should thus be potentially dense, according to the first conjecture, but should not be so, according to the second conjecture. The present techniques of arithmetic geometry do not seem to be able to decide between these two conflicting conjectures. So, instead of this, we investigate the more tractable hyperbolic aspects of the examples of Bogomolov and Tschinkel, and show that for certain manifolds $X$, the behaviour of entire transcendental curves is that given in Conjecture 9.16, p. 618 of Campana's above-mentioned work. More precisely, the image of any holomorphic map from ${\mathbb{C}}$ to $X$ is contained either in some fibre of the unique elliptic fibration on $X$, or in some fixed divisor of $X$. This is consistent with the standard links (Lang and Vojta for varieties of general type, the first author's previous work in general) expected between the hyperbolic and arithmetic behaviour of projective varieties in cases where the second conjecture (stated by Campana) holds. Conversely, if the conjecture stated by Harris and Tschinkel is true, these expected links between arithmetics and complex hyperbolicity should fail to hold on these examples already.

We establish measures of non-quadraticity and transcendence measures for real numbers whose sequence of partial quotients has sublinear block complexity. The main new ingredient is an improvement of Liouville’s inequality giving a lower bound for the distance between two distinct quadratic real numbers. Furthermore, we discuss the gap between Mahler’s exponent w2 and Koksma’s exponent w*2.

We show that the space of actions of every finitely generated, nilpotent group by $C^1$ orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of the circle is path-connected. This is done via a general result that allows any given action on the interval to be connected to the trivial one by a continuous path of topological conjugates.

The topological complexity is a numerical homotopy invariant of a topological space X which is motivated by robotics and is similar in spirit to the classical Lusternik–Schnirelmann category of X. Given a mechanical system with configuration space X, the invariant measures the complexity of motion planning algorithms which can be designed for the system. In this paper, we compute the topological complexity of the configuration space of n distinct ordered points on an orientable surface, for both closed and punctured surfaces. Our main tool is a theorem of B. Totaro describing the cohomology of configuration spaces of algebraic varieties. For configuration spaces of punctured surfaces, this is used in conjunction with techniques from the theory of mixed Hodge structures.

We prove a local–global compatibility result in the mod $p$ Langlands program for $\mathrm {GL}_2(\mathbf {Q}_{p^f})$. Namely, given a global residual representation $\bar {r}$ appearing in the mod $p$ cohomology of a Shimura curve that is sufficiently generic at $p$ and satisfies a Taylor–Wiles hypothesis, we prove that the diagram occurring in the corresponding Hecke eigenspace of mod $p$ completed cohomology is determined by the restrictions of $\bar {r}$ to decomposition groups at $p$. If these restrictions are moreover semisimple, we show that the $(\varphi ,\Gamma )$-modules attached to this diagram by Breuil give, under Fontaine's equivalence, the tensor inductions of the duals of the restrictions of $\bar {r}$ to decomposition groups at $p$.