In his work on modularity theorems, Wiles proved a numerical criterion for a map of rings $R\to T$ to be an isomorphism of complete intersections. He used this to show that certain deformation rings and Hecke algebras associated to a mod $p$ Galois representation at non-minimal level are isomorphic and complete intersections, provided the same is true at minimal level. In this paper we study Hecke algebras acting on cohomology of Shimura curves arising from maximal orders in indefinite quaternion algebras over the rationals localized at a semistable irreducible mod $p$ Galois representation $\bar {\rho }$. If $\bar {\rho }$ is scalar at some primes dividing the discriminant of the quaternion algebra, then the Hecke algebra is still isomorphic to the deformation ring, but is not a complete intersection, or even Gorenstein, so the Wiles numerical criterion cannot apply. We consider a weight-2 newform $f$ which contributes to the cohomology of the Shimura curve and gives rise to an augmentation $\lambda _f$ of the Hecke algebra. We quantify the failure of the Wiles numerical criterion at $\lambda _f$ by computing the associated Wiles defect purely in terms of the local behavior at primes dividing the discriminant of the global Galois representation $\rho _f$ which $f$ gives rise to by the Eichler–Shimura construction. One of the main tools used in the proof is Taylor–Wiles–Kisin patching.

If G is a semisimple Lie group of real rank at least two and Γ is an irreducible lattice in G, then every homomorphism from Γ to the outer automorphism group of a finitely generated free group has finite image.

A new method to approach enumerative questions about rational curves on algebraic varieties is described. The idea is to reduce the counting problems to computations on the Néron-Severi group of a ruled surface. Applications include a short proof of Kontsevich‘s formula for plane curves and the solution of the analogous problem for the Hirzebruch surface F$_3$.

We prove an analogue of Belyi’s theorem in characteristic two. Our proof consists of the following three steps. We first introduce a new notion called pseudo-tameness for morphisms between curves over an algebraically closed field of characteristic two. Secondly, we prove the existence of a ‘pseudo-tame’ rational function by showing the vanishing of an obstruction class. Finally, we construct a tamely ramified rational function from the ‘pseudo-tame’ rational function.

Let $(M,I,J,K,g)$ be a hyperkähler manifold. Then the complex manifold $(M,I)$ is holomorphic symplectic. We prove that for all real $x,y$, with $x^{2}+y^{2}=1$ except countably many, any finite-energy $(xJ+yK)$-holomorphic curve with boundary in a collection of $I$-holomorphic Lagrangians must be constant. By an argument based on the Łojasiewicz inequality, this result holds no matter how the Lagrangians intersect each other. It follows that one can choose perturbations such that the holomorphic polygons of the associated Fukaya category lie in an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the Lagrangians. That is, the Fukaya category is local. We show that holomorphic Lagrangians are tautologically unobstructed. Moreover, the Fukaya $A_{\infty }$ algebra of a holomorphic Lagrangian is formal. Our result also explains why the special Lagrangian condition holds without instanton corrections for holomorphic Lagrangians.

Let G be a real special or general linear group and $\sigma_{0}$ be the transpose-inverse involution. We characterize the image of $f \mapsto {\rm tr}(\pi(f) \pi(\sigma_{0}) )$ for irreducible representations $\pi$ of $G \rtimes \langle \sigma_{0}\rangle$, and K-finite $f \in C_{c}^{\infty}(G)$.

We study the Furstenberg-entropy realization problem for stationary actions. It is shown that for finitely supported probability measures on free groups, any a priori possible entropy value can be realized as the entropy of an ergodic stationary action. This generalizes results of Bowen. The stationary actions we construct arise via invariant random subgroups (IRSs), based on ideas of Bowen and Kaimanovich. We provide a general framework for constructing a continuum of ergodic IRSs for a discrete group under some algebraic conditions, which gives a continuum of entropy values. Our tools apply, for example, for certain extensions of the group of finitely supported permutations and lamplighter groups, hence establishing full realization results for these groups. For the free group, we construct the IRSs via a geometric construction of subgroups, by describing their Schreier graphs. The analysis of the entropy of these spaces is obtained by studying the random walk on the appropriate Schreier graphs.

We prove the Tate conjecture for codimension 2 cycles on an ordinary cubic fourfold over a finite field. The proof involves the construction of canonical coordinates on the formal deformation space via a crystalline period map.

We prove an almost optimal lower bound for the so called last ‘geometric’ minimum for the height of a subvariety V of a power of the multiplicative group ${\mathbb G}_m^n$. More precisely, one shows that if $\boldsymbol x$ is a point of $V(\overline{\mathbb Q})$ which does not belong to a translate of a sub-torus of ${\mathbb G}_m^n$ lying in V, of height less than a function essentially linear in the inverse of the degree of V, then $\boldsymbol x$ belongs to a finite ‘exceptional’ subset of V. Thus, one proves ‘up to an $\varepsilon$’ the sharpest conjectures that can be formulated on this problem. Previously, the best known result in this direction was due to the second author and Philippon, who provided lower bounds which were inverse monomial in the degree of V (Minorations des hauteurs normalisées des sous-variétés des tores, Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa Cl. Sci. (4) 28 (1999), 489–543; Errata29 (2000)).

We consider homogeneous Lorentz spaces of dimension at least 3. We prove that if such a space has ‘big’ isotropy (that is, a non-precompact and irreducible isotropy group), then this space must have constant sectional curvature. As a corollary, we obtain a new direct proof of the fact that irreducible Lorentz symmetric spaces have constant curvature, which was known via (algebraic) classification.

We give a definition of the crystalline fundamental group of suitable log schemes in positive characteristic using the techniques of rational homotopy theory applied to the De Rham–Witt complex.

In order to study $p$-adic étale cohomology of an open subvariety $U$ of a smooth proper variety $X$ over a perfect field of characteristic $p>0$, we introduce new $p$-primary torsion sheaves. It is a modification of the logarithmic de Rham–Witt sheaves of $X$ depending on effective divisors $D$ supported in $X-U$. Then we establish a perfect duality between cohomology groups of the logarithmic de Rham–Witt cohomology of $U$ and an inverse limit of those of the mentioned modified sheaves. Over a finite field, the duality can be used to study wildly ramified class field theory for the open subvariety $U$.

In this paper we use the theory of formal moduli problems developed by Lurie in order to study the space of formal deformations of a $k$-linear $\infty$-category for a field $k$. Our main result states that if ${\mathcal{C}}$ is a $k$-linear $\infty$-category which has a compact generator whose groups of self-extensions vanish for sufficiently high positive degrees, then every formal deformation of ${\mathcal{C}}$ has zero curvature and moreover admits a compact generator.

We recall the main result of L. Caporaso, J. Harris, and B. Mazur's 1997 paper of ‘Uniformity of rational points.’ It says that the Lang conjecture on the distribution of rational points on varieties of general type implies the uniformity for the numbers of rational points on curves of genus at least 2. In this paper we will investigate its analogue for their heights under the assumption of the Vojta conjecture. Basically, we will show that the Vojta conjecture gives a naturally expected simple uniformity for their heights.

For any odd prime $\ell$, let $h_{\ell }(-d)$ denote the $\ell$-part of the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-d})$. Nontrivial pointwise upper bounds are known only for $\ell =3$; nontrivial upper bounds for averages of $h_{\ell }(-d)$ have previously been known only for $\ell =3,5$. In this paper we prove nontrivial upper bounds for the average of $h_{\ell }(-d)$ for all primes $\ell \geqslant 7$, as well as nontrivial upper bounds for certain higher moments for all primes $\ell \geqslant 3$.

Let k be the field $\Bbb C$ or $\Bbb R$, let M be the space kn and let A be the algebra of polynomials over M. We know from Hochschild and co-workers that the Hochschild homology H·(A,A) is isomorphic to the de Rham differential forms over M: this means that the complexes (C·(A,A),b) and (Ω·(M), 0) are quasi-isomorphic. In this work, I produce a general explicit homotopy formula between those two complexes. This formula can be generalized when M is an open set in a complex manifold and A is the space of holomorphic functions over M. Then, by taking the dual maps, I find a new homotopy formula for the Hochschild cohomology of the algebra of smooth fonctions over M (when M is either a complex or a real manifold) different from the one given by De Wilde and Lecompte. I will finally show how this formula can be used to construct an homotopy for the cyclic homology.

We give explicit formulas for the Hilbert series of residual intersections of a scheme in terms of the Hilbert series of its conormal modules. In a previous paper, we proved that such formulas should exist. We give applications to the number of equations defining projective varieties and to the dimension of secant varieties of surfaces and three-folds.

We exploit the Galois symmetries of the little disks operads to show that many differentials in the Goodwillie–Weiss spectral sequences approximating the homology and homotopy of knot spaces vanish at a prime $p$. Combined with recent results on the relationship between embedding calculus and finite-type theory, we deduce that the $(n+1)$th Goodwillie–Weiss approximation is a $p$-local universal Vassiliev invariant of degree $\leq n$ for every $n \leq p + 1$.

An almost-direct product of free groups is an iterated semidirect product of finitely generated free groups in which the action of the constituent free groups on the homology of one another is trivial. We determine the structure of the cohomology ring of such a group. This is used to analyze the topological complexity of the associated Eilenberg–MacLane space.

Let $X$ be a normal and geometrically integral projective variety over a global field $K$ and let $\bar {D}$ be an adelic ${\mathbb {R}}$-Cartier divisor on $X$. We prove a conjecture of Chen, showing that the essential minimum $\zeta _{\mathrm {ess}}(\bar {D})$ of $\bar {D}$ equals its asymptotic maximal slope under mild positivity assumptions. As an application, we see that $\zeta _{\mathrm {ess}}(\bar {D})$ can be read on the Okounkov body of the underlying divisor $D$ via the Boucksom–Chen concave transform. This gives a new interpretation of Zhang's inequalities on successive minima and a criterion for equality generalizing to arbitrary projective varieties a result of Burgos Gil, Philippon and Sombra concerning toric metrized divisors on toric varieties. When applied to a projective space $X = {\mathbb {P}}_K^{d}$, our main result has several applications to the study of successive minima of hermitian vector spaces. We obtain an absolute transference theorem with a linear upper bound, answering a question raised by Gaudron. We also give new comparisons between successive slopes and absolute minima, extending results of Gaudron and Rémond.