We show that the conjecture of [27] for the special value at $s=1$ of the zeta function of an arithmetic surface is equivalent to the Birch–Swinnerton–Dyer conjecture for the Jacobian of the generic fibre.

We construct examples of quasi-isometric embeddings of word hyperbolic groups into $\mathsf {SL}(d,\mathbb {R})$ for $d \geq 4$ which are not limits of Anosov representations into $\mathsf {SL}(d,\mathbb {R})$. As a consequence, we conclude that an analogue of the density theorem for $\mathsf {PSL}(2,\mathbb {C})$ does not hold for $\mathsf {SL}(d,\mathbb {R})$ when $d \geq 4$.

In this paper, we formulate and present ample evidence towards the conjecture that the partition function (i.e. the exponential of the generating series of intersection numbers with monomials in psi classes) of the Pixton class on the moduli space of stable curves is the topological tau function of the noncommutative Korteweg-de Vries hierarchy, which we introduced in a previous work. The specialisation of this conjecture to the top degree part of Pixton’s class states that the partition function of the double ramification cycle is the tau function of the dispersionless limit of this hierarchy. In fact, we prove that this conjecture follows from the double ramification/Dubrovin–Zhang equivalence conjecture. We also provide several independent computational checks in support of it.

For X a smooth projective variety and $D=D_1+\dotsb +D_n$ a simple normal crossing divisor, we establish a precise cycle-level correspondence between the genus $0$ local Gromov–Witten theory of the bundle $\oplus _{i=1}^n \mathcal {O}_X(-D_i)$ and the maximal contact Gromov–Witten theory of the multiroot stack $X_{D,\vec r}$. The proof is an implementation of the rank-reduction strategy. We use this point of view to clarify the relationship between logarithmic and orbifold invariants.