Classically, an indecomposable class $R$ in the cone of effective curves on a K3 surface $X$ is representable by a smooth rational curve if and only if $R^{2}=-2$. We prove a higher-dimensional generalization conjectured by Hassett and Tschinkel: for a holomorphic symplectic variety $M$ deformation equivalent to a Hilbert scheme of $n$ points on a K3 surface, an extremal curve class $R\in H_{2}(M,\mathbb{Z})$ in the Mori cone is the line in a Lagrangian $n$-plane $\mathbb{P}^{n}\subset M$ if and only if certain intersection-theoretic criteria are met. In particular, any such class satisfies $(R,R)=-\frac{n+3}{2}$, and the primitive such classes are all contained in a single monodromy orbit.

We give a proof of the Khintchine inequalities in non-commutative $L_{p}$-spaces for all $0<p<1$. These new inequalities are valid for the Rademacher functions or Gaussian random variables, but also for more general sequences, for example, for the analogues of such random variables in free probability. We also prove a factorization for operators from a Hilbert space to a non-commutative $L_{p}$-space, which is new for $0<p<1$. We end by showing that Mazur maps are Hölder on semifinite von Neumann algebras.

We prove that, under rather general conditions, the 1-cohomology of a von Neumann algebra $M$ with values in a Banach $M$ -bimodule satisfying a combination of smoothness and operatorial conditions vanishes. For instance, we show that, if $M$ acts normally on a Hilbert space ${\mathcal{H}}$ and ${\mathcal{B}}_{0}\subset {\mathcal{B}}({\mathcal{H}})$ is a norm closed $M$ -bimodule such that any $T\in {\mathcal{B}}_{0}$ is smooth (i.e., the left and right multiplications of $T$ by $x\in M$ are continuous from the unit ball of $M$ with the $s^{\ast }$ -topology to ${\mathcal{B}}_{0}$ with its norm), then any derivation of $M$ into ${\mathcal{B}}_{0}$ is inner. The compact operators are smooth over any $M\subset {\mathcal{B}}({\mathcal{H}})$ , but there is a large variety of non-compact smooth elements as well.

Generalised Heegner cycles are associated to a pair of an elliptic newform and a Hecke character over an imaginary quadratic extension $K/\mathbf{Q}$ . The cycles live in a middle-dimensional Chow group of a Kuga–Sato variety arising from an indefinite Shimura curve over the rationals and a self-product of a CM abelian surface. Let $p$ be an odd prime split in $K/\mathbf{Q}$ . We prove the non-triviality of the $p$ -adic Abel–Jacobi image of generalised Heegner cycles modulo $p$ over the $\mathbf{Z}_{p}$ -anticyclotomic extension of  $K$ . The result implies the non-triviality of the generalised Heegner cycles in the top graded piece of the coniveau filtration on the Chow group, and proves a higher weight analogue of Mazur’s conjecture. In the case of weight 2, the result provides a refinement of the results of Cornut–Vatsal and Aflalo–Nekovář on the non-triviality of Heegner points over the $\mathbf{Z}_{p}$ -anticyclotomic extension of  $K$ .

In this note, we prove that the Drinfeld–Grinberg–Kazhdan theorem on the structure of formal neighborhoods of arc schemes at a nonsingular arc does not extend to the case of singular arcs.

Let $G$ be a reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic, $G_{1}$ the Frobenius kernel of $G$, and $T$ a maximal torus of $G$. We show that the parabolically induced $G_{1}T$-Verma modules of singular highest weights are all rigid, determine their Loewy length, and describe their Loewy structure using the periodic Kazhdan–Lusztig $P$- and $Q$-polynomials. We assume that the characteristic of the field is sufficiently large that, in particular, Lusztig’s conjecture for the irreducible $G_{1}T$-characters holds.