The first part of the paper gives a new proof of self-duality for Selmer groups: if A is an abelian variety over a number field K, and F/K is a Galois extension with Galois group G, then the G-representation naturally associated to the p∞-Selmer group of A/F is self-dual. The second part describes a method for obtaining information about parities of Selmer ranks from the local Tamagawa numbers of A in intermediate extensions of F/K.

In this paper, we study the linear structure of sets A ⊂ with doubling constant σ(A) < 2, where σ(A):=|A+A|/|A|. In particular, we show that A is contained in a small affine subspace. We also show that A can be covered by at most four shifts of some subspace V with |V| ≤ |A|. Finally, we classify all binary sets with small doubling constant.

Let F(x) be the remainder term in the mean square formula of the error term Δ(t) in the Dirichlet divisor problem. We improve on the upper estimate of F(x) obtained by Preissmann around twenty years ago. The method is robust, which applies to the same problem for the error terms in the circle problem and the mean square formula of the Riemann zeta-function.

Let ϕ(z) ∈ (z) be a rational function of degree d ≥ 2 with ϕ(0) = 0 and such that ϕ does not vanish to order d at 0. Let α ∈ have infinite orbit under iteration of ϕ and write ϕn(α) = An/Bn as a fraction in lowest terms. We prove that for all but finitely many n ≥ 0, the numerator An has a primitive divisor, i.e., there is a prime p such that p | An and p ∤ Ai for all i < n. More generally, we prove an analogous result when ϕ is defined over a number field and 0 is a preperiodic point for ϕ.

Given a1, . . ., ar ∈ ℚ \ {0, ±1}, the Schinzel–Wójcik problem is to determine whether there exist infinitely many primes p for which the order modulo p of each a1, . . ., ar coincides. We prove on the GRH that the primes with this property have a density and in the special case when each ai is a power of a fixed rational number, we show unconditionally that such a density is non zero. Finally, in the case when all the ai's are prime, we express the density it terms of an infinite product.

Let Sw+2(Γ0(N)) be the vector space of cusp forms of weight w + 2 on the congruence subgroup Γ0(N). We first determine explicit formulas for period polynomials of elements in Sw+2(Γ0(N)) by means of Bernoulli polynomials. When N = 2, from these explicit formulas we obtain new bases for Sw+2(Γ0(2)), and extend the Eichler–Shimura–Manin isomorphism theorem to Γ0(2). This implies that there are natural correspondences between the spaces of cusp forms on Γ0(2) and the spaces of period polynomials. Based on these results, we will find explicit form of Hecke operators on Sw+2(Γ0(2)). As an application of main theorems, we will also give an affirmative answer to a speculation of Imamoglu and Kohnen on a basis of Sw+2(Γ0(2)).

A pro-Lie group is a projective limit of a family of finite-dimensional Lie groups. In this paper we show that a pro-Lie group G is a Lie group in the sense that its topology is compatible with a smooth manifold structure for which the group operations are smooth if and only if G is locally contractible. We also characterize the corresponding pro-Lie algebras in various ways. Furthermore, we characterize those pro-Lie groups which are locally exponential, that is, they are Lie groups with a smooth exponential function which maps a zero neighbourhood in the Lie algebra diffeomorphically onto an open identity neighbourhood of the group.

We show that there is a homotopy cofiber sequence of spectra relating Carlsson's deformation K-theory of a group G to its “deformation representation ring,” analogous to the Bott periodicity sequence relating connective K-theory to ordinary homology. We then apply this to study simultaneous similarity of unitary matrices.

We describe the integral equivariant cohomology ring of a weighted projective space in terms of piecewise polynomials, and thence by generators and relations. We deduce that the ring is a perfect invariant, and prove a Chern class formula for weighted projective bundles.

We prove that for any group π with cohomological dimension at least n the nth power of the Berstein class of π is nontrivial. This allows us to prove the following Berstein–Svarc theorem for all n:

Theorem. For a connected complex X with dim X = cat X = n, we have ≠ 0 whereis the Berstein class of X.

Previously it was known for n ≥ 3.

We also prove that, for every map f: M → N of degree ±1 of closed orientable manifolds, the fundamental group of N is free provided that the fundamental group of M is.

We give a simple differential geometric description of the canonical Cartan (or tractor) bundle and connection in CR geometry, thus offering an alternative definition to the usual abstract Lie algebraic approach.

For closed and connected subgroups G of SO(n), we study the energy functional on the space of G-structures of a (compact) Riemannian manifold (M, 〈⋅, ⋅〉), where G-structures are considered as sections of the quotient bundle (M)/G. We deduce the corresponding first and second variation formulae and the characterising conditions for critical points by means of tools closely related to the study of G-structures. In this direction, we show the rôle in the energy functional played by the intrinsic torsion of the G-structure. Moreover, we analyse the particular case G=U(n) for 2n-dimensional manifolds. This leads to the study of harmonic almost Hermitian manifolds and harmonic maps from M into (M)/U(n).

We provide a parametric construction in terms of minimal surfaces of the Euclidean submanifolds of codimension two and arbitrary dimension that attain equality in an inequality due to De Smet, Dillen, Verstraelen and Vrancken. The latter involves the scalar curvature, the norm of the normal curvature tensor and the length of the mean curvature vector.

In classical general relativity, the timelike convergence condition is Ric(v, v) ≥ 0 for every timelike vector v. But recent astronomical observations show that the timelike convergence condition does not hold. In this paper, we obtain an explicit upper bound of the volume form and the distance to a focal point (such as Hubble distance) along timelike geodesic with integrals of the negative part of Ricci curvature, which entails singularity theorems.

We consider the Vlasov–Poisson system with spherical symmetry and an exterior potential which is induced by a point mass in the center. This system can be used as a simple model for a newtonian galaxy surrounding a black hole. For this system, we establish a global existence result for classical solutions with shell-like initial data, i.e. the support of the density is bounded away from the point mass singularity. We also prove existence and stability of stationary solutions which describe static shells, where we use a variational approach which was established by Y. Guo and G. Rein.