Khintchine's theorem is a classical result from metric number theory which relates the Lebesgue measure of certain limsup sets with the convergence/divergence of naturally occurring volume sums. In this paper we ask whether an analogous result holds for iterated function systems (IFS's). We say that an IFS is approximation regular if we observe Khintchine type behaviour, i.e., if the size of certain limsup sets defined using the IFS is determined by the convergence/divergence of naturally occurring sums. We prove that an IFS is approximation regular if it consists of conformal mappings and satisfies the open set condition. The divergence condition we introduce incorporates the inhomogeneity present within the IFS. We demonstrate via an example that such an approach is essential. We also formulate an analogue of the Duffin–Schaeffer conjecture and show that it holds for a set of full Hausdorff dimension.

Combining our results with the mass transference principle of Beresnevich and Velani [4], we prove a general result that implies the existence of exceptional points within the attractor of our IFS. These points are exceptional in the sense that they are “very well approximated”. As a corollary of this result, we obtain a general solution to a problem of Mahler, and prove that there are badly approximable numbers that are very well approximated by quadratic irrationals.

The ideas put forward in this paper are introduced in the general setting of iterated function systems that may contain overlaps. We believe that by viewing iterated function systems from the perspective of metric number theory, one can gain a greater insight into the extent to which they overlap. The results of this paper should be interpreted as a first step in this investigation.

Let A ⊂ ℝ be finite. We quantitatively improve the Balog–Wooley decomposition, that is A can be partitioned into sets B and C such that

$ \begin{equation*} \max\{E^+(B) , E^{\times}(C)\} \lesssim |A|^{3 - 7/26}, \ \ \max \{E^+(B,A) , E^{\times}(C, A) \}\lesssim |A|^{3 - 1/4}. \end{equation*} $

$ \begin{equation*} |A+A| + |A A| \gtrsim |A|^{4/3 + 5/5277}. \end{equation*} $

In this paper we generalise the main result of [4] for manifolds that are not necessarily Einstein. In fact, we obtain an upper bound for the volume of a locally volume-minimising closed hypersurface Σ of a Riemannian 5-manifold M with scalar curvature bounded from below by a positive constant in terms of the total traceless Ricci curvature of Σ. Furthermore, if Σ saturates the respective upper bound and M has nonnegative Ricci curvature, then Σ is isometric to 𝕊4 up to scaling and M splits in a neighbourhood of Σ. Also, we obtain a rigidity result for the Riemannian cover of M when Σ minimises the volume in its homotopy class and saturates the upper bound.

A conjecture of Orlov predicts that derived equivalent smooth projective varieties over a field have isomorphic Chow motives. The conjecture is known for curves, and was recently observed for surfaces by Huybrechts. In this paper we focus on threefolds over perfect fields, and unconditionally secure results, which are implied by Orlov's conjecture, concerning the geometric coniveau filtration, and abelian varieties attached to smooth projective varieties.

Mendes Lopes and Pardini showed that minimal general type surfaces of Albanese dimension one have slopes K2/χ dense in the interval [2,8]. This result was completed to cover the admissible interval [2,9] by Roulleau and Urzua, who proved that surfaces with fundamental group equal to that of any curve of genus g ≥ 1 (in particular, having Albanese dimension one) give a set of slopes dense in [6,9]. In this note we provide a second construction that complements that of Mendes Lopes–Pardini, to recast a dense set of slopes in [8,9] for surfaces of Albanese dimension one. These surfaces arise as ramified double coverings of cyclic covers of the Cartwright–Steger surface.

Elton P. Hsu used probabilistic method to show that the asymptotic Dirichlet problem is uniquely solvable under the curvature condition −Ce(2−η)r(x) ≤ KM(x) ≤ −1 with η > 0. We give an analytical proof of the same statement. In addition, using this new approach we are able to establish two boundary Harnack inequalities under the curvature condition −Ce(2/3−η)r(x) ≤ KM(x) ≤ −1 with η > 0. This implies that there is a natural homeomorphism between the Martin boundary and the geometric boundary of M. As far as we know, this is the first result of this kind under unbounded curvature conditions. Our proof is a modification of an argument due to M. T. Anderson and R. Schoen.

If a finite group G is isomorphic to a subgroup of SO(3), then G has the D2-property. Let X be a finite complex satisfying Wall's D2-conditions. If π1(X) = G is finite, and χ(X) ≥ 1 − def(G), then X ∨ S2 is simple homotopy equivalent to a finite 2-complex, whose simple homotopy type depends only on G and χ(X).

We prove that the matrix analogue of the Veronese curve is strongly extremal in the sense of Diophantine approximation, thereby resolving a question posed by Beresnevich, Kleinbock and Margulis (2015) in the affirmative.

In [6] the first author proved that for any β ∈ (1, βKL) every x ∈ (0, 1/(β − 1)) has a simply normal β-expansion, where βKL ≈ 1.78723 is the Komornik–Loreti constant. This result is complemented by an observation made in [22], where it was shown that whenever β ∈ (βT, 2] there exists an x ∈ (0, 1/(β − 1)) with a unique β-expansion, and this expansion is not simply normal. Here βT ≈ 1.80194 is the unique zero in (1, 2] of the polynomial x3 − x2 − 2x + 1. This leaves a gap in our understanding within the interval [βKL, βT]. In this paper we fill this gap and prove that for any β ∈ (1, βT], every x ∈ (0, 1/(β − 1)) has a simply normal β-expansion. For completion, we provide a proof that for any β ∈ (1, 2), Lebesgue almost every x has a simply normal β-expansion. We also give examples of x with multiple β-expansions, none of which are simply normal.

Our proofs rely on ideas from combinatorics on words and dynamical systems.

In this paper we prove a continuity result on matings of quadratic lamination maps sp depending on odd denominator rationals p ∈(0,1). One of the two mating components is fixed in the result. Note that our result has its implication on continuity of matings of quadratic hyperbolic polynomials fc(z)=z2 + c, c ∈ M the Mandelbrot set with respect to the usual parameters c. This is because every quadratic hyperbolic polynomial in M is contained in a bounded hyperbolic component. Its center is Thurston equivalent to some quadratic lamination map sp, and there are bounds on sizes of limbs of M and on sizes of limbs of the mating components on the quadratic parameter slice Perm′(0).

Ardakov-Wadsley defined the sheaf $\wideparen{\Ncal{D}}$X of p-adic analytic differential operators on a smooth rigid analytic variety by restricting to the case where X is affinoid and the tangent sheaf admits a smooth Lie lattice. We generalise their results by dropping the assumption of a smooth Lie lattice throughout, which allows us to describe the sections of $\wideparen{\Ncal{D}}$ for arbitrary affinoid subdomains and not just on a suitable base of the topology. The structural results concerning $\wideparen{\Ncal{D}}$ and coadmissible $\wideparen{\Ncal{D}}$-modules can then be generalised in a natural way.

The main ingredient for our proofs is a study of completed tensor products over normed K-algebras, for K a discretely valued field of mixed characteristic. Given a normed right module U over a normed K-algebra A, we provide several exactness criteria for the functor $U\widehat{\otimes}_A$ - applied to complexes of strict morphisms, including a necessary and sufficient condition in the case of short exact sequences.

We show that for the attractor (K1, . . ., Kq) of a graph directed iterated function system, for each 1 ⩽ j ⩽ q and ϵ > 0 there exists a self-similar set K ⊆ Kj that satisfies the strong separation condition and dimHKj − ϵ < dimHK. We show that we can further assume convenient conditions on the orthogonal parts and similarity ratios of the defining similarities of K. Using this property as a ‘black box’ we obtain results on a range of topics including on dimensions of projections, intersections, distance sets and sums and products of sets.