We prove that the class of all the rings $\mathbb {Z}/m\mathbb {Z}$ for all $m>1$ is decidable. This gives a positive solution to a problem of Ax asked in his celebrated 1968 paper on the elementary theory of finite fields [1, Problem 5, p. 270]. In our proof, we reduce the problem to the decidability of the ring of adeles $\mathbb {A}_{\mathbb {Q}}$ of $\mathbb {Q}$.

A celebrated result by Davis, Putnam, Robinson, and Matiyasevich shows that a set of integers is listable if and only if it is positive existentially definable in the language of arithmetic. We investigate analogues of this result over structures endowed with a listable presentation. When such an analogue holds, the structure is said to have the DPRM property. We prove several results addressing foundational aspects around this problem, such as uniqueness of the listable presentation, transference of the DPRM property under interpretation, and its relation with positive existential bi-interpretability. A first application of our results is the rigorous proof of (strong versions of) several folklore facts regarding transference of the DPRM property. Another application of the theory we develop is that it will allow us to link various Diophantine conjectures to the question of whether the DPRM property holds for global fields. This last topic includes a study of the number of existential quantifiers needed to define a Diophantine set.

Many phenomena in geometry and analysis can be explained via the theory of $D$-modules, but this theory explains close to nothing in the non-archimedean case, by the absence of integration by parts. Hence there is a need to look for alternatives. A central example of a notion based on the theory of $D$-modules is the notion of holonomic distributions. We study two recent alternatives of this notion in the context of distributions on non-archimedean local fields, namely $\mathscr{C}^{\text{exp}}$-class distributions from Cluckers et al. [‘Distributions and wave front sets in the uniform nonarchimedean setting’, Trans. Lond. Math. Soc.5(1) (2018), 97–131] and WF-holonomicity from Aizenbud and Drinfeld [‘The wave front set of the Fourier transform of algebraic measures’, Israel J. Math.207(2) (2015), 527–580 (English)]. We answer a question from Aizenbud and Drinfeld [‘The wave front set of the Fourier transform of algebraic measures’, Israel J. Math.207(2) (2015), 527–580 (English)] by showing that each distribution of the $\mathscr{C}^{\text{exp}}$-class is WF-holonomic and thus provides a framework of WF-holonomic distributions, which is stable under taking Fourier transforms. This is interesting because the $\mathscr{C}^{\text{exp}}$-class contains many natural distributions, in particular, the distributions studied by Aizenbud and Drinfeld [‘The wave front set of the Fourier transform of algebraic measures’, Israel J. Math.207(2) (2015), 527–580 (English)]. We show also another stability result of this class, namely, one can regularize distributions without leaving the $\mathscr{C}^{\text{exp}}$-class. We strengthen a link from Cluckers et al. [‘Distributions and wave front sets in the uniform nonarchimedean setting’, Trans. Lond. Math. Soc.5(1) (2018), 97–131] between zero loci and smooth loci for functions and distributions of the $\mathscr{C}^{\text{exp}}$-class. A key ingredient is a new resolution result for subanalytic functions (by alterations), based on embedded resolution for analytic functions and model theory.

Let $E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}$ be the Legendre family of elliptic curves. Given $n$ points $P_{1},\ldots ,P_{n}\in E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D706})})$, linearly independent over $\mathbb{Z}$, we prove that there are at most finitely many complex numbers $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{0}$ such that $E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{0}}$ has complex multiplication and $P_{1}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{0}),\ldots ,P_{n}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{0})$ are linearly dependent over End$(E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{0}})$. This implies a positive answer to a question of Bertrand and, combined with a previous work in collaboration with Capuano, proves the Zilber–Pink conjecture for a curve in a fibered power of an elliptic scheme when everything is defined over $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$.

We continue the research programme of comparing the complex exponential with Zilberś exponential. For the latter, we prove, using diophantine geometry, various properties about zero sets of exponential functions, proved for $\mathbb{C}$ using analytic function theory, for example, the Identity Theorem.

We prove the following theorems. Theorem 1: for any E-field with cyclic kernel, in particular ℂ or the Zilber fields, all real abelian algebraic numbers are pointwise definable. Theorem 2: for the Zilber fields, the only pointwise definable algebraic numbers are the real abelian numbers.

For a linear group $G$ acting on an absolutely irreducible variety $X$ over $\mathbb{Q}$, we describe the orbits of $X(\mathbb{Q}_p)$ under $G(\mathbb{Q}_p)$ and of $X(\mathbb{F}_p((t)))$ under $G(\mathbb{F}_p((t)))$ for $p$ big enough. This allows us to show that the degree of a wide class of orbital integrals over $\mathbb{Q}_p$ or $\mathbb{F}_p((t))$ is less than or equal to $0$ for $p$ big enough, and similarly for all finite field extensions of $\mathbb{Q}_p$ and $\mathbb{F}_p((t))$.

We prove that Schanuel's conjecture for the reals is equivalent to a uniform version of itself.