This paper completes the construction of $p$-adic $L$-functions for unitary groups. More precisely, in Harris, Li and Skinner [‘$p$-adic $L$-functions for unitary Shimura varieties. I. Construction of the Eisenstein measure’, Doc. Math.Extra Vol. (2006), 393–464 (electronic)], three of the authors proposed an approach to constructing such $p$-adic $L$-functions (Part I). Building on more recent results, including the first named author’s construction of Eisenstein measures and $p$-adic differential operators [Eischen, ‘A $p$-adic Eisenstein measure for unitary groups’, J. Reine Angew. Math.699 (2015), 111–142; ‘$p$-adic differential operators on automorphic forms on unitary groups’, Ann. Inst. Fourier (Grenoble)62(1) (2012), 177–243], Part II of the present paper provides the calculations of local $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$-integrals occurring in the Euler product (including at $p$). Part III of the present paper develops the formalism needed to pair Eisenstein measures with Hida families in the setting of the doubling method.

We show that any smooth projective cubic hypersurface of dimension at least 29 over the rationals contains a rational line. A variation of our methods provides a similar result over p-adic fields. In both cases, we improve on previous results due to the second author and Wooley.

We include an appendix in which we highlight some slight modifications to a recent result of Papanikolopoulos and Siksek. It follows that the set of rational points on smooth projective cubic hypersurfaces of dimension at least 29 is generated via secant and tangent constructions from just a single point.

We prove that a Kummer surface defined over a complete strictly Henselian discretely valued field K of residue characteristic different from 2 admits a strict Kulikov model after finite base change. The Kulikov models we construct will be schemes, so our results imply that the semistable reduction conjecture is true for Kummer surfaces in this setup, even in the category of schemes. Our construction of Kulikov models is closely related to an earlier construction of Künnemann, which produces semistable models of Abelian varieties. It is well known that the special fibre of a strict Kulikov model belongs to one of three types, and we shall prove that the type of the special fibre of a strict Kulikov model of a Kummer surface and the toric rank of a corresponding Abelian surface are determined by each other. We also study the relationship between this invariant and the Galois representation on the second ℓ-adic cohomology of the Kummer surface. Finally, we apply our results, together with earlier work of Halle–Nicaise, to give a proof of the monodromy conjecture for Kummer surfaces in equal characteristic zero.

We establish two results on three-dimensional del Pezzo fibrations in positive characteristic. First, we give an explicit bound for torsion index of relatively torsion line bundles. Second, we show the existence of purely inseparable sections with explicit bounded degree. To prove these results, we study log del Pezzo surfaces defined over imperfect fields.

We prove a comparison isomorphism between certain moduli spaces of $p$-divisible groups and strict ${\mathcal{O}}_{K}$-modules (RZ-spaces). Both moduli problems are of PEL-type (polarization, endomorphism, level structure) and the difficulty lies in relating polarized $p$-divisible groups and polarized strict ${\mathcal{O}}_{K}$-modules. We use the theory of relative displays and frames, as developed by Ahsendorf, Lau and Zink, to translate this into a problem in linear algebra. As an application of these results, we verify new cases of the arithmetic fundamental lemma (AFL) of Wei Zhang: The comparison isomorphism yields an explicit description of certain cycles that play a role in the AFL. This allows, under certain conditions, to reduce the AFL identity in question to an AFL identity in lower dimension.

We show, under some natural restrictions, that some semigroup orbits of polynomials cannot contain too many elements of small multiplicative order modulo a large prime $p$, extending previous work of Shparlinski [‘Multiplicative orders in orbits of polynomials over finite fields’, Glasg. Math. J.60(2) (2018), 487–493].

A well-known conjecture, often attributed to Serre, asserts that any motive over any number field has infinitely many ordinary reductions (in the sense that the Newton polygon coincides with the Hodge polygon). In the case of Hilbert modular cuspforms $f$ of parallel weight $(2,\ldots ,2)$, we show how to produce more ordinary primes by using the Sato–Tate equidistribution and combining it with the Galois theory of the Hecke field. Under the assumption of stronger forms of Sato–Tate equidistribution, we get stronger (but conditional) results. In the case of higher weights, we formulate the ordinariness conjecture for submotives of the intersection cohomology of proper algebraic varieties with motivic coefficients, and verify it for the motives whose $\ell$-adic Galois realisations are abelian on a finite-index subgroup. We get some results for Hilbert cuspforms of weight $(3,\ldots ,3)$, weaker than those for $(2,\ldots ,2)$.

We prove a rigid analytic analogue of the Artin–Grothendieck vanishing theorem. Precisely, we prove (under mild hypotheses) that the geometric étale cohomology of any Zariski-constructible sheaf on any affinoid rigid space $X$ vanishes in all degrees above the dimension of $X$. Along the way, we show that branched covers of normal rigid spaces can often be extended across closed analytic subsets, in analogy with a classical result for complex analytic spaces. We also prove some new comparison theorems relating the étale cohomology of schemes and rigid analytic varieties, and give some applications of them. In particular, we prove a structure theorem for Zariski-constructible sheaves on characteristic-zero affinoid spaces.

Let $\mathfrak{o}$ be a complete discrete valuation ring of mixed characteristic $(0,p)$ and $\mathfrak{X}_{0}$ a smooth formal $\mathfrak{o}$-scheme. Let $\mathfrak{X}\rightarrow \mathfrak{X}_{0}$ be an admissible blow-up. In the first part, we introduce sheaves of differential operators $\mathscr{D}_{\mathfrak{X},k}^{\dagger }$ on $\mathfrak{X}$, for every sufficiently large positive integer $k$, generalizing Berthelot’s arithmetic differential operators on the smooth formal scheme $\mathfrak{X}_{0}$. The coherence of these sheaves and several other basic properties are proven. In the second part, we study the projective limit sheaf $\mathscr{D}_{\mathfrak{X},\infty }=\mathop{\varprojlim }\nolimits_{k}\mathscr{D}_{\mathfrak{X},k}^{\dagger }$ and introduce its abelian category of coadmissible modules. The inductive limit of the sheaves $\mathscr{D}_{\mathfrak{X},\infty }$, over all admissible blow-ups $\mathfrak{X}$, is a sheaf $\mathscr{D}_{\langle \mathfrak{X}_{0}\rangle }$ on the Zariski–Riemann space of $\mathfrak{X}_{0}$, which gives rise to an abelian category of coadmissible modules. Analogues of Theorems A and B are shown to hold in each of these settings, that is, for $\mathscr{D}_{\mathfrak{X},k}^{\dagger }$, $\mathscr{D}_{\mathfrak{X},\infty }$, and $\mathscr{D}_{\langle \mathfrak{X}_{0}\rangle }$.

We prove an analogue of Belyi’s theorem in characteristic two. Our proof consists of the following three steps. We first introduce a new notion called pseudo-tameness for morphisms between curves over an algebraically closed field of characteristic two. Secondly, we prove the existence of a ‘pseudo-tame’ rational function by showing the vanishing of an obstruction class. Finally, we construct a tamely ramified rational function from the ‘pseudo-tame’ rational function.

We prove a character formula for some closed fine Deligne–Lusztig varieties. We apply it to compute fixed points for fine Deligne–Lusztig varieties arising from the basic loci of Shimura varieties of Coxeter type. As an application, we prove an arithmetic intersection formula for certain diagonal cycles on unitary and GSpin Rapoport–Zink spaces arising from the arithmetic Gan–Gross–Prasad conjectures. In particular, we prove the arithmetic fundamental lemma in the minuscule case, without assumptions on the residual characteristic.

We study the generalized Fermat equation $x^{2}+y^{3}=z^{p}$, to be solved in coprime integers, where $p\geqslant 7$ is prime. Modularity and level-lowering techniques reduce the problem to the determination of the sets of rational points satisfying certain 2-adic and 3-adic conditions on a finite set of twists of the modular curve $X(p)$. We develop new local criteria to decide if two elliptic curves with certain types of potentially good reduction at 2 and 3 can have symplectically or anti-symplectically isomorphic $p$-torsion modules. Using these criteria we produce the minimal list of twists of $X(p)$ that have to be considered, based on local information at 2 and 3; this list depends on $p\hspace{0.2em}{\rm mod}\hspace{0.2em}24$. We solve the equation completely when $p=11$, which previously was the smallest unresolved $p$. One new ingredient is the use of the ‘Selmer group Chabauty’ method introduced by the third author, applied in an elliptic curve Chabauty context, to determine relevant points on $X_{0}(11)$ defined over certain number fields of degree 12. This result is conditional on the generalized Riemann hypothesis, which is needed to show correctness of the computation of the class groups of five specific number fields of degree 36. We also give some partial results for the case $p=13$. The source code for the various computations is supplied as supplementary material with the online version of this article.

We extend field patching to the setting of Berkovich analytic geometry and use it to prove a local–global principle over function fields of analytic curves with respect to completions. In the context of quadratic forms, we combine it with sufficient conditions for local isotropy over a Berkovich curve to obtain applications on the $u$-invariant. The patching method we adapt was introduced by Harbater and Hartmann [Patching over fields, Israel J. Math. 176 (2010), 61–107] and further developed by these two authors and Krashen [Applications of patching to quadratic forms and central simple algebras, Invent. Math. 178 (2009), 231–263]. The results presented in this paper generalize those of Harbater, Hartmann, and Krashen [Applications of patching to quadratic forms and central simple algebras, Invent. Math. 178 (2009), 231–263] on the local–global principle and quadratic forms.

Let $S$ be a Shimura variety with reflex field $E$. We prove that the action of $\text{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/E)$ on $S$ maps special points to special points and special subvarieties to special subvarieties. Furthermore, the Galois conjugates of a special point all have the same complexity (as defined in the theory of unlikely intersections). These results follow from Milne and Shih’s construction of canonical models of Shimura varieties, based on a conjecture of Langlands which was proved by Borovoi and Milne.

We provide evidence for this conclusion: given a finite Galois cover $f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$ of group $G$, almost all (in a density sense) realizations of $G$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ do not occur as specializations of $f$. We show that this holds if the number of branch points of $f$ is sufficiently large, under the abc-conjecture and, possibly, the lower bound predicted by the Malle conjecture for the number of Galois extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ of given group and bounded discriminant. This widely extends a result of Granville on the lack of $\mathbb{Q}$-rational points on quadratic twists of hyperelliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ with large genus, under the abc-conjecture (a diophantine reformulation of the case $G=\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ of our result). As a further evidence, we exhibit a few finite groups $G$ for which the above conclusion holds unconditionally for almost all covers of $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$ of group $G$. We also introduce a local–global principle for specializations of Galois covers $f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$ and show that it often fails if $f$ has abelian Galois group and sufficiently many branch points, under the abc-conjecture. On the one hand, such a local–global conclusion underscores the ‘smallness’ of the specialization set of a Galois cover of $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$. On the other hand, it allows to generate conditionally ‘many’ curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ failing the Hasse principle, thus generalizing a recent result of Clark and Watson devoted to the hyperelliptic case.

For families of smooth complex projective varieties, we show that normal functions arising from algebraically trivial cycle classes are algebraic and defined over the field of definition of the family. In particular, the zero loci of those functions are algebraic and defined over such a field of definition. This proves a conjecture of Charles.

In this article, we functorially associate definable sets to $k$-analytic curves, and definable maps to analytic morphisms between them, for a large class of $k$-analytic curves. Given a $k$-analytic curve $X$, our association allows us to have definable versions of several usual notions of Berkovich analytic geometry such as the branch emanating from a point and the residue curve at a point of type 2. We also characterize the definable subsets of the definable counterpart of $X$ and show that they satisfy a bijective relation with the radial subsets of $X$. As an application, we recover (and slightly extend) results of Temkin concerning the radiality of the set of points with a given prescribed multiplicity with respect to a morphism of $k$-analytic curves. In the case of the analytification of an algebraic curve, our construction can also be seen as an explicit version of Hrushovski and Loeser’s theorem on iso-definability of curves. However, our approach can also be applied to strictly $k$-affinoid curves and arbitrary morphisms between them, which are currently not in the scope of their setting.

In this paper we prove the Rigidity Theorem for motives of rigid analytic varieties over a non-Archimedean valued field $K$. We prove this theorem both for motives with transfers and without transfers in a relative setting. Applications include the construction of étale realization functors, an upgrade of the known comparison between motives with and without transfers and an upgrade of the rigid analytic motivic tilting equivalence, extending them to $\mathbb{Z}[1/p]$-coefficients.

In this note, we prove the logarithmic $p$-adic comparison theorem for open rigid analytic varieties. We prove that a smooth rigid analytic variety with a strict simple normal crossing divisor is locally $K(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B},1)$ (in a certain sense) with respect to $\mathbb{F}_{p}$-local systems and ramified coverings along the divisor. We follow Scholze’s method to produce a pro-version of the Faltings site and use this site to prove a primitive comparison theorem in our setting. After introducing period sheaves in our setting, we prove aforesaid comparison theorem.

We obtain a new lower bound on the size of the value set $\mathscr{V}(f)=f(\mathbb{F}_{p})$ of a sparse polynomial $f\in \mathbb{F}_{p}[X]$ over a finite field of $p$ elements when $p$ is prime. This bound is uniform with respect to the degree and depends on some natural arithmetic properties of the degrees of the monomial terms of $f$ and the number of these terms. Our result is stronger than those that can be extracted from the bounds on multiplicities of individual values in $\mathscr{V}(f)$.