When is an ideal of a ring radical or prime? By examining its generators, one may in many cases definably and uniformly test the ideal’s properties. We seek to establish such definable formulas in rings of p-adic power series, such as $\mathbb Q_{p}\langle X\rangle $, $\mathbb Z_{p}\langle X\rangle $, and related rings of power series over more general valuation rings and their fraction fields. We obtain a definable, uniform test for radicality, and, in the one-dimensional case, for primality. This builds upon the techniques stemming from the proof of the quantifier elimination results for the analytic theory of the p-adic integers by Denef and van den Dries, and the linear algebra methods of Hermann and Seidenberg.

Abstract prepared by Madeline G. Barnicle.

E-mail: barnicle@math.ucla.edu

URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6t02q9s4

We present a framework for tame geometry on Henselian valued fields, which we call Hensel minimality. In the spirit of o-minimality, which is key to real geometry and several diophantine applications, we develop geometric results and applications for Hensel minimal structures that were previously known only under stronger, less axiomatic assumptions. We show the existence of t-stratifications in Hensel minimal structures and Taylor approximation results that are key to non-Archimedean versions of Pila–Wilkie point counting, Yomdin’s parameterization results and motivic integration. In this first paper, we work in equi-characteristic zero; in the sequel paper, we develop the mixed characteristic case and a diophantine application.

We show that the system of equations

$$ \begin{align*} \sum_{i=1}^{s} (x_{i}^{\,j}-y_{i}^{\,j}) = a_{j} \quad (1 \leqslant j \leqslant k) \end{align*} $$

has appreciably fewer solutions in the subcritical range $s < \tfrac 12k(k+1)$ than its homogeneous counterpart, provided that $a_{\ell } \neq 0$ for some $\ell \leqslant k-1$. Our methods use Vinogradov’s mean value theorem in combination with a shifting argument.

Let F be a system of polynomial equations in one or more variables with integer coefficients. We show that there exists a univariate polynomial $D \in \mathbb {Z}[x]$ such that F is solvable modulo p if and only if the equation $D(x) \equiv 0 \pmod {p}$ has a solution.

We give effective finiteness results for the power values of polynomials with coefficients composed of a fixed finite set of primes; in particular, of Littlewood polynomials.

We prove that if $s\ge 2$ is a fixed integer, then the equation $ns^n+1=(b^m-1)/(b-1)$ has only finitely many positive integer solutions $(n,b,m)$ with $b\ge 2$ and $m\ge 3$. When $s=2$, it has no solution.

In the present article, we study the following problem. Let $\boldsymbol {G}$ be a linear algebraic group over $\mathbb {Q}$, let $\Gamma$ be an arithmetic lattice, and let $\boldsymbol {H}$ be an observable $\mathbb {Q}$-subgroup. There is a $H$-invariant measure $\mu _H$ supported on the closed submanifold $H\Gamma /\Gamma$. Given a sequence $(g_n)$ in $G$, we study the limiting behavior of $(g_n)_*\mu _H$ under the weak-$*$ topology. In the non-divergent case, we give a rather complete classification. We further supplement this by giving a criterion of non-divergence and prove non-divergence for arbitrary sequence $(g_n)$ for certain large $\boldsymbol {H}$. We also discuss some examples and applications of our result. This work can be viewed as a natural extension of the work of Eskin–Mozes–Shah and Shapira–Zheng.

We generalise two quartic surfaces studied by Swinnerton-Dyer to give two infinite families of diagonal quartic surfaces which violate the Hasse principle. Standard calculations of Brauer–Manin obstructions are exhibited.

In the 1993 Western Number Theory Conference, Richard Guy proposed Problem 93:31, which asks for integers n representable by ${(x+y+z)^3}/{xyz}$, where $x,\,y,\,z$ are integers, preferably with positive integer solutions. We show that the representation $n={(x+y+z)^3}/{xyz}$ is impossible in positive integers $x,\,y,\,z$ if $n=4^{k}(a^2+b^2)$, where $k,\,a,\,b\in \mathbb {Z}^{+}$ are such that $k\geq 3$ and $2\nmid a+b$.

Let $\mathcal {P}_s(n)$ denote the nth s-gonal number. We consider the equation

$$ \begin{align*}\mathcal{P}_s(n) = y^m \end{align*} $$

for integers $n,s,y$ and m. All solutions to this equation are known for $m>2$ and $s \in \{3,5,6,8,20 \}$. We consider the case $s=10$, that of decagonal numbers. Using a descent argument and the modular method, we prove that the only decagonal number greater than 1 expressible as a perfect mth power with $m>1$ is $\mathcal {P}_{10}(3) = 3^3$.

For any fixed nonzero integer h, we show that a positive proportion of integral binary quartic forms F do locally everywhere represent h, but do not globally represent h. We order classes of integral binary quartic forms by the two generators of their ring of ${\rm GL}_{2}({\mathbb Z})$-invariants, classically denoted by I and J.

We find all integer solutions to the equation $x^2+5^a\cdot 13^b\cdot 17^c=y^n$ with $a,\,b,\,c\geq 0$, $n\geq 3$, $x,\,y>0$ and $\gcd (x,\,y)=1$. Our proof uses a deep result about primitive divisors of Lucas sequences in combination with elementary number theory and computer search.

We refine a previous construction by Akhtari and Bhargava so that, for every positive integer m, we obtain a positive proportion of Thue equations F(x, y) = h that fail the integral Hasse principle simultaneously for every positive integer h less than m. The binary forms F have fixed degree ≥ 3 and are ordered by the absolute value of the maximum of the coefficients.

We show that in a parametric family of linear recurrence sequences $a_1(\alpha ) f_1(\alpha )^n + \cdots + a_k(\alpha ) f_k(\alpha )^n$ with the coefficients $a_i$ and characteristic roots $f_i$, $i=1, \ldots ,k$, given by rational functions over some number field, for all but a set of elements $\alpha $ of bounded height in the algebraic closure of ${\mathbb Q}$, the Skolem problem is solvable, and the existence of a zero in such a sequence can be effectively decided. We also discuss several related questions.

Let K be an algebraic number field. We investigate the K-rational distance problem and prove that there are infinitely many nonisomorphic cubic number fields and a number field of degree n for every $n\geq 2$ in which there is a point in the plane of a unit square at K-rational distances from the four vertices of the square.

Aigner showed in 1934 that nontrivial quadratic solutions to $x^4 + y^4 = 1$ exist only in $\mathbb Q(\sqrt {-7})$. Following a method of Mordell, we show that nontrivial quadratic solutions to $x^4 + 2^ny^4 = 1$ arise from integer solutions to the equations $X^4 \pm 2^nY^4 = Z^2$ investigated in 1853 by V. A. Lebesgue.

Jeśmanowicz conjectured that $(x,y,z)=(2,2,2)$ is the only positive integer solution of the equation $(*)\; ((\kern1.5pt f^2-g^2)n)^x+(2fgn)^y=((\kern1.5pt f^2+g^2)n)^x$, where n is a positive integer and f, g are positive integers such that $f>g$, $\gcd (\kern1.5pt f,g)=1$ and $f \not \equiv g\pmod 2$. Using Baker’s method, we prove that: (i) if $n>1$, $f \ge 98$ and $g=1$, then $(*)$ has no positive integer solutions $(x,y,z)$ with $x>z>y$; and (ii) if $n>1$, $f=2^rs^2$ and $g=1$, where r, s are positive integers satisfying$(**)\; 2 \nmid s$ and $s<2^{r/2}$, then $(*)$ has no positive integer solutions $(x,y,z)$ with $y>z>x$. Thus, Jeśmanowicz’ conjecture is true if $f=2^rs^2$ and $g=1$, where r, s are positive integers satisfying $(**)$.

We show that the set of natural numbers has an exponential diophantine definition in the rationals. It follows that the corresponding decision problem is undecidable.

We sharpen earlier work of Dabrowski on near-perfect power values of the quartic form $x^{4}-y^{4}$, through appeal to Frey curves of various signatures and related techniques.

Erdös and Zaremba showed that $ \limsup_{n\to \infty} \frac{\Phi(n)}{(\log\log n)^2}=e^\gamma$, γ being Euler’s constant, where $\Phi(n)=\sum_{d|n} \frac{\log d}{d}$.

We extend this result to the function $\Psi(n)= \sum_{d|n} \frac{(\log d )(\log\log d)}{d}$ and some other functions. We show that $ \limsup_{n\to \infty}\, \frac{\Psi(n)}{(\log\log n)^2(\log\log\log n)}\,=\, e^\gamma$. The proof requires a new approach. As an application, we prove that for any $\eta>1$, any finite sequence of reals $\{c_k, k\in K\}$, $\sum_{k,\ell\in K} c_kc_\ell \, \frac{\gcd(k,\ell)^{2}}{k\ell} \le C(\eta) \sum_{\nu\in K} c_\nu^2(\log\log\log \nu)^\eta \Psi(\nu)$, where C(η) depends on η only. This improves a recent result obtained by the author.