We study the fluctuations in the distribution of zeros of zeta functions of a family of hyperelliptic curves defined over a fixed finite field, in the limit of large genus. According to the Riemann hypothesis for curves, the zeros all lie on a circle. Their angles are uniformly distributed, so for a curve of genus g a fixed interval ℐ will contain asymptotically 2g∣ℐ∣ angles as the genus grows. We show that for the variance of number of angles in ℐ is asymptotically (2/π2)log (2g∣ℐ∣) and prove a central limit theorem: the normalized fluctuations are Gaussian. These results continue to hold for shrinking intervals as long as the expected number of angles 2g∣ℐ∣ tends to infinity.

Colmez has given a recipe to associate a smooth modular representation Ω(W) of the Borel subgroup of GL2(Qp) to a -representation W of by using Fontaine’s theory of (φ,Γ)-modules. We compute Ω(W) explicitly and we prove that if W is irreducible and dim (W)=2, then Ω(W) is the restriction to the Borel subgroup of GL2(Qp) of the supersingular representation associated to W by Breuil’s correspondence.

We study the variance of the fluctuations in the number of lattice points in a ball and in a thin spherical shell of large radius centred at a Diophantine point.

We obtain the formula for the twisted harmonic second moment of the L-functions associated with primitive Hecke eigenforms of weight 2. A consequence of our mean-value theorem is reminiscent of recent results of Conrey and Young on the reciprocity formula for the twisted second moment of Dirichlet L-functions.

We prove algebraic transformations for the generating series of three Apéry-like sequences. As application, we provide new binomial representations for the sequences. We also illustrate a method that derives three new series for 1/π from a classical Ramanujan’s series.

The Hausdorff dimension and measure of the set of simultaneously ψ-approximable points lying on integer polynomial curves is obtained for sufficiently small error functions.

Using the polynomial method of Dvir [On the size of Kakeya sets in finite fields. Preprint], we establish optimal estimates for Kakeya sets and Kakeya maximal functions associated to algebraic varieties W over finite fields F. For instance, given an (n−1)-dimensional projective variety W⊂¶n(F), we establish the Kakeya maximal estimate for all functions f:Fn→R and d≥1, where for each w∈W, the supremum is over all irreducible algebraic curves in Fn of degree at most d that pass through w but do not lie in W, and with Cn,W,d depending only on n,d and the degree of W; the special case when W is the hyperplane at infinity in particular establishes the Kakeya maximal function conjecture in finite fields, which in turn strengthens the results of Dvir.

For a number field K and a finite abelian group G, we determine the probabilities of various local completions of a random G-extension of K when extensions are ordered by conductor. In particular, for a fixed prime ℘ of K, we determine the probability that ℘ splits into r primes in a random G-extension of K that is unramified at ℘. We find that these probabilities are nicely behaved and mostly independent. This is in analogy to Chebotarev’s density theorem, which gives the probability that in a fixed extension a random prime of K splits into r primes in the extension. We also give the asymptotics for the number of G-extensions with bounded conductor. In fact, we give a class of extension invariants, including conductor, for which we obtain the same counting and probabilistic results. In contrast, we prove that neither the analogy with the Chebotarev probabilities nor the independence of probabilities holds when extensions are ordered by discriminant.

For each integer n ≥ 2, let β(n) stand for the product of the exponents in the prime factorization of n. Given an arbitrary integer k ≥ 2, let nk be the smallest positive integer n such that β(n + 1) = β(n + 2) = … = β(n + k). We prove that there exist positive constants c1 and c2 such that, for all integers k ≥ 2,

We extend Kemperman's structure theorem by completely characterizing those finite subsets A and B of an arbitrary abelian group with |A + B| = |A| + |B|.

For a natural number n, let λ(n) denote the order of the largest cyclic subgroup of (ℤ/nℤ)*. For a given integer a, let Na(x) denote the number of n ≤ x coprime to a for which a has order λ(n) in (ℤ/nℤ)*. Let R(n) denote the number of elements of (ℤ/nℤ)* with order λ(n). It is natural to compare Na(x) with ∑n≤xR(n)/n. In this paper we show that the average of Na(x) for 1 ≤ a ≤ y is indeed asymptotic to this sum, provided y ≥ exp((2 + ε)(log x log log x)1/2), thus improving a theorem of the first author who had this for y ≥ exp((log x)3/4;). The result is to be compared with a similar theorem of Stephens who considered the case of prime numbers n.

Let AN be an N-point set in the unit square and consider the discrepancy function

where x = (x1, x2) ∈ [0,1;]2, and |[0, x)]| denotes the Lebesgue measure of the rectangle. We give various refinements of a well-known result of Schmidt [Irregularities of distribution. VII. Acta Arith. 21 (1972), 45–50] on the L∞ norm of DN. We show that necessarily

The case of α = ∞ is the Theorem of Schmidt. This estimate is sharp. For the digit-scrambled van der Corput sequence, we have

whenever N = 2n for some positive integer n. This estimate depends upon variants of the Chang–Wilson–Wolff inequality [S.-Y. A. Chang, J. M. Wilson and T. H.Wolff, Some weighted norm inequalities concerning the Schrödinger operators. Comment. Math. Helv.60(2) (1985), 217–246]. We also provide similar estimates for the BMO norm of DN.

Let G be the simple algebraic group Sp(2,2), to be defined over ℚ. It is a non-quasi-split, ℚ-rank-two inner form of the split symplectic group Sp8 of rank four. The cohomology of the space of automorphic forms on G has a natural subspace, which is spanned by classes represented by residues and derivatives of cuspidal Eisenstein series. It is called Eisenstein cohomology. In this paper we give a detailed description of the Eisenstein cohomology HqEis(G,E) of G in the case of regular coefficients E. It is spanned only by holomorphic Eisenstein series. For non-regular coefficients E we really have to detect the poles of our Eisenstein series. Since G is not quasi-split, we are out of the scope of the so-called ‘Langlands–Shahidi method’ (cf. F. Shahidi, On certain L-functions, Amer. J. Math. 103 (1981), 297–355; F. Shahidi, On the Ramanujan conjecture and finiteness of poles for certain L-functions, Ann. of Math. (2) 127 (1988), 547–584). We apply recent results of Grbac in order to find the double poles of Eisenstein series attached to the minimal parabolic P0 of G. Having collected this information, we determine the square-integrable Eisenstein cohomology supported by P0 with respect to arbitrary coefficients and prove a vanishing result. This will exemplify a general theorem we prove in this paper on the distribution of maximally residual Eisenstein cohomology classes.

We show an arithmetic generalization of the recent work of Lazarsfeld–Mustaţǎ which uses Okounkov bodies to study linear series of line bundles. As applications, we derive a log-concavity inequality on volumes of arithmetic line bundles and an arithmetic Fujita approximation theorem for big line bundles.

We prove the parity conjecture for the ranks of p-power Selmer groups (p⁄=2) of a large class of elliptic curves defined over totally real number fields.

Let R(n,θ) denote the number of representations of the natural number n as the sum of four squares, each composed only with primes not exceeding nθ/2. When θ>e−1/3 a lower bound for R(n,θ) of the expected order of magnitude is established, and when θ>365/592, it is shown that R(n,θ)>0 holds for large n. A similar result is obtained for sums of three squares. An asymptotic formula is obtained for the related problem of representing an integer as the sum of two squares and two squares composed of small primes, as above, for any fixed θ>0. This last result is the key to bound R(n,θ) from below.

We study the asymptotical behaviour of the moduli space of morphisms of given anticanonical degree from a rational curve to a split toric variety, when the degree goes to infinity. We obtain in this case a geometric analogue of Manin’s conjecture about rational points of bounded height on varieties defined over a global field. The study is led through a generating series whose coefficients lie in a Grothendieck ring of motives, the motivic height zeta function. In order to establish convergence properties of this function, we use a notion of motivic Euler product. It relies on a construction of Denef and Loeser which associates a virtual motive to a first order logic ring formula.

Let 𝒜={as(mod ns)}ks=0 be a system of residue classes. With the help of cyclotomic fields we obtain a theorem which unifies several previously known results related to the covering multiplicity of 𝒜. In particular, we show that if every integer lies in more than m0=⌊∑ ks=11/ns⌋ members of 𝒜, then for any a=0,1,2,… there are at least subsets I of {1,…,k} with ∑ s∈I1/ns=a/n0. We also characterize when any integer lies in at most m members of 𝒜, where m is a fixed positive integer.

Browkin [‘Some new kinds of pseudoprimes’, Math. Comp. 73 (2004), 1031–1037] gave examples of strong pseudoprimes to many bases which are not Sylow p-pseudoprimes to two bases only, where p=2 or 3. In contrast to Browkin’s examples, Zhang [‘Notes on some new kinds of pseudoprimes’, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), 451–460] gave facts and examples which are unfavorable for Browkin’s observation on detecting compositeness of odd composite numbers. In particular, Zhang gave a Sylowp-pseudoprime (with 27 decimal digits) to the first 6 prime bases for all the first 6 primes p, and conjectured that for any k≥1, there would exist Sylow p-pseudoprimes to the first k prime bases for all the first k primes p. In this paper we tabulate 27 Sylow p-pseudoprimes less than 1036 to the first 7 prime bases for all the first 7 primes p (two of which are Sylow p-pseudoprimes to the first 7 prime bases for all the first 8 primes p). We describe the procedure for finding these numbers. The main tools used in our method are the cubic residue characters and the Chinese remainder theorem.

A number is called upper (lower) flat if its shift by +1 ( −1) is a power of 2 times a squarefree number. If the squarefree number is 1 or a single odd prime then the original number is called upper (lower) thin. Upper flat numbers which are primes arise in the study of multi-perfect numbers. Here we show that the lower or upper flat primes have asymptotic density relative to that of the full set of primes given by twice Artin’s constant, that more than 53% of the primes are both lower and upper flat, and that the series of reciprocals of the lower or the upper thin primes converges.