Several authors have studied homomorphisms from first homology groups of modular curves to $K_2(X)$, with $X$ either a cyclotomic ring or a modular curve. These maps send Manin symbols in the homology groups to Steinberg symbols of cyclotomic or Siegel units. We give a new construction of these maps and a direct proof of their Hecke equivariance, analogous to the construction of Siegel units using the universal elliptic curve. Our main tool is a $1$-cocycle from $\mathrm {GL}_2(\mathbb {Z})$ to the second $K$-group of the function field of a suitable group scheme over $X$, from which the maps of interest arise by specialization.

Inspired by K. Fujita's algebro-geometric result that complex projective space has maximal degree among all K-semistable complex Fano varieties, we conjecture that the height of a K-semistable metrized arithmetic Fano variety $\mathcal {X}$ of relative dimension $n$ is maximal when $\mathcal {X}$ is the projective space over the integers, endowed with the Fubini–Study metric. Our main result establishes the conjecture for the canonical integral model of a toric Fano variety when $n\leq 6$ (the extension to higher dimensions is conditioned on a conjectural ‘gap hypothesis’ for the degree). Translated into toric Kähler geometry, this result yields a sharp lower bound on a toric invariant introduced by Donaldson, defined as the minimum of the toric Mabuchi functional. Furthermore, we reformulate our conjecture as an optimal lower bound on Odaka's modular height. In any dimension $n$ it is shown how to control the height of the canonical toric model $\mathcal {X},$ with respect to the Kähler–Einstein metric, by the degree of $\mathcal {X}$. In a sequel to this paper our height conjecture is established for any projective diagonal Fano hypersurface, by exploiting a more general logarithmic setup.

We study the multifractal properties of the uniform approximation exponent and asymptotic approximation exponent in continued fractions. As a corollary, we calculate the Hausdorff dimension of the uniform Diophantine set

$$ \begin{align*} {\mathcal{U}(\hat{\nu})}= &\ \{x\in[0,1)\colon \text{for all }N\gg1,\text{ there exists }n\in[1,N],\\&\ \ \text{ such that }|T^{n}(x)-y| < |I_{N}(y)|^{\hat{\nu}}\} \end{align*} $$

$y\in [0,1)$

Motivated by the recent work of Zhi-Wei Sun [‘Problems and results on determinants involving Legendre symbols’, Preprint, arXiv:2405.03626], we study some matrices concerning subgroups of finite fields. For example, let $q\equiv 3\pmod 4$ be an odd prime power and let $\phi $ be the unique quadratic multiplicative character of the finite field $\mathbb {F}_q$. If the set $\{s_1,\ldots ,s_{(q-1)/2}\}=\{x^2:\ x\in \mathbb {F}_q\setminus \{0\}\}$, then we prove that

$$ \begin{align*}\det[t+\phi(s_i+s_j)+\phi(s_i-s_j)]_{1\le i,j\le (q-1)/2}=\bigg(\frac{q-1}{2}t-1\bigg)q^{{(q-3)}/{4}}.\end{align*} $$

This confirms a conjecture of Zhi-Wei Sun.

We devise schemes for producing, in the least possible time, p identical objects with n agents that work at differing speeds. This involves halting the process to transfer production across agent types. For the case of two types of agent, we construct schemes based on the Euclidean algorithm that seeks to minimize the number of pauses in production.

We prove a general formula that relates the parity of the Langlands parameter of a conjugate self-dual discrete series representation of $\operatorname { {GL}}_n$ to the parity of its Jacquet-Langlands image. It gives a generalization of a partial result by Mieda concerning the case of invariant $1/n$ and supercuspidal representations. It also gives a variation of the result on the self-dual case by Prasad and Ramakrishnan.

We present a new explicit formula for the determinant that contains superexponentially fewer terms than the usual Leibniz formula. As an immediate corollary of our formula, we show that the tensor rank of the $n \times n$ determinant tensor is no larger than the $n$-th Bell number, which is much smaller than the previously best-known upper bounds when $n \geq 4$. Over fields of non-zero characteristic we obtain even tighter upper bounds, and we also slightly improve the known lower bounds. In particular, we show that the $4 \times 4$ determinant over ${\mathbb{F}}_2$ has tensor rank exactly equal to $12$. Our results also improve upon the best-known upper bound for the Waring rank of the determinant when $n \geq 17$, and lead to a new family of axis-aligned polytopes that tile ${\mathbb{R}}^n$.

A monic polynomial $f(x)\in {\mathbb Z}[x]$ of degree N is called monogenic if $f(x)$ is irreducible over ${\mathbb Q}$ and $\{1,\theta ,\theta ^2,\ldots ,\theta ^{N-1}\}$ is a basis for the ring of integers of ${\mathbb Q}(\theta )$, where $f(\theta )=0$. We prove that there exist exactly three distinct monogenic trinomials of the form $x^4+bx^2+d$ whose Galois group is the cyclic group of order 4. We also show that the situation is quite different when the Galois group is not cyclic.

Let $\mathcal {P}$ be the set of primes and $\pi (x)$ the number of primes not exceeding x. Let $P^+(n)$ be the largest prime factor of n, with the convention $P^+(1)=1$, and $ T_c(x)=\#\{p\le x:p\in \mathcal {P},P^+(p-1)\ge p^c\}. $ Motivated by a conjecture of Chen and Chen [‘On the largest prime factor of shifted primes’, Acta Math. Sin. (Engl. Ser.) 33 (2017), 377–382], we show that for any c with $8/9\le c<1$,

$$ \begin{align*} \limsup_{x\rightarrow\infty}T_c(x)/\pi(x)\le 8(1/c-1), \end{align*} $$

which clearly means that

$$ \begin{align*} \limsup_{x\rightarrow\infty}T_c(x)/\pi(x)\rightarrow 0 \quad \text{as } c\rightarrow 1. \end{align*} $$

We establish some inequalities that arise from truncating Lerch sums and derive uniform asymptotic formulae for the spt-crank of ordinary partitions. The uniform asymptotic formulae improve upon a result of Mao [‘Asymptotic formulas for spt-crank of partitions’, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 460(1) (2018), 121–139].

For any positive integer n, let $\sigma (n)$ be the sum of all positive divisors of n. We prove that for every integer k with $1\leq k\leq 29$ and $(k,30)=1,$

$$ \begin{align*} \sum_{n\leq K}\sigma(30n)>\sum_{n\leq K}\sigma(30n+k) \end{align*} $$

for all $K\in \mathbb {N},$ which gives a positive answer to a problem posed by Pongsriiam [‘Sums of divisors on arithmetic progressions’, Period. Math. Hungar. 88 (2024), 443–460].

Let $p \geq 5$ be a prime number, and let $G = {\mathrm {SL}}_2(\mathbb {Q}_p)$. Let $\Xi = {\mathrm {Spec}}(Z)$ denote the spectrum of the centre Z of the pro-p Iwahori–Hecke algebra of G with coefficients in a field k of characteristic p. Let $\mathcal {R} \subset \Xi \times \Xi $ denote the support of the pro-p Iwahori ${\mathrm {Ext}}$-algebra of G, viewed as a $(Z,Z)$-bimodule. We show that the locally ringed space $\Xi /\mathcal {R}$ is a projective algebraic curve over ${\mathrm {Spec}}(k)$ with two connected components and that each connected component is a chain of projective lines. For each Zariski open subset U of $\Xi /\mathcal {R}$, we construct a stable localising subcategory $\mathcal {L}_U$ of the category of smooth k-linear representations of G.

For a connected reductive group G over a nonarchimedean local field F of positive characteristic, Genestier-Lafforgue and Fargues-Scholze have attached a semisimple parameter ${\mathcal {L}}^{ss}(\pi )$ to each irreducible representation $\pi $. Our first result shows that the Genestier-Lafforgue parameter of a tempered $\pi $ can be uniquely refined to a tempered L-parameter ${\mathcal {L}}(\pi )$, thus giving the unique local Langlands correspondence which is compatible with the Genestier-Lafforgue construction. Our second result establishes ramification properties of ${\mathcal {L}}^{ss}(\pi )$ for unramified G and supercuspidal $\pi $ constructed by induction from an open compact (modulo center) subgroup. If ${\mathcal {L}}^{ss}(\pi )$ is pure in an appropriate sense, we show that ${\mathcal {L}}^{ss}(\pi )$ is ramified (unless G is a torus). If the inducing subgroup is sufficiently small in a precise sense, we show $\mathcal {L}^{ss}(\pi )$ is wildly ramified. The proofs are via global arguments, involving the construction of Poincaré series with strict control on ramification when the base curve is ${\mathbb {P}}^1$ and a simple application of Deligne’s Weil II.

We study the growth of the local $L^2$-norms of the unitary Eisenstein series for reductive groups over number fields, in terms of their parameters. We derive a poly-logarithmic bound on an average, for a large class of reductive groups. The method is based on Arthur’s development of the spectral side of the trace formula, and ideas of Finis, Lapid and Müller.

As applications of our method, we prove the optimal lifting property for $\mathrm {SL}_n(\mathbb {Z}/q\mathbb {Z})$ for square-free q, as well as the Sarnak–Xue [52] counting property for the principal congruence subgroup of $\mathrm {SL}_n(\mathbb {Z})$ of square-free level. This makes the recent results of Assing–Blomer [8] unconditional.

We investigate the joint distribution of L-functions on the line $ \sigma= {1}/{2} + {1}/{G(T)}$ and $ t \in [ T, 2T]$, where $ \log \log T \leq G(T) \leq { \log T}/{ ( \log \log T)^2 } $. We obtain an upper bound on the discrepancy between the joint distribution of L-functions and that of their random models. As an application we prove an asymptotic expansion of a multi-dimensional version of Selberg’s central limit theorem for L-functions on $ \sigma= 1/2 + 1/{G(T)}$ and $ t \in [ T, 2T]$, where $ ( \log T)^\varepsilon \leq G(T) \leq { \log T}/{ ( \log \log T)^{2+\varepsilon } } $ for $ \varepsilon > 0$.

Let $G$ be a split semisimple group over a global function field $K$. Given a cuspidal automorphic representation $\Pi$ of $G$ satisfying a technical hypothesis, we prove that for almost all primes $\ell$, there is a cyclic base change lifting of $\Pi$ along any $\mathbb {Z}/\ell \mathbb {Z}$-extension of $K$. Our proof does not rely on any trace formulas; instead it is based on using modularity lifting theorems, together with a Smith theory argument, to obtain base change for residual representations. As an application, we also prove that for any split semisimple group $G$ over a local function field $F$, and almost all primes $\ell$, any irreducible admissible representation of $G(F)$ admits a base change along any $\mathbb {Z}/\ell \mathbb {Z}$-extension of $F$. Finally, we characterize local base change more explicitly for a class of toral representations considered in work of Chan and Oi.

We investigate the Gross–Prasad conjecture and its refinement for the Bessel periods in the case of $(\mathrm {SO}(5), \mathrm {SO}(2))$. In particular, by combining several theta correspondences, we prove the Ichino–Ikeda-type formula for any tempered irreducible cuspidal automorphic representation. As a corollary of our formula, we prove an explicit formula relating certain weighted averages of Fourier coefficients of holomorphic Siegel cusp forms of degree two, which are Hecke eigenforms, to central special values of $L$-functions. The formula is regarded as a natural generalization of the Böcherer conjecture to the non-trivial toroidal character case.

For $g \geqslant 2$, we show that the number of positive integers at most X which can be written as sum of two base g palindromes is at most ${X}/{\log^c X}$. This answers a question of Baxter, Cilleruelo and Luca.

We establish a q-analogue of a supercongruence related to a supercongruence of Rodriguez-Villegas, which extends a q-congruence of Guo and Zeng [‘Some q-analogues of supercongruences of Rodriguez-Villegas’, J. Number Theory 145 (2014), 301–316]. The important ingredients in the proof include Andrews’ $_4\phi _3$ terminating identity.

Let $k\geq 4$ be an integer. We prove that the set $\mathcal {O}$ of all nonzero generalised octagonal numbers is a k-additive uniqueness set for the set of multiplicative functions. That is, if a multiplicative function $f_k$ satisfies the condition

$$ \begin{align*} f_k(x_1+x_2+\cdots+x_k)=f_k(x_1)+f_k(x_2)+\cdots+f_k(x_k) \end{align*} $$

for arbitrary $x_1,\ldots ,x_k\in \mathcal {O}$, then $f_k$ is the identity function $f_k(n)=n$ for all $n\in \mathbb {N}$. We also show that $f_2$ and $f_3$ are not determined uniquely.