This paper solves the rational noncommutative analogue of Hilbert’s 17th problem: if a noncommutative rational function is positive semidefinite on all tuples of Hermitian matrices in its domain, then it is a sum of Hermitian squares of noncommutative rational functions. This result is a generalisation and culmination of earlier positivity certificates for noncommutative polynomials or rational functions without Hermitian singularities. More generally, a rational Positivstellensatz for free spectrahedra is given: a noncommutative rational function is positive semidefinite or undefined at every matricial solution of a linear matrix inequality $L\succeq 0$ if and only if it belongs to the rational quadratic module generated by L. The essential intermediate step toward this Positivstellensatz for functions with singularities is an extension theorem for invertible evaluations of linear matrix pencils.

Shallit and Wang showed that the automatic complexity $A(x)$ satisfies $A(x)\ge n/13$ for almost all $x\in {\{\mathtt {0},\mathtt {1}\}}^n$ . They also stated that Holger Petersen had informed them that the constant $13$ can be reduced to $7$ . Here we show that it can be reduced to $2+\epsilon $ for any $\epsilon>0$ . The result also applies to nondeterministic automatic complexity $A_N(x)$ . In that setting the result is tight inasmuch as $A_N(x)\le n/2+1$ for all x.

We show that the automorphism group of a linking system associated to a saturated fusion system $\mathcal {F}$ depends only on $\mathcal {F}$ as long as the object set of the linking system is $\mathrm {Aut}(\mathcal {F})$ -invariant. This was known to be true for linking systems in Oliver’s definition, but we demonstrate that the result holds also for linking systems in the considerably more general definition introduced previously by the author of this article. A similar result is proved for linking localities, which are group-like structures corresponding to linking systems. Our argument builds on a general lemma about the existence of an extension of a homomorphism between localities. This lemma is also used to reprove a theorem of Chermak showing that there is a natural bijection between the sets of partial normal subgroups of two possibly different linking localities over the same fusion system.

Using the theory of cohomological invariants for algebraic stacks, we compute the Brauer group of the moduli stack of hyperelliptic curves ${\mathcal {H}}_g$ over any field of characteristic $0$. In positive characteristic, we compute the part of the Brauer group whose order is prime to the characteristic of the base field.

Using the calculus of variations, we prove the following structure theorem for noise-stable partitions: a partition of n-dimensional Euclidean space into m disjoint sets of fixed Gaussian volumes that maximise their noise stability must be $(m-1)$-dimensional, if $m-1\leq n$. In particular, the maximum noise stability of a partition of m sets in $\mathbb {R}^{n}$ of fixed Gaussian volumes is constant for all n satisfying $n\geq m-1$. From this result, we obtain:

1. (i) A proof of the plurality is stablest conjecture for three candidate elections, for all correlation parameters $\rho $ satisfying $0<\rho <\rho _{0}$, where $\rho _{0}>0$ is a fixed constant (that does not depend on the dimension n), when each candidate has an equal chance of winning.

2. (ii) A variational proof of Borell’s inequality (corresponding to the case $m=2$).

The structure theorem answers a question of De–Mossel–Neeman and of Ghazi–Kamath–Raghavendra. Item (i) is the first proof of any case of the plurality is stablest conjecture of Khot-Kindler-Mossel-O’Donnell for fixed $\rho $, with the case $\rho \to L1^{-}$ being solved recently. Item (i) is also the first evidence for the optimality of the Frieze–Jerrum semidefinite program for solving MAX-3-CUT, assuming the unique games conjecture. Without the assumption that each candidate has an equal chance of winning in (i), the plurality is stablest conjecture is known to be false.

Let $\mathsf {C}$ be a symmetrisable generalised Cartan matrix. We introduce four different versions of double Bott–Samelson cells for every pair of positive braids in the generalised braid group associated to $\mathsf {C}$ . We prove that the decorated double Bott–Samelson cells are smooth affine varieties, whose coordinate rings are naturally isomorphic to upper cluster algebras.

We explicitly describe the Donaldson–Thomas transformations on double Bott–Samelson cells and prove that they are cluster transformations. As an application, we complete the proof of the Fock–Goncharov duality conjecture in these cases. We discover a periodicity phenomenon of the Donaldson–Thomas transformations on a family of double Bott–Samelson cells. We give a (rather simple) geometric proof of Zamolodchikov’s periodicity conjecture in the cases of $\Delta \square \mathrm {A}_r$ .

When $\mathsf {C}$ is of type $\mathrm {A}$ , the double Bott–Samelson cells are isomorphic to Shende–Treumann–Zaslow’s moduli spaces of microlocal rank-1 constructible sheaves associated to Legendrian links. By counting their $\mathbb {F}_q$ -points we obtain rational functions that are Legendrian link invariants.

We explicitly determine the defining relations of all quantum symmetric pair coideal subalgebras of quantised enveloping algebras of Kac–Moody type. Our methods are based on star products on noncommutative ${\mathbb N}$-graded algebras. The resulting defining relations are expressed in terms of continuous q-Hermite polynomials and a new family of deformed Chebyshev polynomials.

A joint algebraic interpretation of the biorthogonal Askey polynomials on the unit circle and of the orthogonal Jacobi polynomials is offered. It ties their bispectral properties to an algebra called the meta-Jacobi algebra $m\mathfrak {J}$ .

We prove that there is a positive proportion of L-functions associated to cubic characters over $\mathbb F_q[T]$ that do not vanish at the critical point $s=1/2$. This is achieved by computing the first mollified moment using techniques previously developed by the authors in their work on the first moment of cubic L-functions, and by obtaining a sharp upper bound for the second mollified moment, building on work of Lester and Radziwiłł, which in turn develops further ideas from the work of Soundararajan, Harper and Radziwiłł. We work in the non-Kummer setting when $q\equiv 2 \,(\mathrm {mod}\,3)$, but our results could be translated into the Kummer setting when $q\equiv 1\,(\mathrm {mod}\,3)$ as well as into the number-field case (assuming the generalised Riemann hypothesis). Our positive proportion of nonvanishing is explicit, but extremely small, due to the fact that the implied constant in the upper bound for the mollified second moment is very large.

Geometric vertex decomposition and liaison are two frameworks that have been used to produce similar results about similar families of algebraic varieties. In this paper, we establish an explicit connection between these approaches. In particular, we show that each geometrically vertex decomposable ideal is linked by a sequence of elementary G-biliaisons of height $1$ to an ideal of indeterminates and, conversely, that every G-biliaison of a certain type gives rise to a geometric vertex decomposition. As a consequence, we can immediately conclude that several well-known families of ideals are glicci, including Schubert determinantal ideals, defining ideals of varieties of complexes and defining ideals of graded lower bound cluster algebras.

In this article we prove exactness of the homotopy sequence of overconvergent fundamental groups for a smooth and projective morphism in characteristic p. We do so by first proving a corresponding result for rigid analytic varieties in characteristic $0$, following dos Santos [dS15] in the algebraic case. In characteristic p, we then proceed by a series of reductions to the case of a liftable family of curves, where we can apply the rigid analytic result. We then use this to deduce a Lefschetz hyperplane theorem for convergent fundamental groups, as well as a comparison theorem with the étale fundamental group.

Let $\varepsilon> 0$ be sufficiently small and let $0 < \eta < 1/522$ . We show that if X is large enough in terms of $\varepsilon $ , then for any squarefree integer $q \leq X^{196/261-\varepsilon }$ that is $X^{\eta }$ -smooth one can obtain an asymptotic formula with power-saving error term for the number of squarefree integers in an arithmetic progression $a \pmod {q}$ , with $(a,q) = 1$ . In the case of squarefree, smooth moduli this improves upon previous work of Nunes, in which $196/261 = 0.75096\ldots $ was replaced by $25/36 = 0.69\overline {4}$ . This also establishes a level of distribution for a positive density set of moduli that improves upon a result of Hooley. We show more generally that one can break the $X^{3/4}$ -barrier for a density 1 set of $X^{\eta }$ -smooth moduli q (without the squarefree condition).

Our proof appeals to the q-analogue of the van der Corput method of exponential sums, due to Heath-Brown, to reduce the task to estimating correlations of certain Kloosterman-type complete exponential sums modulo prime powers. In the prime case we obtain a power-saving bound via a cohomological treatment of these complete sums, while in the higher prime power case we establish savings of this kind using p-adic methods.

We prove that projective spaces of Lorentzian and real stable polynomials are homeomorphic to Euclidean balls. This solves a conjecture of June Huh and the author. The proof utilises and refines a connection between the symmetric exclusion process in interacting particle systems and the geometry of polynomials.

We establish an upper bound for the ground state energy per unit volume of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit, capturing the correct second-order term, as predicted by the Lee–Huang–Yang formula. This result was first established in [20] by H.-T. Yau and J. Yin. Our proof, which applies to repulsive and compactly supported $V \in L^3 (\mathbb {R}^3)$ , gives better rates and, in our opinion, is substantially simpler.

We prove that the structure group of any Albert algebra over an arbitrary field is R-trivial. This implies the Tits–Weiss conjecture for Albert algebras and the Kneser–Tits conjecture for isotropic groups of type $\mathrm {E}_{7,1}^{78}, \mathrm {E}_{8,2}^{78}$ . As a further corollary, we show that some standard conjectures on the groups of R-equivalence classes in algebraic groups and the norm principle are true for strongly inner forms of type $^1\mathrm {E}_6$ .

We study a natural model of a random $2$-dimensional cubical complex which is a subcomplex of an n-dimensional cube, and where every possible square $2$-face is included independently with probability p. Our main result exhibits a sharp threshold $p=1/2$ for homology vanishing as $n \to \infty $. This is a $2$-dimensional analogue of the Burtin and Erdoős–Spencer theorems characterising the connectivity threshold for random graphs on the $1$-skeleton of the n-dimensional cube.

Our main result can also be seen as a cubical counterpart to the Linial–Meshulam theorem for random $2$-dimensional simplicial complexes. However, the models exhibit strikingly different behaviours. We show that if $p> 1 - \sqrt {1/2} \approx 0.2929$, then with high probability the fundamental group is a free group with one generator for every maximal $1$-dimensional face. As a corollary, homology vanishing and simple connectivity have the same threshold, even in the strong ‘hitting time’ sense. This is in contrast with the simplicial case, where the thresholds are far apart. The proof depends on an iterative algorithm for contracting cycles – we show that with high probability, the algorithm rapidly and dramatically simplifies the fundamental group, converging after only a few steps.

Many natural real-valued functions of closed curves are known to extend continuously to the larger space of geodesic currents. For instance, the extension of length with respect to a fixed hyperbolic metric was a motivating example for the development of geodesic currents. We give a simple criterion on a curve function that guarantees a continuous extension to geodesic currents. The main condition of our criterion is the smoothing property, which has played a role in the study of systoles of translation lengths for Anosov representations. It is easy to see that our criterion is satisfied for almost all known examples of continuous functions on geodesic currents, such as nonpositively curved lengths or stable lengths for surface groups, while also applying to new examples like extremal length. We use this extension to obtain a new curve counting result for extremal length.

Spaces of power series solutions $y(\mathrm {t})$ in one variable $\mathrm {t}$ of systems of polynomial, algebraic, analytic or formal equations $f(\mathrm {t},\mathrm {y})=0$ can be viewed as ‘infinite-dimensional’ varieties over the ground field $\mathbf {k}$ as well as ‘finite-dimensional’ schemes over the power series ring $\mathbf {k}[[\mathrm {t}]]$ . We propose to call these solution spaces arquile varieties, as an enhancement of the concept of arc spaces. It will be proven that arquile varieties admit a natural stratification ${\mathcal Y}=\bigsqcup {\mathcal Y}_d$ , $d\in {\mathbb N}$ , such that each stratum ${\mathcal Y}_d$ is isomorphic to a Cartesian product ${\mathcal Z}_d\times \mathbb A^{\infty }_{\mathbf {k}}$ of a finite-dimensional, possibly singular variety ${\mathcal Z}_d$ over $\mathbf {k}$ with an affine space $\mathbb A^{\infty }_{\mathbf {k}}$ of infinite dimension. This shows that the singularities of the solution space of $f(\mathrm {t},\mathrm {y})=0$ are confined, up to the stratification, to the finite-dimensional part.

Our results are established simultaneously for algebraic, convergent and formal power series, as well as convergent power series with prescribed radius of convergence. The key technical tool is a linearisation theorem, already used implicitly by Greenberg and Artin, showing that analytic maps between power series spaces can be essentially linearised by automorphisms of the source space.

Instead of stratifying arquile varieties, one may alternatively consider formal neighbourhoods of their regular points and reprove with similar methods the Grinberg–Kazhdan–Drinfeld factorisation theorem for arc spaces in the classical setting and in the more general setting.

The space of tensors of metric curvature type on a Euclidean vector space carries a two-parameter family of orthogonally invariant commutative nonassociative multiplications invariant with respect to the symmetric bilinear form determined by the metric. For a particular choice of parameters these algebras recover the polarization of the quadratic map on metric curvature tensors that arises in the work of Hamilton on the Ricci flow. Here these algebras are studied as interesting examples of metrized commutative algebras and in low dimensions they are described concretely in terms of nonstandard commutative multiplications on self-adjoint endomorphisms. The algebra of curvature tensors on a 3-dimensional Euclidean vector space is shown isomorphic to an orthogonally invariant deformation of the standard Jordan product on $3 \times 3$ symmetric matrices. This algebra is characterized up to isomorphism in terms of purely algebraic properties of its idempotents and the spectra of their multiplication operators. On a vector space of dimension at least 4, the subspace of Weyl (Ricci-flat) curvature tensors is a subalgebra for which the multiplication endomorphisms are trace-free and the Killing type trace-form is a multiple of the nondegenerate invariant metric. This subalgebra is simple when the Euclidean vector space has dimension greater than 4. In the presence of a compatible complex structure, the analogous result is obtained for the subalgebra of Kähler Weyl curvature tensors. It is shown that the anti-self-dual Weyl tensors on a 4-dimensional vector space form a simple 5-dimensional ideal isometrically isomorphic to the trace-free part of the Jordan product on trace-free $3 \times 3$ symmetric matrices.

We establish the Bernstein-centre type of results for the category of mod p representations of $\operatorname {\mathrm {GL}}_2 (\mathbb {Q}_p)$ . We treat all the remaining open cases, which occur when p is $2$ or $3$ . Our arguments carry over for all primes p. This allows us to remove the restrictions on the residual representation at p in Lue Pan’s recent proof of the Fontaine–Mazur conjecture for Hodge–Tate representations of $\operatorname {\mathrm {Gal}}(\overline {\mathbb Q}/\mathbb {Q})$ with equal Hodge–Tate weights.