Congruence subgroups and maximal Riemann surfaces

A global maximal Riemann surface is a surface of constant curvature ?1 with the property that the length of its shortest simple closed geodesic is maximal with respect to all surfaces of the corresponding Teichmüller space. I show that the Riemann surfaces that correspond to the principal congruence subgroups of the modular group are global maximal surfaces. This result provides a strong geometrical reason that the Selberg conjecture, which says that these surfaces have no eigenvalues of the Laplacian in the open interval (0, 1/4), is true.     

The Hodge conjecture for certain moduli varieties

For smooth projective varietiesX over ℂ, the Hodge Conjecture states that every rational Cohomology class of type (p, p) comes from an algebraic cycle. In this paper, we prove the Hodge conjecture for some moduli spaces of vector bundles on compact Riemann surfaces of genus 2 and 3.     

Harmonic maps into loop spaces of compact Lie groups

We study harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces M to the loop spaces ΩG of compact Lie groups G, using the twistor approach. We conjecture that harmonic maps of the Riemann sphere ℂℙ¹ into ΩG are related to Yang-Mills G-fields on ℝ⁴. This work was partly supported by the RFBR (Grant Nos. 04-01-00236, 06-02-04012), by the program of Support of Scientific Schools (Grant No. 1542.2003.1), and by the Scientific Program of RAS “Nonlinear Dynamics”     

A foliated analogue of one- and two-dimensional Arakelov theory

The analogy between number fields and Riemann surfaces was an important source of motivation for mathematicians in the last century. We improve and extend this analogy by substituting Riemann surfaces with certain foliations by Riemann surfaces. In particular we show that coverings of these foliations lead to formulas having the same structure as formulas describing number field extensions. We also study higher dimensional foliations which have properties analogous to arithmetic surfaces. This provides more evidence for a conjecture of Deninger.     

Twists and Gromov hyperbolicity of riemann surfaces

The main aim of this paper is to study whether the Gromov hyperbolicity is preserved under some transformations on Riemann surfaces (with their Poincaré metrics). We prove that quasiconformal maps between Riemann surfaces preserve hyperbolicity; however, we also show that arbitrary twists along simple closed geodesics do not preserve it, in general.     

Compactification of moduli space of harmonic mappings

We introduce the notion of harmonic nodal maps from the stratified Riemann surfaces into any compact Riemannian manifolds and prove that the space of the energy minimizing nodal maps is sequentially compact. We also give an existence result for the energy minimizing nodal maps. As an application, we obtain a general existence theorem for minimal surfaces with arbitrary genus in any compact Riemannian manifolds. Received: 1 April 1997; revised: 15 April 1998.     

Branched covers of the sphere and the prime-degree conjecture

To a branched cover ${\widetilde{\Sigma} \to \Sigma}$ between closed, connected, and orientable surfaces, one associates a branch datum, which consists of Σ and ${\widetilde{\Sigma}}$ , the total degree d, and the partitions of d given by the collections of local degrees over the branching points. This datum must satisfy the Riemann–Hurwitz formula. A candidate surface cover is an abstract branch datum, a priori not coming from a branched cover, but satisfying the Riemann– Hurwitz formula. The old Hurwitz problem asks which candidate surface covers are realizable by branched covers. It is now known that all candidate covers are realizable when Σ has positive genus, but not all are when Σ is the 2-sphere. However, a long-standing conjecture asserts that candidate covers with prime degree are realizable. To a candidate surface cover, one can associate one ${\widetilde {X} \dashrightarrow X}$ between 2-orbifolds, and in Pascali and Petronio (Trans Am Math Soc 361:5885–5920, 2009), we have completely analyzed the candidate surface covers such that either X is bad, spherical, or Euclidean, or both X and ${\widetilde{X}}$ are rigid hyperbolic orbifolds, thus also providing strong supporting evidence for the prime-degree conjecture. In this paper, using a variety of different techniques, we continue this analysis, carrying it out completely for the case where X is hyperbolic and rigid and ${\widetilde{X}}$ has a 2-dimensional Teichmüller space. We find many more realizable and non-realizable candidate covers, providing more support for the prime-degree conjecture.     

Modularity and Total Ellipticity of Some Multiple Series of Hypergeometric Type

We collect some new evidence for the validity of the conjecture that every totally elliptic hypergeometric series is modular invariant and briefly discuss a generalization of such series to Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus.     

On an Archimedean analogue of Tate's conjecture

We consider an Archimedean analogue of Tate's conjecture, and verify the conjecture in the examples of isospectral Riemann surfaces constructed by Vignéras and Sunada. We prove a simple lemma in group theory which lies at the heart of T. Sunada's theorem about isospectral manifolds.     

On a conjecture of Whittaker concerning uniformization of hyperelliptic curves

This article concerns an old conjecture due to E. T. Whittaker, aiming to describe the group uniformizing an arbitrary hyperelliptic Riemann surface as an index two subgroup of the monodromy group of an explicit second order linear differential equation with singularities at the values .

Whittaker and collaborators in the thirties, and R. Rankin some twenty years later, were able to prove the conjecture for several families of hyperelliptic surfaces, characterized by the fact that they admit a large group of symmetries. However, general results of the analytic theory of moduli of Riemann surfaces, developed later, imply that Whittaker's conjecture cannot be true in its full generality.

Recently, numerical computations have shown that Whittaker's prediction is incorrect for random surfaces, and in fact it has been conjectured that it only holds for the known cases of surfaces with a large group of automorphisms.

The main goal of this paper is to prove that having many automorphisms is not a necessary condition for a surface to satisfy Whittaker's conjecture.

     

Period relations for hyperelliptic riemann surfaces

In this paper, we derive an elementary derivation of the Schottky relation for hyperelliptic Riemann surfaces of genus 4. The relation obtained generalizes immediately to hyperelliptic surfaces of genus greater than 4. The derivation is elementary in the sense that it does not require the Schottky-Jung conjecture. The author is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow. Research partially supported by NSF GP. 19572     

Asymptotics of Discrete Painlevé V transcendents via the Riemann–Hilbert Approach

We study a system of discrete Painlevé V equations via the Riemann–Hilbert approach. We begin with an isomonodromy problem for dPV, which admits a discrete Riemann–Hilbert problem formulation. The asymptotics of the discrete Riemann–Hilbert problem is derived via the nonlinear steepest descent method of Deift and Zhou. In the analysis, a parametrix is constructed in terms of specific Painlevé V transcendents. As a result, the asymptotics of the dPV transcendents are represented in terms of the PV transcendents. In the special case, our result confirms a conjecture of Borodin, that the difference Schlesinger equations converge to the differential Schlesinger equations at the solution level.     

Transplantation and Jacobians of Sunada isospectral Riemann surfaces

We consider relations among the Jacobians of isospectral compact Riemann surfaces constructed using Sunada's theorem. We use a simple algebraic formulation of “transplantation” of holomorphic 1-forms and singular 1-cycles to obtain two main results. First, we obtain a geometric proof of a result of Prasad and Rajan that Sunada isospectral Riemann surfaces have isogenous Jacobians. Second, we determine a relationship (weaker than isogeny) that holds among the Jacobians of Sunada isospectral Riemann surfaces when the Jacobians’ extra structure as principally polarized abelian varieties is taken into account. We also show all Sunada isospectral manifolds have isomorphic real cohomology algebras. Finally, we exhibit transplantation of cycles explicitly in a concrete example of a pair of isospectral Riemann surfaces constructed by Brooks and Tse.     

Global estimates and energy identities for elliptic systems with antisymmetric potentials

We derive global estimates in critical scale invariant norms for solutions of elliptic systems with antisymmetric potentials and almost holomorphic Hopf differential in two dimensions. Moreover, we obtain new energy identities in such norms for sequences of solutions of these systems. The results apply to harmonic maps into general target manifolds and surfaces with prescribed mean curvature. In particular, the results confirm a conjecture of Rivière in the two-dimensional setting.     

The exceptional set for the distribution of primes between consecutive powers

A well known conjecture about the distribution of primes asserts that between two consecutive squares there is always at least one prime number. The proof of this conjecture is quite out of reach at present, even under the assumption of the Riemann Hypothesis. This paper is concerned with the distribution of prime numbers between two consecutive powers of integers, as a natural generalization of the afore-mentioned conjecture.      

复环面情形的Suita猜想

对任意复环面的情形证明了推广的Suita猜想,即απK≥c~2(α∈R),其中c是修正后的对数容度,K是对角线上的Bergman核.还阐明了对任意亏格≥2的紧Riemann面情形的公开问题.文中结果的证明部分地依赖于椭圆函数理论.     

The Riemann hypothesis, simple zeros and the asymptotic convergence degree of improper Riemann sums

We characterize the nonreal zeros of the Riemann zeta function and their multiplicities, using the ``asymptotic convergence degree' of ``improper Riemann sums' for elementary improper integrals. The Riemann Hypothesis and the conjecture that all the zeros are simple then have elementary formulations.

     

Witten Solution for the Gelfand–Dikii Hierarchy

We derive formulas making it possible to calculate the Taylor expansion coefficients of the string solution for the Gelfand–Dikii hierarchy. According to the Witten conjecture, these coefficients coincide with the Mumford–Morita–Miller intersection numbers (correlators) of stable cohomology classes for the moduli space of n-spin bundles on Riemann surfaces with punctures.     

The space of harmonic Prym differentials on a variable compact Riemann surface

The harmonic Prym differentials and their period classes play an important role in the modern theory of functions on compact Riemann surfaces [1–7]. We study the harmonic Prym bundle, whose fibers are the spaces of harmonic Prym differentials on variable compact Riemann surfaces and find its connection with Gunning’s cohomological bundle over the Teichmüller space for two important subgroups of the inessential and normalized characters on a compact Riemann surface. We study the periods of holomorphic Prym differentials for essential characters on variable compact Riemann surfaces.     

On the fundamental group of hyperelliptic fibrations and some applications

We prove that for a hyperelliptic fibration on a surface of general type with irreducible fibers over a (possibly) non-complete curve, the image of the fundamental group of a general fiber in the fundamental group of the surface is finite. Examples show that the result is optimal. As a corollary of this result we prove two conjectures; the Shafarevich conjecture on holomorphic convexity for the universal cover of these surfaces, and a conjecture of Nori on the finiteness of the fundamental groups of some surfaces. We also prove a striking general result about the multiplicities of multiple fibers of a hyperelliptic fibration on a smooth, projective surface.