Enumerating Rational Curves: The Rational Fibration Method

A new method to approach enumerative questions about rational curves on algebraic varieties is described. The idea is to reduce the counting problems to computations on the Néron-Severi group of a ruled surface. Applications include a short proof of Kontsevich's formula for plane curves and the solution of the analogous problem for the Hirzebruch surface F₃.     

2-Descent on elliptic curves and rational points on certain Kummer surfaces

The first part of this paper further refines the methodology for 2-descents on elliptic curves with rational 2-division points which was introduced in [J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, A.N. Skorobogatov, Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, Hasse principle for pencils of curves of genus one whose Jacobians have rational 2-division points, Invent. Math. 134 (1998) 579-650]. To describe the rest, let E⁽¹⁾ and E⁽²⁾ be elliptic curves, D⁽¹⁾ and D⁽²⁾ their respective 2-coverings, and X be the Kummer surface attached to D⁽¹⁾×D⁽²⁾. In the appendix we study the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of rational points on X. In the second part of the paper, in which we further assume that the two elliptic curves have all their 2-division points rational, we obtain sufficient conditions for X to contain rational points; and we consider how these conditions are related to Brauer-Manin obstructions. This second part depends on the hypothesis that the relevent Tate-Shafarevich group is finite, but it does not require Schinzel's Hypothesis.     

Isoperimetric triangular enclosures with a fixed angle

In this paper, we study four variants of the famous isoperimetric problem. Given a set S of n > 2 points in the plane (in general position), we show how to compute in O(n ²) time, a triangle with maximum (or minimum) area enclosing S among all enclosing triangles with fixed perimeter and one fixed angle. We also show how to compute in O(n ²) time, a triangle with maximum (or minimum) perimeter enclosing S among all enclosing triangles with fixed area and one fixed angle. We also provide an Ω (n log n) lower bound for these problems in the algebraic computation tree model.     

Minimizing Neumann fundamental tones of triangles: An optimal Poincaré inequality

The first nonzero eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian is shown to be minimal for the degenerate acute isosceles triangle, among all triangles of given diameter. Hence an optimal Poincaré inequality for triangles is derived.The proof relies on symmetry of the Neumann fundamental mode for isosceles triangles with aperture less than π/3. Antisymmetry is proved for apertures greater than π/3.     

On a tiling problem of R.B. Eggleton

A tiling of the plane with polygonal tiles is said to be strict if any point common to two tiles is a vertex of both or a vertex of neither. A triangle is said to be rational if its sides have rational length. Recently R.B. Eggleton asked if it is possible to strictly tile the plane with rational triangles using precisely one triangle from each congruence class. In this paper we constructively prove the existence of such a tiling by a suitable modification of the technique suggested by Eggleton. The theory of rational points on elliptic curves, in particular, the Nagell-Lutz theorem, plays a crucial role in completing the proof.     

Cyclic polygons with rational sides and area

We generalise the notion of Heron triangles to rational-sided, cyclic n-gons with rational area using Brahmagupta's formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral and Robbins' formulæ for the area of cyclic pentagons and hexagons. We use approximate techniques to explore rational area n-gons for n greater than six. Finally, we produce a method of generating non-Eulerian rational area cyclic n-gons for even n and conjecturally classify all rational area cyclic n-gons.     

On the number of Mordell–Weil generators for cubic surfaces

Let S be a smooth cubic surface over a field K. It is well-known that new K-rational points may be obtained from old ones by secant and tangent constructions. In this paper we prove, for a cubic surface containing a pair of skew rational lines over a field with at least 13 elements, that the rational points are generated by just one point. We also prove a cubic surface analogue of the unboundedness of ranks conjecture for elliptic curves over the rationals.     

Integral Models of Extremal Rational Elliptic Surfaces

Miranda and Persson classified all extremal rational elliptic surfaces in characteristic zero. We show that each surface in Miranda and Persson's classification has an integral model with good reduction everywhere (except for those of type X ₁₁(j), which is an exceptional case), and that every extremal rational elliptic surface over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p > 0 can be obtained by reducing one of these integral models mod p.     

A finite volume method on general surfaces and its error estimates

In this paper, we study a finite volume method and its error estimates for the numerical solution of some model second order elliptic partial differential equations defined on a smooth surface. The discretization is defined via a surface mesh consisting of piecewise planar triangles and piecewise polygons. The optimal error estimates of the approximate solution are proved in both the H¹ and L² norms which are of first order and second order respectively under mesh regularity assumptions. Some numerical tests are also carried out to experimentally verify our theoretical analysis.     

An axiomatic look at the Erdős-Trost problem

The Erd?s-Trost problem can be formulated in the following way: “If the triangle XY Z is inscribed in the triangle ABC—with X, Y, and Z on the sides BC, CA, and AB, respectively—then one of the areas of the triangles BXZ, CXY , AY Z is less than or equal to the area of the triangle XY Z.” There are many different solutions for this problem. In this note we take up a very elementary proof (due to Szekeres) and deduce that the class of ordered translation planes is the level in the hierarchy of affine planes where the Erd?s-Trost statement still holds true. We also look at the conditions an absolute plane needs to satisfy for the validity of the Erd?s-Trost statement.     

Lines on Fermat surfaces

We prove that the Néron-Severi groups of several complex Fermat surfaces are generated by lines. Specifically, we obtain these new results for all degrees up to 100 that are relatively prime to 6. The proof uses reduction modulo a supersingular prime. The techniques are developed in detail. They can be applied to other surfaces and varieties as well.     

Periodic billiard paths in right triangles are unstable

A stable periodic billiard path in a triangle is a billiard path which persists under small perturbations of the triangle. This article gives a geometric proof that no right triangles have stable periodic billiard paths.      

Monochromatic simplices of any volume

We give a very short proof of the following result of Graham from 1980: For any finite coloring of R^d, d≥2, and for any α>0, there is a monochromatic (d+1)-tuple that spans a simplex of volume α. Our proof also yields new estimates on the number A=A(r) defined as the minimum positive value A such that, in any r-coloring of the grid points Z² of the plane, there is a monochromatic triangle of area exactly A.     

On the resolvent of the Laplacian on functions for degenerating surfaces of finite geometry

We consider families (Yn) of degenerating hyperbolic surfaces. The surfaces are geometrically finite of fixed topological type. Let Zn be the Selberg Zeta function of Yn, and let zn be the contribution of the pinched geodesics to Zn. Extending a result of Wolpert's, we prove that Zn(s)/zn(s) converges to the Zeta function of the limit surface if Re(s)>1/2. The technique is an examination of resolvent of the Laplacian, which is composed from that for elementary surfaces via meromorphic Fredholm theory. The resolvent ⁻¹(Δn−t) is shown to converge for all t∉[1/4,∞). We also use this property to define approximate Eisenstein functions and scattering matrices.     

On a problem of Diophantus for rationals

Let q be a nonzero rational number. We investigate for which q there are infinitely many sets consisting of five nonzero rational numbers such that the product of any two of them plus q is a square of a rational number. We show that there are infinitely many square-free such q and on assuming the Parity Conjecture for the twists of an explicitly given elliptic curve we derive that the density of such q is at least one half. For the proof we consider a related question for polynomials with integral coefficients. We prove that, up to certain admissible transformations, there is precisely one set of non-constant linear polynomials such that the product of any two of them except one combination, plus a given linear polynomial is a perfect square.     

The sequence of generalized median triangles and a new shape function

Starting with a triangle ABC and a real number s, we let AA _s , BB _s , CC _s be the cevians that divide the sides BC, CA, AB, respectively, in the ratio s : 1 ? s, and we let ${\mathcal{H}_s(ABC)}$ be the triangle whose side lengths are equal to those of AA _s , BB _s , CC _s . We investigate the sequence of (the shapes of) triangles ${\mathcal{H}_s^n(ABC)}$ , n = 1, 2, ... by introducing a new shape function that suits this sequence. We also use this shape function to prove a theorem of C. F. Parry concerning automedian triangles.     

Approximation of quadrilaterals by rational quadrilaterals in the plane

Many questions about triangles and quadrilaterals with rational sides, diagonals and areas can be reduced to solving certain diophantine equations. We look at a number of such questions including the question of approximating arbitrary triangles and quadrilaterals by those with rational sides, diagonals and areas. We transform these problems into questions on the existence of infinitely many rational solutions on a two parameter family of quartic curves. This is further transformed to a two parameter family of elliptic curves to deduce our main result concerning density of points on a line which are at a rational distance from three collinear points (Theorem 4). We deduce from this a new proof of density of rational quadrilaterals in the space of all quadrilaterals (Theorem 39). The other main result (Theorem 3) of this article is on the density of rational triangles which is related to analyzing rational points on the unit circle. Interestingly, this enables us to deduce that parallelograms with rational sides and area are dense in the class of all parallelograms. We also give a criterion for density of certain sets in topological spaces using local product structure and prove the density Theorem 6 in the appendix section. An application of this proves the density of rational points as stated in Theorem 31.     

Comments on generalized Heron polynomials and Robbins’ conjectures

Heron’s formula for a triangle gives a polynomial for the square of its area in terms of the lengths of its three sides. There is a very similar formula, due to Brahmagupta, for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral in terms of the lengths of its four sides. (A polygon is cyclic if its vertices lie on a circle.) In both cases if A is the area of the polygon, (4A)² is a polynomial function of the square in the lengths of its edges. David Robbins in [D.P. Robbins, Areas of polygons inscribed in a circle, Discrete Comput. Geom. 12 (2) (1994) 223-236. MR 95g:51027; David P. Robbins, Areas of polygons inscribed in a circle, Amer. Math. Monthly 102 (6) (1995) 523-530. MR 96k:51024] showed that for any cyclic polygon with n edges, (4A)² satisfies a polynomial whose coefficients are themselves polynomials in the edge lengths, and he calculated this polynomial for n=5 and n=6. He conjectured the degree of this polynomial for all n, and recently Igor Pak and Maksym Fedorchuk [Maksym Fedorchuk, Igor Pak, Rigidity and polynomial invariants of convex polytopes, Duke Math. J. 129 (2) (2005) 371-404. MR 2006f:52015] have shown that this conjecture of Robbins is true. Robbins also conjectured that his polynomial is monic, and that was shown in [V.V. Varfolomeev, Inscribed polygons and Heron polynomials (Russian. Russian summary), Mat. Sb. 194 (3) (2003) 3-24. MR 2004d:51014]. A short independent proof will be shown here.     

Periodic reflecting paths in right triangles

A reflecting path in a Jordan curve has the ready physical analogies of a billiards ball bouncing off the cushions of a custom billiards table and of a laser beam reflecting off the mirrored boundary of a thin cavity. What does the curve tell us about the possible reflecting paths? Two types of reflecting paths are of perennial interest — periodic paths and dense paths. In 1927, G. D. Birkhoff applied a theorem of Poincaré to the billiards ball analogy to show that for anyk>1 and anyw<k/2, with (w, k)=1, a smooth convex curve admits at least two periodic reflecting paths ofk reflections per cycle and winding numberw. Unfortunately Birkhoff's proof does not extent to polygons, nor has any other method been found to yield such sweeping results. Various techniques have produced results for polygons-with-angles-commensurable-with-π and for acute triangles. It was not clear whether an arbitrary right triangle admitted periodic paths. Two simple constructions demonstrate the existence of periodic reflecting paths in right triangles. This paper explores these two constructions, focusing on the simplest result: Let β represent the smallest interior angle of some right triangle, and letN=[π/2β]?1. Then each point interior to the shorter leg of the right triangle lies on a unique reflecting path of (4k+2) reflections per cycle for allk=1,2,...,N?1; and each point interior to some subsegment of the shorter leg lies on a unique reflecting path of 4N+2 reflections per cycle.     

Heron triangles with two fixed sides

In this paper, we study the function H(a,b), which associates to every pair of positive integers a and b the number of positive integers c such that the triangle of sides a, b and c is Heron, i.e., it has integral area. In particular, we prove that H(p,q)?5 if p and q are primes, and that H(a,b)=0 for a random choice of positive integers a and b.