Topology of symplectomorphism groups of rational ruled surfaces

Let be either or the one point blow-up of . In both cases carries a family of symplectic forms , where -1$"> determines the cohomology class . This paper calculates the rational (co)homology of the group of symplectomorphisms of as well as the rational homotopy type of its classifying space . It turns out that each group contains a finite collection , of finite dimensional Lie subgroups that generate its homotopy. We show that these subgroups ``asymptotically commute", i.e. all the higher Whitehead products that they generate vanish as . However, for each fixed there is essentially one nonvanishing product that gives rise to a ``jumping generator" in and to a single relation in the rational cohomology ring . An analog of this generator was also seen by Kronheimer in his study of families of symplectic forms on -manifolds using Seiberg-Witten theory. Our methods involve a close study of the space of -compatible almost complex structures on .

     

The threshold for random -SAT is

Let be a random -CNF formula formed by selecting uniformly and independently out of all possible -clauses on variables. It is well known that if , then is unsatisfiable with probability that tends to 1 as . We prove that if , where , then is satisfiable with probability that tends to 1 as .

Our technique, in fact, yields an explicit lower bound for the random -SAT threshold for every . For our bounds improve all previously known such bounds.

     

Random polynomials with prescribed Newton polytope

The Newton polytope of a polynomial is well known to have a strong impact on its behavior. The Bernstein-Kouchnirenko Theorem asserts that even the number of simultaneous zeros in of a system of polynomials depends on their Newton polytopes. In this article, we show that Newton polytopes also have a strong impact on the distribution of zeros and pointwise norms of polynomials, the basic theme being that Newton polytopes determine allowed and forbidden regions in for these distributions.

Our results are statistical and asymptotic in the degree of the polynomials. We equip the space of polynomials of degree in complex variables with its usual SU-invariant Gaussian probability measure and then consider the conditional measure induced on the subspace of polynomials with fixed Newton polytope . We then determine the asymptotics of the conditional expectation of simultaneous zeros of polynomials with Newton polytope as . When , the unit simplex, it is clear that the expected zero distributions are uniform relative to the Fubini-Study form. For a convex polytope , we show that there is an allowed region on which is asymptotically uniform as the scaling factor . However, the zeros have an exotic distribution in the complementary forbidden region and when (the case of the Bernstein-Kouchnirenko Theorem), the expected percentage of simultaneous zeros in the forbidden region approaches 0 as .

     

Hilbert schemes, polygraphs and the Macdonald positivity conjecture

We study the isospectral Hilbert scheme , defined as the reduced fiber product of with the Hilbert scheme of points in the plane , over the symmetric power . By a theorem of Fogarty, is smooth. We prove that is normal, Cohen-Macaulay and Gorenstein, and hence flat over . We derive two important consequences.

(1) We prove the strong form of the conjecture of Garsia and the author, giving a representation-theoretic interpretation of the Kostka-Macdonald coefficients . This establishes the Macdonald positivity conjecture, namely that .

(2) We show that the Hilbert scheme is isomorphic to the -Hilbert scheme of Nakamura, in such a way that is identified with the universal family over . From this point of view, describes the fiber of a character sheaf at a torus-fixed point of corresponding to .

The proofs rely on a study of certain subspace arrangements , called polygraphs, whose coordinate rings carry geometric information about . The key result is that is a free module over the polynomial ring in one set of coordinates on . This is proven by an intricate inductive argument based on elementary commutative algebra.

     

Conformal restriction: The chordal case

We characterize and describe all random subsets of a given simply connected planar domain (the upper half-plane , say) which satisfy the ``conformal restriction' property, i.e., connects two fixed boundary points ( and , say) and the law of conditioned to remain in a simply connected open subset of is identical to that of , where is a conformal map from onto with and . The construction of this family relies on the stochastic Loewner evolution processes with parameter and on their distortion under conformal maps. We show in particular that SLE is the only random simple curve satisfying conformal restriction and we relate it to the outer boundaries of planar Brownian motion and SLE.     

Universal characteristic factors and Furstenberg averages

Let be an ergodic probability measure-preserving system. For a natural number we consider the averages

where , and are integers. A factor of is characteristic for averaging schemes of length (or -characteristic) if for any nonzero distinct integers , the limiting behavior of the averages in (*) is unaltered if we first project the functions onto the factor. A factor of is a -universal characteristic factor (-u.c.f.) if it is a -characteristic factor, and a factor of any -characteristic factor. We show that there exists a unique -u.c.f., and it has the structure of a -step nilsystem, more specifically an inverse limit of -step nilflows. Using this we show that the averages in (*) converge in . This provides an alternative proof to the one given by Host and Kra.

     

Simple homogeneous models

Geometrical stability theory is a powerful set of model-theoretic tools that can lead to structural results on models of a simple first-order theory. Typical results offer a characterization of the groups definable in a model of the theory. The work is carried out in a universal domain of the theory (a saturated model) in which the Stone space topology on ultrafilters of definable relations is compact. Here we operate in the more general setting of homogeneous models, which typically have noncompact Stone topologies. A structure equipped with a class of finitary relations is strongly -homogeneous if orbits under automorphisms of have finite character in the following sense: Given an ordinal and sequences , from , if and have the same orbit, for all and , then for some automorphism of . In this paper strongly -homogeneous models in which the elements of induce a symmetric and transitive notion of independence with bounded character are studied. This notion of independence, defined using a combinatorial condition called ``dividing', agrees with forking independence when is saturated. A concept central to the development of stability theory for saturated structures, namely parallelism, is also shown to be well-behaved in this setting. These results broaden the scope of the methods of geometrical stability theory.

     

On the equation and application to control of phases

The main result is the following. Let be a bounded Lipschitz domain in , . Then for every with , there exists a solution of the equation div in , satisfying in addition on and the estimate

where depends only on . However one cannot choose depending linearly on .

Our proof is constructive, but nonlinear--which is quite surprising for such an elementary linear PDE. When there is a simpler proof by duality--hence nonconstructive.

     

On a correspondence between cuspidal representations of

Let be an irreducible, automorphic, self-dual, cuspidal representation of , where is the adele ring of a number field . Assume that has a pole at and that . Given a nontrivial character of , we construct a nontrivial space of genuine and globally -generic cusp forms on -the metaplectic cover of . is invariant under right translations, and it contains all irreducible, automorphic, cuspidal (genuine) and -generic representations of , which lift (``functorially, with respect to ") to . We also present a local counterpart. Let be an irreducible, self-dual, supercuspidal representation of , where is a -adic field. Assume that has a pole at . Given a nontrivial character of , we construct an irreducible, supercuspidal (genuine) -generic representation of , such that has a pole at , and we prove that is the unique representation of satisfying these properties.

     

boundedness of discrete singular Radon transforms

We prove that if is a Calderón-Zygmund kernel and is a polynomial of degree with real coefficients, then the discrete singular Radon transform operator

extends to a bounded operator on , . This gives a positive answer to an earlier conjecture of E. M. Stein and S. Wainger.

     

Représentations -adiques et normes universelles I. Le cas cristallin

Let be a crystalline -adic representation of the absolute Galois group of an finite unramified extension of , and let be a lattice of stable by . We prove the following result: Let be the maximal sub-representation of with Hodge-Tate weights strictly positive and . Then, the projective limit of is equal up to torsion to the projective limit of . So its rank over the Iwasawa algebra is .

     

Homological methods for hypergeometric families

We analyze the behavior of the holonomic rank in families of holonomic systems over complex algebraic varieties by providing homological criteria for rank-jumps in this general setting. Then we investigate rank-jump behavior for hypergeometric systems  arising from a integer matrix  and a parameter . To do so we introduce an Euler-Koszul functor for hypergeometric families over  , whose homology generalizes the notion of a hypergeometric system, and we prove a homology isomorphism with our general homological construction above. We show that a parameter is rank-jumping for if and only if lies in the Zariski closure of the set of -graded degrees  where the local cohomology of the semigroup ring supported at its maximal graded ideal  is nonzero. Consequently, has no rank-jumps over  if and only if is Cohen-Macaulay of dimension .

     

Intermediate subfactors with no extra structure

If are type II factors with and we show that restrictions on the standard invariants of the elementary inclusions , , and imply drastic restrictions on the indices and angles between the subfactors. In particular we show that if these standard invariants are trivial and the conditional expectations onto and do not commute, then is or . In the former case is the fixed point algebra for an outer action of on and the angle is , and in the latter case the angle is and an example may be found in the GHJ subfactor family. The techniques of proof rely heavily on planar algebras.

     

Maximal properties of the normalized Cauchy transform

We study the normalized Cauchy transform in the unit disk. Our goal is to find an analog of the classical theorem by M. Riesz for the case of arbitrary weights.

Let be a positive finite measure on the unit circle of the complex plane and . Denote by and the Cauchy integrals of the measures and , respectively. The normalized Cauchy transform is defined as . We prove that is bounded as an operator in for but is unbounded (in general) for 2$">. The associated maximal non-tangential operator is bounded for and has weak type but is unbounded for 2$">.

     

Compatibility of local and global Langlands correspondences

We prove the compatibility of local and global Langlands correspondences for , which was proved up to semisimplification in M. Harris and R. Taylor, The Geometry and Cohomology of Some Simple Shimura Varieties, Ann. of Math. Studies 151, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton-Oxford, 2001. More precisely, for the -dimensional -adic representation of the Galois group of an imaginary CM-field attached to a conjugate self-dual regular algebraic cuspidal automorphic representation of , which is square integrable at some finite place, we show that Frobenius semisimplification of the restriction of to the decomposition group of a place of not dividing corresponds to by the local Langlands correspondence. If is square integrable for some finite place we deduce that is irreducible. We also obtain conditional results in the case .

     

The homotopy theory of fusion systems

We define and characterize a class of -complete spaces which have many of the same properties as the -completions of classifying spaces of finite groups. For example, each such has a Sylow subgroup , maps for a -group are described via homomorphisms , and is isomorphic to a certain ring of ``stable elements' in . These spaces arise as the ``classifying spaces' of certain algebraic objects which we call ``-local finite groups'. Such an object consists of a system of fusion data in , as formalized by L. Puig, extended by some extra information carried in a category which allows rigidification of the fusion data.

     

Global existence for energy critical waves in -d domains

We prove that the defocusing quintic wave equation, with Dirichlet boundary conditions, is globally well posed on for any smooth (compact) domain . The main ingredient in the proof is an spectral projector estimate, obtained recently by Smith and Sogge, combined with a precise study of the boundary value problem.

     

Curvature and injectivity radius estimates for Einstein 4-manifolds

Let denote an Einstein -manifold with Einstein constant, , normalized to satisfy . For , a metric ball, we prove a uniform estimate for the pointwise norm of the curvature tensor on , under the assumption that the -norm of the curvature on is less than a small positive constant, which is independent of , and which in particular, does not depend on a lower bound on the volume of . In case , we prove a lower injectivity radius bound analogous to that which occurs in the theorem of Margulis, for compact manifolds with negative sectional curvature, . These estimates provide key tools in the study of singularity formation for -dimensional Einstein metrics. As one application among others, we give a natural compactification of the moduli space of Einstein metrics with negative Einstein constant on a given .

     

The averaging lemma

Averaging lemmas deduce smoothness of velocity averages, such as

from properties of . A canonical example is that is in the Sobolev space whenever and are in . The present paper shows how techniques from Harmonic Analysis such as maximal functions, wavelet decompositions, and interpolation can be used to prove versions of the averaging lemma. For example, it is shown that implies that is in the Besov space , . Examples are constructed using wavelet decompositions to show that these averaging lemmas are sharp. A deeper analysis of the averaging lemma is made near the endpoint .

     

An uncountable family of nonorbit equivalent actions of

For each , we construct an uncountable family of free ergodic measure preserving actions of the free group on the standard probability space such that any two are nonorbit equivalent (in fact, not even stably orbit equivalent). These actions are all ``rigid' (in the sense of Popa), with the IIfactors mutually nonisomorphic (even nonstably isomorphic) and in the class