How to do a -descent on an elliptic curve

In this paper, we describe an algorithm that reduces the computation of the (full) -Selmer group of an elliptic curve over a number field to standard number field computations such as determining the (-torsion of) the -class group and a basis of the -units modulo th powers for a suitable set of primes. In particular, we give a result reducing this set of `bad primes' to a very small set, which in many cases only contains the primes above . As of today, this provides a feasible algorithm for performing a full -descent on an elliptic curve over , but the range of our algorithm will certainly be enlarged by future improvements in computational algebraic number theory. When the Galois module structure of is favorable, simplifications are possible and -descents for larger are accessible even today. To demonstrate how the method works, several worked examples are included.

     

Positive laws in fixed points

Let be an elementary abelian group of order at least acting on a finite -group in such a manner that satisfies a positive law of degree for any . It is proved that the entire group satisfies a positive law of degree bounded by a function of and only.

     

Gromov translation algebras over discrete trees are exchange rings

It is shown that the Gromov translation ring of a discrete tree over a von Neumann regular ring is an exchange ring. This provides a new source of exchange rings, including, for example, the algebras of matrices (over a field) of constant bandwidth. An extension of these ideas shows that for all real numbers in the unit interval , the growth algebras (introduced by Hannah and O'Meara in 1993) are exchange rings. Consequently, over a countable field, countable-dimensional exchange algebras can take any prescribed bandwidth dimension in .

     

The cohomology of certain Hopf algebras associated with -groups

We study the cohomology of a locally finite, connected, cocommutative Hopf algebra over . Specifically, we are interested in those algebras for which is generated as an algebra by and . We shall call such algebras semi-Koszul. Given a central extension of Hopf algebras with monogenic and semi-Koszul, we use the Cartan-Eilenberg spectral sequence and algebraic Steenrod operations to determine conditions for to be semi-Koszul. Special attention is given to the case in which is the restricted universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra obtained from the mod- lower central series of a -group. We show that the algebras arising in this way from extensions by of an abelian -group are semi-Koszul. Explicit calculations are carried out for algebras arising from rank 2 -groups, and it is shown that these are all semi-Koszul for .

     

Boundary correspondence of Nevanlinna counting functions for self-maps of the unit disc

Let be a holomorphic self-map of the unit disc . For every , there is a measure on (sometimes called Aleksandrov measure) defined by the Poisson representation . Its singular part measures in a natural way the ``affinity' of for the boundary value . The affinity for values inside is provided by the Nevanlinna counting function of . We introduce a natural measure-valued refinement of and establish that the measures are obtained as boundary values of the refined Nevanlinna counting function . More precisely, we prove that is the weak limit of whenever converges to non-tangentially outside a small exceptional set . We obtain a sharp estimate for the size of in the sense of capacity.

     

Semi-linear homology -spheres and their equivariant inertia groups

This paper introduces an abelian group for all semi-linear homology -spheres, which corresponds to a known abelian group for all semi-linear homotopy -spheres, where is a compact Lie group and is a -representation with 0$">. Then using equivariant surgery techniques, we study the relation between both and when is finite. The main result is that under the conditions that -action is semi-free and with 0$">, the homomorphism defined by is an isomorphism if , and a monomorphism if . This is an equivariant analog of a well-known result in differential topology. Such a result is also applied to the equivariant inertia groups of semi-linear homology -spheres.

     

Asymptotic behavior of the solutions of linear and quasilinear elliptic equations on

We investigate the relationship between the decay at infinity of the right-hand side and solutions of an equation when is a second order elliptic operator on It is shown that when is Fredholm, inherits the type of decay of (for instance, exponential, or power-like). In particular, the generalized eigenfunctions associated with all the Fredholm eigenvalues of isolated or not, decay exponentially. No use is made of spectral theory. The result is next extended when is replaced by a Fredholm quasilinear operator. Various generalizations to other unbounded domains, higher order operators or elliptic systems are possible and briefly alluded to, but not discussed in detail.

     

On restrictions of modular spin representations of symmetric and alternating groups

Let be an algebraically closed field of characteristic and be an almost simple group or a central extension of an almost simple group. An important problem in representation theory is to classify the subgroups of and -modules such that the restriction is irreducible. For example, this problem is a natural part of the program of describing maximal subgroups in finite classical groups. In this paper we investigate the case of the problem where is the Schur's double cover or .

     

Chern numbers of ample vector bundles on toric surfaces

This article shows a number of strong inequalities that hold for the Chern numbers , of any ample vector bundle of rank on a smooth toric projective surface, , whose topological Euler characteristic is . One general lower bound for proven in this article has leading term . Using Bogomolov instability, strong lower bounds for are also given. Using the new inequalities, the exceptions to the lower bounds 4e(S)$"> and e(S)$"> are classified.

     

Analysing finite locally -arc transitive graphs

We present a new approach to analysing finite graphs which admit a vertex intransitive group of automorphisms and are either locally -arc transitive for or -locally primitive. Such graphs are bipartite with the two parts of the bipartition being the orbits of . Given a normal subgroup which is intransitive on both parts of the bipartition, we show that taking quotients with respect to the orbits of preserves both local primitivity and local -arc transitivity and leads us to study graphs where acts faithfully on both orbits and quasiprimitively on at least one. We determine the possible quasiprimitive types for in these two cases and give new constructions of examples for each possible type. The analysis raises several open problems which are discussed in the final section.

     

Non-isotopic symplectic tori in the same homology class

For any pair of integers and , we construct an infinite family of mutually non-isotopic symplectic tori representing the homology class of an elliptic surface , where is the homology class of the fiber. We also show how such families can be non-isotopically and symplectically embedded into a more general class of symplectic -manifolds.

     

Lattice invariants and the center of the generic division ring

Let be a finite group, let be a -lattice, and let be a field of characteristic zero containing primitive roots of 1. Let be the quotient field of the group algebra of the abelian group . It is well known that if is quasi-permutation and -faithful, then is stably equivalent to . Let be the center of the division ring of generic matrices over . Let be the symmetric group on symbols. Let be a prime. We show that there exist a split group extension of by a -elementary group, a -faithful quasi-permutation -lattice , and a one-cocycle in such that is stably isomorphic to . This represents a reduction of the problem since we have a quasi-permutation action; however, the twist introduces a new level of complexity. The second result, which is a consequence of the first, is that, if is algebraically closed, there is a group extension of by an abelian -group such that is stably equivalent to the invariants of the Noether setting .

     

Uniqueness of varieties of minimal degree containing a given scheme

We prove that if has dimension and it is -Buchsbaum with \max{(\operatorname{codim}{X}-k,0)}$">, then is contained in at most one variety of minimal degree and dimension .

     

Symmetrization, symmetric stable processes, and Riesz capacities

Let be a symmetric -stable process killed on exiting an open subset of . We prove a theorem that describes the behavior of its transition probabilities under polarization. We show that this result implies that the probability of hitting a given set in the complement of in the first exit moment from increases when and are polarized. It can also lead to symmetrization theorems for hitting probabilities, Green functions, and Riesz capacities. One such theorem is the following: Among all compact sets in with given volume, the balls have the least -capacity ( ).

     

On the -Minkowski problem

A volume-normalized formulation of the -Minkowski problem is presented. This formulation has the advantage that a solution is possible for all , including the degenerate case where the index is equal to the dimension of the ambient space. A new approach to the -Minkowski problem is presented, which solves the volume-normalized formulation for even data and all .

     

Norms of linear-fractional composition operators

We obtain a representation for the norm of the composition operator on the Hardy space whenever is a linear-fractional mapping of the form . The representation shows that, for such mappings , the norm of always exceeds the essential norm of . Moreover, it shows that a formula obtained by Cowen for the norms of composition operators induced by mappings of the form has no natural generalization that would yield the norms of all linear-fractional composition operators. For rational numbers and , Cowen's formula yields an algebraic number as the norm; we show, e.g., that the norm of is a transcendental number. Our principal results are based on a process that allows us to associate with each non-compact linear-fractional composition operator , for which \Vert C_\phi\Vert _e$">, an equation whose maximum (real) solution is . Our work answers a number of questions in the literature; for example, we settle an issue raised by Cowen and MacCluer concerning co-hyponormality of a certain family of composition operators.

     

An index for gauge-invariant operators and the Dixmier-Douady invariant

Let be a bundle of compact Lie groups acting on a fiber bundle . In this paper we introduce and study gauge-equivariant -theory groups . These groups satisfy the usual properties of the equivariant -theory groups, but also some new phenomena arise due to the topological non-triviality of the bundle . As an application, we define a gauge-equivariant index for a family of elliptic operators invariant with respect to the action of , which, in this approach, is an element of . We then give another definition of the gauge-equivariant index as an element of , the -theory group of the Banach algebra . We prove that and that the two definitions of the gauge-equivariant index are equivalent. The algebra is the algebra of continuous sections of a certain field of -algebras with non-trivial Dixmier-Douady invariant. The gauge-equivariant -theory groups are thus examples of twisted -theory groups, which have recently turned out to be useful in the study of Ramond-Ramond fields.

     

A new variational characterization of -dimensional space forms

A Riemannian manifold is associated with a Schouten -tensor which is a naturally defined Codazzi tensor in case is a locally conformally flat Riemannian manifold. In this paper, we study the Riemannian functional defined on , where is the space of smooth Riemannian metrics on a compact smooth manifold and is the elementary symmetric functions of the eigenvalues of with respect to . We prove that if and a conformally flat metric is a critical point of with , then must have constant sectional curvature. This is a generalization of Gursky and Viaclovsky's very recent theorem that the critical point of with characterized the three-dimensional space forms.

     

Ideals of the cohomology rings of Hilbert schemes and their applications

We study the ideals of the rational cohomology ring of the Hilbert scheme of points on a smooth projective surface . As an application, for a large class of smooth quasi-projective surfaces , we show that every cup product structure constant of is independent of ; moreover, we obtain two sets of ring generators for the cohomology ring .

Similar results are established for the Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomology ring of the symmetric product. In particular, we prove a ring isomorphism between and for a large class of smooth quasi-projective surfaces with numerically trivial canonical class.