We develop the metric theory of Diophantine approximation on homogeneous varieties of semisimple algebraic groups and prove results analogous to the classical Khintchine and Jarník theorems. In full generality our results establish simultaneous Diophantine approximation with respect to several completions, and Diophantine approximation over general number fields using $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}S$-algebraic integers. In several important examples, the metric results we obtain are optimal. The proof uses quantitative equidistribution properties of suitable averaging operators, which are derived from spectral bounds in automorphic representations.

We show that there is no stable Siegel modular form that vanishes on every moduli space of curves.

The width of a Lagrangian is the largest capacity of a ball that can be symplectically embedded into the ambient manifold such that the ball intersects the Lagrangian exactly along the real part of the ball. Due to Dimitroglou Rizell, finite width is an obstruction to a Lagrangian admitting an exact Lagrangian cap in the sense of Eliashberg–Murphy. In this paper we introduce a new method for bounding the width of a Lagrangian $Q$ by considering the Lagrangian Floer cohomology of an auxiliary Lagrangian $L$ with respect to a Hamiltonian whose chords correspond to geodesic paths in $Q$. This is formalized as a wrapped version of the Floer–Hofer–Wysocki capacity and we establish an associated energy–capacity inequality with the help of a closed–open map. For any orientable Lagrangian $Q$ admitting a metric of non-positive sectional curvature in a Liouville manifold, we show the width of $Q$ is bounded above by four times its displacement energy.

We construct new indecomposable elements in the higher Chow group $CH^2(A,1)$ of a principally polarized Abelian surface over a $p$-adic local field, which generalize an element constructed by Collino [Griffiths’ infinitesimal invariant and higher K-theory on hyperelliptic Jacobians, J. Algebraic Geom. 6 (1997), 393–415]. These elements are constructed using a generalization, due to Birkenhake and Wilhelm [Humbert surfaces and the Kummer plane, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 355 (2003), 1819–1841 (electronic)], of a classical construction of Humbert. They can be used to prove a non-Archimedean analogue of the Hodge-${\mathcal{D}}$-conjecture – namely, the surjectivity of the boundary map in the localization sequence – in the case where the Abelian surface has good and ordinary reduction.