We prove a necessary and sufficient condition for the graded algebra of automorphic forms on a symmetric domain of type IV being free. From the necessary condition, we derive a classification result. Let $M$ be an even lattice of signature $(2,n)$ splitting two hyperbolic planes. Suppose $\Gamma$ is a subgroup of the integral orthogonal group of $M$ containing the discriminant kernel. It is proved that there are exactly 26 groups $\Gamma$ such that the space of modular forms for $\Gamma$ is a free algebra. Using the sufficient condition, we recover some well-known results.

Our main result is the $\mathbb {\mathcal {C}}^{0}$-rigidity of the area spectrum and the Maslov class of Lagrangian submanifolds. This relies on the existence of punctured pseudoholomorphic disks in cotangent bundles with boundary on the zero section, whose boundaries represent any integral homology class. We discuss further applications of these punctured disks in symplectic geometry.

We construct the first examples of normal subgroups of mapping class groups that are isomorphic to non-free right-angled Artin groups. Our construction also gives normal, non-free right-angled Artin subgroups of other groups, such as braid groups and pure braid groups, as well as many subgroups of the mapping class group, such as the Torelli subgroup. Our work recovers and generalizes the seminal result of Dahmani–Guirardel–Osin, which gives free, purely pseudo-Anosov normal subgroups of mapping class groups. We give two applications of our methods: (1) we produce an explicit proper normal subgroup of the mapping class group that is not contained in any level $m$ congruence subgroup and (2) we produce an explicit example of a pseudo-Anosov mapping class with the property that all of its even powers have free normal closure and its odd powers normally generate the entire mapping class group. The technical theorem at the heart of our work is a new version of the windmill apparatus of Dahmani–Guirardel–Osin, which is tailored to the setting of group actions on the projection complexes of Bestvina–Bromberg–Fujiwara.

We show a rigidity theorem for the Seiberg–Witten invariants mod 2 for families of spin 4-manifolds. A mechanism of this rigidity theorem also gives a family version of 10/8-type inequality. As an application, we prove the existence of non-smoothable topological families of 4-manifolds whose fiber, base space, and total space are smoothable as manifolds. These non-smoothable topological families provide new examples of $4$-manifolds $M$ for which the inclusion maps $\operatorname {Diff}(M) \hookrightarrow \operatorname {Homeo}(M)$ are not weak homotopy equivalences. We shall also give a new series of non-smoothable topological actions on some spin $4$-manifolds.

We introduce irregular constructible sheaves, which are ${\mathbb {C}}$-constructible with coefficients in a finite version of the Novikov ring $\Lambda$ and special gradings. We show that the bounded derived category of cohomologically irregular constructible complexes is equivalent to the bounded derived category of holonomic ${\mathcal {D}}$-modules by a modification of D’Agnolo and Kashiwara's irregular Riemann–Hilbert correspondence. The bounded derived category of cohomologically irregular constructible complexes is equipped with the irregular perverse $t$-structure, which is a straightforward generalization of usual perverse $t$-structure, and we prove that its heart is equivalent to the abelian category of holonomic ${\mathcal {D}}$-modules. We also develop the algebraic version of the theory.

In this note, we will apply the results of Gross–Zagier, Gross–Kohnen–Zagier and their generalizations to give a short proof that the differences of singular moduli are not units. As a consequence, we obtain a result on isogenies between reductions of CM elliptic curves.

In this paper we study the family of elliptic curves $E/{{\mathbb {Q}}}$, having good reduction at $2$ and $3$, and whose $j$-invariants are small. Within this set of elliptic curves, we consider the following two subfamilies: first, the set of elliptic curves $E$ such that the quotient $\Delta (E)/C(E)$ of the discriminant divided by the conductor is squarefree; and second, the set of elliptic curves $E$ such that the Szpiro quotient$\beta _E:=\log |\Delta (E)|/\log (C(E))$ is less than $7/4$. Both these families are conjectured to contain a positive proportion of elliptic curves, when ordered by conductor. Our main results determine asymptotics for both these families, when ordered by conductor. Moreover, we prove that the average size of the $2$-Selmer groups of elliptic curves in the first family, again when these curves are ordered by their conductors, is $3$. The key new ingredients necessary for the proofs are ‘uniformity estimates’, namely upper bounds on the number of elliptic curves with bounded height, whose discriminants are divisible by high powers of primes.

We establish some cohomological bounds in $D$-module theory that are known in the holonomic case and folklore in general. The method rests on a generalization of the $b$-function lemma for non-holonomic $D$-modules.

We construct a complex analytic version of an equivariant cohomology theory which appeared in a paper of Rezk, and which is roughly modelled on the Borel-equivariant cohomology of the double free loop space. The construction is defined on finite, torus-equivariant CW complexes and takes values in coherent holomorphic sheaves over the moduli stack of complex elliptic curves. Our methods involve an inverse limit construction over all finite-dimensional subcomplexes of the double free loop space, following an analogous construction of Kitchloo for single free loop spaces. We show that, for any given complex elliptic curve $\mathcal {C}$, the fiber of our construction over $\mathcal {C}$ is isomorphic to Grojnowski's equivariant elliptic cohomology theory associated to $\mathcal {C}$.

We give the first examples of derived equivalences between varieties defined over non-closed fields where one has a rational point and the other does not. We begin with torsors over Jacobians of curves over $\mathbb {Q}$ and $\mathbb {F}_q(t)$, and conclude with a pair of hyperkähler 4-folds over $\mathbb {Q}$. The latter is independently interesting as a new example of a transcendental Brauer–Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle. The source code for the various computations is supplied as supplementary material with the online version of this article.

In this paper we develop methods for classifying Baker, Richter, and Szymik's Azumaya algebras over a commutative ring spectrum, especially in the largely inaccessible case where the ring is nonconnective. We give obstruction-theoretic tools, constructing and classifying these algebras and their automorphisms with Goerss–Hopkins obstruction theory, and give descent-theoretic tools, applying Lurie's work on $\infty$-categories to show that a finite Galois extension of rings in the sense of Rognes becomes a homotopy fixed-point equivalence on Brauer spaces. For even-periodic ring spectra $E$, we find that the ‘algebraic’ Azumaya algebras whose coefficient ring is projective are governed by the Brauer–Wall group of $\pi _0(E)$, recovering a result of Baker, Richter, and Szymik. This allows us to calculate many examples. For example, we find that the algebraic Azumaya algebras over Lubin–Tate spectra have either four or two Morita equivalence classes, depending on whether the prime is odd or even, that all algebraic Azumaya algebras over the complex K-theory spectrum $KU$ are Morita trivial, and that the group of the Morita classes of algebraic Azumaya algebras over the localization $KU[1/2]$ is $\mathbb {Z}/8\times \mathbb {Z}/2$. Using our descent results and an obstruction theory spectral sequence, we also study Azumaya algebras over the real K-theory spectrum $KO$ which become Morita-trivial $KU$-algebras. We show that there exist exactly two Morita equivalence classes of these. The nontrivial Morita equivalence class is realized by an ‘exotic’ $KO$-algebra with the same coefficient ring as $\mathrm {End}_{KO}(KU)$. This requires a careful analysis of what happens in the homotopy fixed-point spectral sequence for the Picard space of $KU$, previously studied by Mathew and Stojanoska.

We prove a constructive existence theorem for abelian envelopes of non-abelian monoidal categories. This establishes a new tool for the construction of tensor categories. As an example we obtain new proofs for the existence of several universal tensor categories as conjectured by Deligne. Another example constructs interesting tensor categories in positive characteristic via tilting modules for ${\rm SL}_2$.

In quantum geometric Langlands, the Satake equivalence plays a less prominent role than in the classical theory. Gaitsgory and Lurie proposed a conjectural substitute, later termed the fundamental local equivalence. With a few exceptions, we prove this conjecture and its extension to the affine flag variety by using what amount to Soergel module techniques.

In his work on modularity theorems, Wiles proved a numerical criterion for a map of rings $R\to T$ to be an isomorphism of complete intersections. He used this to show that certain deformation rings and Hecke algebras associated to a mod $p$ Galois representation at non-minimal level are isomorphic and complete intersections, provided the same is true at minimal level. In this paper we study Hecke algebras acting on cohomology of Shimura curves arising from maximal orders in indefinite quaternion algebras over the rationals localized at a semistable irreducible mod $p$ Galois representation $\bar {\rho }$. If $\bar {\rho }$ is scalar at some primes dividing the discriminant of the quaternion algebra, then the Hecke algebra is still isomorphic to the deformation ring, but is not a complete intersection, or even Gorenstein, so the Wiles numerical criterion cannot apply. We consider a weight-2 newform $f$ which contributes to the cohomology of the Shimura curve and gives rise to an augmentation $\lambda _f$ of the Hecke algebra. We quantify the failure of the Wiles numerical criterion at $\lambda _f$ by computing the associated Wiles defect purely in terms of the local behavior at primes dividing the discriminant of the global Galois representation $\rho _f$ which $f$ gives rise to by the Eichler–Shimura construction. One of the main tools used in the proof is Taylor–Wiles–Kisin patching.

We observe a fundamental relationship between Steenrod operations and the Artin–Schreier morphism. We use Steenrod's construction, together with some new geometry related to the affine Grassmannian, to prove that the quantum Coulomb branch is a Frobenius-constant quantization. We also demonstrate the corresponding result for the $K$-theoretic version of the quantum Coulomb branch. At the end of the paper, we investigate what our ideas produce on the categorical level. We find that they yield, after a little fiddling, a construction which corresponds, under the geometric Satake equivalence, to the Frobenius twist functor for representations of the Langlands dual group. We also describe the unfiddled answer, conditional on a conjectural ‘modular derived Satake’, and, though it is more complicated to state, it is in our opinion just as neat and even more compelling.

We construct examples of smooth proper rigid-analytic varieties admitting formal models with projective special fibers and violating Hodge symmetry for cohomology in degrees ${\geq }3$. This answers negatively the question raised by Hansen and Li.

Let $G$ be a split connected reductive group over a finite field of characteristic $p > 2$ such that $G_\text {der}$ is absolutely almost simple. We give a geometric construction of perverse $\mathbb {F}_p$-sheaves on the Iwahori affine flag variety of $G$ which are central with respect to the convolution product. We deduce an explicit formula for an isomorphism from the spherical mod $p$ Hecke algebra to the center of the Iwahori mod $p$ Hecke algebra. We also give a formula for the central integral Bernstein elements in the Iwahori mod $p$ Hecke algebra. To accomplish these goals we construct a nearby cycles functor for perverse $\mathbb {F}_p$-sheaves and we use Frobenius splitting techniques to prove some properties of this functor. We also prove that certain equal characteristic analogues of local models of Shimura varieties are strongly $F$-regular, and hence they are $F$-rational and have pseudo-rational singularities.

In this paper we prove a categorification of the Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch theorem. Our result implies in particular a Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch theorem for Toën and Vezzosi's secondary Chern character. As a main application, we establish a comparison between the Toën–Vezzosi Chern character and the classical Chern character, and show that the categorified Chern character recovers the classical de Rham realization.

We study a class of two-variable polynomials called exact polynomials which contains $A$-polynomials of knot complements. The Mahler measure of these polynomials can be computed in terms of a volume function defined on the vanishing set of the polynomial. We prove that the local extrema of the volume function are on the two-dimensional torus and give a closed formula for the Mahler measure in terms of these extremal values. This formula shows that the Mahler measure of an irreducible and exact polynomial divided by $\pi$ is greater than the amplitude of the volume function. We also prove a K-theoretic criterion for a polynomial to be a factor of an $A$-polynomial and give a topological interpretation of its Mahler measure.