We give improved bounds for our theorem in [GW09], which shows that a system of linear forms on $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ with squares that are linearly independent has the expected number of solutions in any linearly uniform subset of $\mathbb{F}_p^n$. While in [GW09] the dependence between the uniformity of the set and the resulting error in the average over the linear system was of tower type, we now obtain a doubly exponential relation between the two parameters.
Instead of the structure theorem for bounded functions due to Green and Tao [GrT08], we use the Hahn-Banach theorem to decompose the function into a quadratically structured plus a quadratically uniform part. This new decomposition makes more efficient use of the $U^3$ inverse theorem [GrT08].
A very useful fact in additive combinatorics is that analytic expressions that can be used to count the number of structures of various kinds in subsets of Abelian groups are robust under quasirandom perturbations, and moreover that quasirandomness can often be measured by means of certain easily described norms, known as uniformity norms. However, determining which uniformity norms work for which structures turns out to be a surprisingly hard question. In [GW09a] and [GW09b, GW09c] we gave a complete answer to this question for groups of the form $G=\mathbb{F}_p^n$, provided $p$ is not too sm…
We prove that the arboreal Galois representation attached to a large class of quadratic polynomials defined over a field of rational functions in characteristic zero has finite index in the full automorphism group of the associated preimage tree. Moreover, we show that the index is bounded, in most cases, independently of the polynomial.
In [GW09a] we conjectured that uniformity of degree $k-1$ is sufficient to control an average over a family of linear forms if and only if the $k$th powers of these linear forms are linearly independent. In this paper we prove this conjecture in $\mathbb{F}_p^n$, provided only that $p$ is sufficiently large. This result represents one of the first applications of the recent inverse theorem for the $U^k$ norm over $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ by Bergelson, Tao and Ziegler [BTZ09,TZ08]. We combine this result with some abstract arguments in order to prove that a bounded function can be expressed as a sum of…
We prove quantitative bounds for the inverse theorem for Gowers uniformity norms $\mathsf{U}^5$ and $\mathsf{U}^6$ in $\mathbb{F}_2^n$. The proof starts from an earlier partial result of Gowers and the author which reduces the inverse problem to a study of algebraic properties of certain multilinear forms. The bulk of the work in this paper is a study of the relationship between the natural actions of $\operatorname{Sym}_4$ and $\operatorname{Sym}_5$ on the space of multilinear forms and the partition rank, using an algebraic version of regularity method. Along the way, we give a positive answ…
We examine correlations of the Möbius function over $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$ with linear or quadratic phases, that is, averages of the form \begin{equation} \label{eq:average} \frac{1}{q^n}\sum_{\text{deg }f<n} μ(f)χ(Q(f)) \end{equation} for an additive character $χ$ over $\mathbb{F}_q$ and a polynomial $Q\in\mathbb{F}_q[x_0,\ldots,x_{n-1}]$ of degree at most 2 in the coefficients $x_0,\ldots, x_{n-1}$ of $f=\sum_{i< n}x_i t^i$. Like in the integers, it is reasonable to expect that, due to the random-like behaviour of $μ$, such sums should exhibit considerable cancellation. In this paper we show that…
Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a fixed finite field, and let $A \subset \mathbb{F}^n$. It is a well-known fact that there is a subspace $V \leq \mathbb{F}^n$, $\mbox{codim} V \ll_δ 1$, and an $x$, such that $A$ is $δ$-uniform when restricted to $x + V$ (that is, all non-trivial Fourier coefficients of $A$ restricted to $x + V$ have magnitude at most $δ$). We show that if $\mathbb{F} = \mathbb{F}_2$ then it is possible to take $x = 0$; that is, $A$ is $δ$-uniform on a subspace $V \leq \mathbb{F}^n$. We give an example to show that this is not necessarily possible when $\mathbb{F} = \mathbb{F}_3$. ADDED Ju…
Since the theorems of Schur and van der Waerden, numerous partition regularity results have been proved for linear equations, but progress has been scarce for non-linear ones, the hardest case being equations in three variables. We prove partition regularity for certain equations involving forms in three variables, showing for example that the equations $16x^2+9y^2=n^2$ and $x^2+y^2-xy=n^2$ are partition regular, where $n$ is allowed to vary freely in $\mathbb{N}$. For each such problem we establish a density analogue that can be formulated in ergodic terms as a recurrence property for actions…
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ such that $\mathrm{End}_{\bar{\mathbb{Q}}}(E)=\mathbb{Z}$ and which admits a non-trivial cyclic $\mathbb{Q}$-isogeny. We prove that, for $p>37$, the residual mod $p$ Galois representation $\barρ_{E,p}:G_{\mathbb{Q}}\rightarrow\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_p)$ is surjective.
Let $G$ be a finite-dimensional vector space over a prime field $\mathbb{F}_p$ with some subspaces $H_1, \dots, H_k$. Let $f \colon G \to \mathbb{C}$ be a function. Generalizing the notion of Gowers uniformity norms, Austin introduced directional Gowers uniformity norms of $f$ over $(H_1, \dots, H_k)$ as \[\|f\|_{\mathsf{U}(H_1, \dots, H_k)}^{2^k} = \mathbb{E}_{x \in G,h_1 \in H_1, \dots, h_k \in H_k} \partial_{h_1} \dots \partial_{h_k} f(x)\] where $\partial_u f(x) \colon= f(x + u) \overline{f(x)}$ is the discrete multiplicative derivative. Suppose that $G$ is a direct sum of subspaces $G = U…
It is well-known that if a subset A of a finite Abelian group G satisfies a quasirandomness property called uniformity of degree k, then it contains roughly the expected number of arithmetic progressions of length k, that is, the number of progressions one would expect in a random subset of G of the same density as A. One is naturally led to ask which degree of uniformity is required of A in order to control the number of solutions to a general system of linear equations. Using so-called "quadratic Fourier analysis", we show that certain linear systems that were previously thought to require q…
For any polynomial $f$ of ${\mathbb F}\_{2^n}[x]$ we introduce the following characteristic of the distribution of its second order derivative,which extends the differential uniformity notion:$$δ^2(f):=\max\_{\substack{α\in {\mathbb F}\_{2^n}^{\ast} ,α' \in {\mathbb F}\_{2^n}^{\ast} ,β\in {\mathbb F}\_{2^n} α\not=α'}} \sharp\{x\in{\mathbb F}\_{2^n} \mid D\_{α,α'}^2f(x)=β\}$$where $D\_{α,α'}^2f(x):=D\_{α'}(D\_αf(x))=f(x)+f(x+α)+f(x+α')+f(x+α+α')$ is the second order derivative.Our purpose is to prove a density theorem relative to this quantity,which is an analogue of a density theorem proved by…
We show that if $E/\mathbb{Q}$ is an elliptic curve without complex multiplication and for which there is a prime $q$ such that the image of $\barρ_{E,q}$ is contained in the normaliser of a split Cartan subgroup of $\rm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_q)$, then $\barρ_{E,p}$ surjects onto $\rm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_p)$ for every prime $p>37$. This result complements a previous result by the author. We also prove analogue results for certain families of $\mathbb{Q}$-curves, building on results of Ellenberg (2004) and Le Fourn (2016).
Suppose we are given a Drinfeld Module $ϕ$ over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ of rank $r$ and a prime ideal $\mathfrak{l}$ of $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$. In this paper, we prove that the reducibility of mod $\mathfrak{l}$ Galois representation $${\rm{Gal}}(\mathbb{F}_q(T)^{\rm{sep}}/\mathbb{F}_q(T))\rightarrow {\rm{Aut}}(ϕ[\mathfrak{l}])\cong {\rm{GL}}_r(\mathbb{F}_\mathfrak{l})$$ gives a bound on the degree of $\mathfrak{l}$ which depends only on the rank $r$ of Drinfeld module $ϕ$ and the minimal degree of place $\mathcal{P}$ where $ϕ$ has good reduction at $\mathcal{P}$. Then, we apply this reducibility bound t…
A linear flow on the torus $\mathbb{R}^d / \mathbb{Z}^d$ is uniformly distributed in the Weyl sense if the direction of the flow has linearly independent coordinates over $\mathbb{Q}$. In this paper we combine Fourier analysis and the subspace theorem of Schmidt to prove bounded error uniformity of linear flows with respect to certain polytopes if, in addition, the coordinates of the direction are all algebraic. In particular, we show that there is no van Aardenne--Ehrenfest type theorem for the mod $1$ discrepancy of continuous curves in any dimension, demonstrating a fundamental difference b…
We provide an explicit infinite family of integers $m$ such that all the polynomials of ${\mathbb F}_{2^n}[x]$ of degree $m$ have maximal differential uniformity for $n$ large enough. We also prove a conjecture of the third author in these cases.
We demonstrate that $$\|μ\|_{U^3([N])} \ll_{A}^{\text{ineff}} \log^{-A}(N)$$ $$\|Λ- Λ_Q\|_{U^3([N])} \ll_{A}^{\text{ineff}} \log^{-A}(N)$$ for any $A > 0$ where $Λ_Q$ is an approximant to the von Mangoldt function and will be defined below, improving upon a bound of Tao-Teräväinen (2021). As a consequence, among other things, we have the following: $$\mathbb{E}_{x, y \in [N], x + 3y \in [N]} Λ(x)Λ(x + y)Λ(x + 2y)Λ(x + 3y) = \mathfrak{S} + O_A(\log^{-A}(N))$$ where $\mathfrak{S}$ is the singular series for the configuration $(x, x + y, x + 2y, x + 3y)$. In fact, we show that $$\|μ- μ_{Siegel}\|…
In this paper we give a conditional improvement to the Elekes-Szabó problem over the rationals, assuming the Uniformity Conjecture. Our main result states that for $F\in \mathbb{Q}[x,y,z]$ belonging to a particular family of polynomials, and any finite sets $A, B, C \subset \mathbb Q$ with $|A|=|B|=|C|=n$, we have \[ |Z(F) \cap (A\times B \times C)| \ll n^{2-\frac{1}{s}}. \] The value of the integer $s$ is dependent on the polynomial $F$, but is always bounded by $s \leq 5$, and so even in the worst applicable case this gives a quantitative improvement on a bound of Raz, Sharir and de Zeeuw (a…
This paper is a part of our programme to generalise the Hardy-Littlewood method to handle systems of linear questions in primes. This programme is laid out in our paper Linear Equations in Primes [LEP], which accompanies this submission. In particular, the results of this paper may be used, together with the machinery of [LEP], to establish an asymptotic for the number of four-term progressions p_1 < p_2 < p_3 < p_4 <= N of primes, and more generally any problem counting prime points inside a ``non-degenerate'' affine lattice of codimension at most 2. The main result of this paper is a proof o…
We generalize Roth's theorem on three term arithmetic progressions to translation invariant quadratic forms in at least 17 variables. We use Fourier-analysis, restriction theory, uniformity norms and Roth's density increment method to show quantitative estimates for subsets of the integers without any non-trivial solutions.
Consider a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ and a decomposition of its indicator function as the sum of two bounded functions $1_A=f_1+f_2$. For every family of linear forms, we find the smallest degree of uniformity $k$ such that assuming that $\|f_2\|_{U^k}$ is sufficiently small, it is possible to discard $f_2$ and replace $1_A$ with $f_1$ in the average over this family of linear forms, affecting it only negligibly. Previously, Gowers and Wolf solved this problem for the case where $f_1$ is a constant function. Furthermore, our main result solves Problem 7.6 in [W. T. Gowers and J. Wolf. Lin…
For mixing~$\mathbb Z^d$-actions generated by commuting automorphisms of a compact abelian group, we investigate the directional uniformity of the rate of periodic point distribution and mixing. When each of these automorphisms has finite entropy, it is shown that directional mixing and directional convergence of the uniform measure supported on periodic points to Haar measure occurs at a uniform rate independent of the direction.
We prove the logarithmic Sarnak conjecture for sequences of subquadratic word growth. In particular, we show that the Liouville function has at least quadratically many sign patterns. We deduce the main theorem from a variant which bounds the correlations between multiplicative functions and sequences with subquadratically many sign patterns which occur with positive logarithmic density. This allows us to actually prove that our multiplicative functions do not locally correlate with sequences of subquadratic word growth. We also prove a conditional result which shows that if the $κ-1$-Fourier …
Nondegenerate quadratic forms over $p$-adic fields are classified by their dimension, discriminant, and Hasse invariant. This paper uses these three invariants, elementary facts about $p$-adic fields and the theory of quadratic forms to determine which types of quadratic spaces -- including degenerate cases -- can be embedded in the Euclidean $p$-adic space $(\mathbb{Q}_{p}^{n},x_{1}^{2}+\cdots+x_{n}^{2})$, and the Lorentzian space $(\mathbb{Q}_{p}^{n},x_{1}^{2}+\cdots+x_{n-1}^{2}+λx_{n}^{2})$, where $\mathbb{Q}_{p}$ is the field of $p$-adic numbers, and $λ$ is a nonsquare in the finite field …
For any odd prime $p,$ we construct an infinite family of pairs of imaginary quadratic fields $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}),\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d+1})$ whose class numbers are both divisible by $p.$ One of our theorems settles Iizuka's conjecture for the case $n=1$ and $p >2.$
We prove results towards classifying the possible torsion subgroups of elliptic curves over quadratic fields $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d})$, where $0<d<100$ is a square-free integer, and obtain a complete classification for 49 out of 60 such fields. Over the remaining 11 quadratic fields, we cannot rule out the possibility of the group $\mathbb{Z}/16\mathbb{Z}$ appearing as a torsion group of an elliptic curve.
In this paper, we evaluate explicitly certain quadratic Hecke Gauss sums of $\mathbb{Q}(ω), ω=\exp \left( \frac {2πi}{3}\right)$. As applications, we study the moments of central values of quadratic Hecke $L$-functions of $\mathbb{Q}(ω)$, and establish quantitative non-vanishing result for the $L$-values. We also establish an one level density result for the low-lying zeros of quadratic Hecke $L$-functions of $\mathbb{Q}(ω)$.
We investigate the class number one problem for a parametric family of real quadratic fields of the form $\mathbb{Q}( \sqrt{m^2+4r})$ for certain positive integers $m$ and $r$.
We solve unconditionally the class number one problem for the $2$-parameter family of real quadratic fields $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d})$ with square-free discriminant $d=(an)^2+4a$ for positive odd integers $a$ and $n$.
We prove that all elliptic curves defined over the cyclotomic $\mathbb{Z}_p$-extension of a real quadratic field are modular under the assumption that the algebraic part of the central value of a twisted $L$-function is a $p$-adic unit. Our result is a generalization of a result of X. Zhang, which is a real quadratic analogue of a result of Thorne.
We determine the minimal number of variables $Γ^*(d, K)$ which guarantees a nontrivial solution for every additive form of degree $d=4$ over the four ramified quadratic extensions $\mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{2}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{10}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{-2}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{-10}) $ of $\mathbb{Q}_2$. In all four fields, we prove that $Γ^*(4,K) = 11$. This is the first example of such a computation for a proper extension of $\mathbb{Q}_p$ where the degree is a power of $p$ greater than $p$.
Let $\mathbb{K}$ be an imaginary quadratic field such that $2$ splits into two primes $\mathfrak{p}$ and $\bar{\mathfrak{p}}$. Let $\mathbb{K}_{\infty}$ be the unique $\mathbb{Z}_2$-extension of $\mathbb{K}$ unramified outside $\mathfrak{p}$. Let $\mathfrak{f}$ be an ideal coprime to $\mathfrak{p}$ and $\mathbb{L}$ be an arbitrary extension of $\mathbb{K}$ contained in the ray class field $\mathbb{K}(\mathfrak{p}^2\mathfrak{f})$. Let $\mathbb{L}_{\infty}=\mathbb{K}_{\infty}\mathbb{L}$ and let $\mathbb{M}$ be the maximal $p$-abelian, $\mathfrak{p}$-ramified extension of $\mathbb{L}_{\infty}$. W…
We determine the minimal number of variables $Γ^*(d, K)$ which guarantees a nontrivial solution for every additive form of degree $d=2m$, $m$ odd, $m \ge 3$ over the six ramified quadratic extensions of $\mathbb{Q}_2$. We prove that if $K$ is one of $\{\mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{2}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{10}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{-2}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{-10})\}$, $Γ^*(d,K) = \frac{3}{2}d$, and if $K$ is one of $\{\mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{-1}), \mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{-5})\}$, $Γ^*(d,K) = d+1$. The case $d=6$ was previously known.
We show that the Vojta (or Hall-Lang) conjecture implies that the arboreal Galois representations in a 1-parameter family of quadratic polynomials are surjective if and only if they surject onto some finite and uniform quotient. As an application, we use the Vojta conjecture, our uniformity theorem over $\mathbb{Q}(t)$, and Hilbert's irreducibility theorem to prove that the prime divisors of many quadratic orbits have density zero.
We study the forward orbit of the critical point for polynomials of the form $f_c=z^2+c$ defined over $\mathbb{Z}_p$. Hubbard trees capture the dynamical behavior for such maps with finite critical orbit in $\mathbb{C}$. We suggest a notion of Hubbard trees in the non-Archimedean setting, and describe the possible structures that arise for polynomials in $\mathbb{Z}_p$. As an example, we take a closer look at the dynamics of $f_c$ for $c\in\mathbb{Z}_3$.
Let $\mathcal{R}=\mathbb{F}_{p}+u\mathbb{F}_{p}+u^2\mathbb{F}_{p}+u^3\mathbb{F}_{p}$ with $u^4=u$ be a finite non-chain ring, where $p$ is a prime congruent to $1$ modulo $3$. In this paper we study $(1-2u^3)$-constacyclic codes over the ring $\mathcal{R}$, their equivalence to cyclic codes and find their Gray images. To illustrate this, examples of $(1-2u^3)$-constacyclic codes of lengths $2^m$ for $p=7$ and of lengths $3^m$ for $p=19$ are given. We also discuss quadratic residue codes over the ring $\mathcal{R}$ and their extensions. A Gray map from $\mathcal{R}$ to $\mathbb{F}_{p}^4$ is def…
For quadratic forms in $4$ variables defined over the rational function field in one variable over $\mathbb C(\!(t)\!)$, the validity of the local-global principle for isotropy with respect to different sets of discrete valuations is examined.
In this paper, we classify, up to three possible exceptions, all monic, post-critically finite quadratic polynomials $f(x)\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ with an iterate reducible module every prime, but all of whose iterates are irreducible over $\mathbb{Q}$. In particular, we obtain infinitely many new examples of the phenomenon studied in \cite{Jones}. While doing this, we also find, up to three possible exceptions, all integers $a$ such that all iterates of the quadratic polynomial $(x+a)^2-a-1$ are irreducible over $\mathbb{Q}$, which answers a question posed in \cite{AyadMcdonald}, except for three v…
It is well known that if $\mathbb{F}$ is a finite field then $\mathbb{F^{*}}$, the set of non zero elements of $\mathbb{F}$, is a cyclic group. In this paper we will assume $\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{F}_{p}$ (the finite field with p elements, p a prime) and $\mathbb{\mathbb{F}}_{p^{2}}$ is a quadratic extension of $\mathbb{F}_{p}$. In this case, the groups $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{*}$ and $\mathbb{F}_{p^{2}}^{*}$ have orders $p-1$ and $p^{2}-1$ respectively. We will provide necessary and sufficient conditions for an element $u\in\mathbb{F}_{p^{2}}^{*}$ to be a generator. Specifically, we will prove $u$ is a …
Let $\mathcal{A}_n$ be the $2$-part of the ideal class group of the $n$-th layer of the cyclotomic $\mathbb{Z}_2$-extension of a real quadratic number field $F$. The cardinality of $\mathcal{A}_n$ is related to the index of cyclotomic units in the full group of units. We present a method to study the latter index. As an application we show that the sequence of the $\mathcal{A}_n$'s stabilizes for the real fields $F=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{f})$ for any integer $0<f<10000$. Equivalently Greenberg's conjecture holds for those fields.
Let $k\geq 3$ and $n\geq 3$ be odd integers, and let $m\geq 0$ be any integer. For a prime number $\ell$, we prove that the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{\ell^{2m}-2k^n})$ is either divisible by $n$ or by a specific divisor of $n$. Applying this result, we construct an infinite family of certain tuples of imaginary quadratic fields of the form $$\left(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}), \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d+1}), \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{4d+1}), \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2d+4}), \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2d+16}), \cdots, \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2d+4^t}) \right)$$ with $d\in \mathbb{Z}$ and $1\leq 4^t\leq 2|d|…
In this paper we establish three results on small-height zeros of quadratic polynomials over $\overline{\mathbb Q}$. For a single quadratic form in $N \geq 2$ variables on a subspace of $\overline{\mathbb Q}^N$, we prove an upper bound on the height of a smallest nontrivial zero outside of an algebraic set under the assumption that such a zero exists. For a system of $k$ quadratic forms on an $L$-dimensional subspace of $\overline{\mathbb Q}^N$, $N \geq L \geq \frac{k(k+1)}{2}+1$, we prove existence of a nontrivial simultaneous small-height zero. For a system of one or two inhomogeneous quadra…
