We express the number of points on the Dwork hypersurface $X_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}^{d}:x_{1}^{d}+x_{2}^{d}+\cdots +x_{d}^{d}=d\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}x_{1}x_{2}\cdots x_{d}$ over a finite field of order $q\not \equiv 1\,(\text{mod}\,d)$ in terms of McCarthy’s $p$ -adic hypergeometric function for any odd prime $d$ .

We extend the $p$ -adic Gross–Zagier formula of Bertolini et al. [Generalized Heegner cycles and $p$ -adic Rankin $L$ -series, Duke Math. J.162(6) (2013), 1033–1148] to the semistable non-crystalline setting, and combine it with our previous work [Castella, On the $p$ -adic variation of Heegner points, Preprint, 2014, arXiv:1410.6591] to obtain a derivative formula for the specializations of Howard’s big Heegner points [Howard, Variation of Heegner points in Hida families, Invent. Math.167(1) (2007), 91–128] at exceptional primes in the Hida family.

Let $E$ be an elliptic curve without complex multiplication (CM) over a number field $K$ , and let $G_{E}(\ell )$ be the image of the Galois representation induced by the action of the absolute Galois group of  $K$ on the $\ell$ -torsion subgroup of  $E$ . We present two probabilistic algorithms to simultaneously determine $G_{E}(\ell )$ up to local conjugacy for all primes $\ell$ by sampling images of Frobenius elements; one is of Las Vegas type and the other is a Monte Carlo algorithm. They determine $G_{E}(\ell )$ up to one of at most two isomorphic conjugacy classes of subgroups of $\mathbf{GL}_{2}(\mathbf{Z}/\ell \mathbf{Z})$ that have the same semisimplification, each of which occurs for an elliptic curve isogenous to $E$ . Under the GRH, their running times are polynomial in the bit-size $n$ of an integral Weierstrass equation for  $E$ , and for our Monte Carlo algorithm, quasilinear in $n$ . We have applied our algorithms to the non-CM elliptic curves in Cremona’s tables and the Stein–Watkins database, some 140 million curves of conductor up to  $10^{10}$ , thereby obtaining a conjecturally complete list of 63 exceptional Galois images $G_{E}(\ell )$ that arise for $E/\mathbf{Q}$ without CM. Under this conjecture, we determine a complete list of 160 exceptional Galois images $G_{E}(\ell )$ that arise for non-CM elliptic curves over quadratic fields with rational $j$ -invariants. We also give examples of exceptional Galois images that arise for non-CM elliptic curves over quadratic fields only when the $j$ -invariant is irrational.

In this paper we study the Oort conjecture concerning the non-existence of Shimura subvarieties contained generically in the Torelli locus in the Siegel modular variety ${\mathcal{A}}_{g}$. Using the poly-stability of Higgs bundles on curves and the slope inequality of Xiao on fibered surfaces, we show that a Shimura curve $C$ is not contained generically in the Torelli locus if its canonical Higgs bundle contains a unitary Higgs subbundle of rank at least $(4g+2)/5$. From this we prove that a Shimura subvariety of $\mathbf{SU}(n,1)$ type is not contained generically in the Torelli locus when a numerical inequality holds, which involves the genus $g$, the dimension $n+1$, the degree $2d$ of CM field of the Hermitian space, and the type of the symplectic representation defining the Shimura subdatum. A similar result holds for Shimura subvarieties of $\mathbf{SO}(n,2)$ type, defined by spin groups associated to quadratic spaces over a totally real number field of degree at least $6$ subject to some natural constraints of signatures.

We show that, by taking normalizations over certain auxiliary good reduction integral models, one obtains integral models of toroidal and minimal compactifications of PEL-type Shimura varieties which enjoy many features of the good reduction theory studied as in the earlier works of Faltings and Chai’s and the author’s. We treat all PEL-type cases uniformly, with no assumption on the level, ramifications, and residue characteristics involved.

For any number field we calculate the exact proportion of rational numbers which are everywhere locally a norm but not globally a norm from the number field.

The Bogomolov conjecture claims that a closed subvariety containing a dense subset of small points is a special kind of subvariety. In the arithmetic setting over number fields, the Bogomolov conjecture for abelian varieties has already been established as a theorem of Ullmo and Zhang, but in the geometric setting over function fields, it has not yet been solved completely. There are only some partial results known such as the totally degenerate case due to Gubler and our recent work generalizing Gubler’s result. The key in establishing the previous results on the Bogomolov conjecture is the equidistribution method due to Szpiro, Ullmo and Zhang with respect to the canonical measures. In this paper we exhibit the limits of this method, making an important contribution to the geometric version of the conjecture. In fact, by the crucial investigation of the support of the canonical measure on a subvariety, we show that the conjecture in full generality holds if the conjecture holds for abelian varieties which have anywhere good reduction. As a consequence, we establish a partial answer that generalizes our previous result.

We construct regular integral canonical models for Shimura varieties attached to Spin and orthogonal groups at (possibly ramified) primes $p>2$ where the level is not divisible by $p$. We exhibit these models as schemes of ‘relative PEL type’ over integral canonical models of larger Spin Shimura varieties with good reduction at $p$. Work of Vasiu–Zink then shows that the classical Kuga–Satake construction extends over the integral models and that the integral models we construct are canonical in a very precise sense. Our results have applications to the Tate conjecture for K3 surfaces, as well as to Kudla’s program of relating intersection numbers of special cycles on orthogonal Shimura varieties to Fourier coefficients of modular forms.

In this paper, we investigate examples of good and optimal Drinfeld modular towers of function fields. Surprisingly, the optimality of these towers has not been investigated in full detail in the literature. We also give an algorithmic approach for obtaining explicit defining equations for some of these towers and, in particular, give a new explicit example of an optimal tower over a quadratic finite field.

We generalize Siegel’s theorem on integral points on affine curves to integral points of bounded degree, giving a complete characterization of affine curves with infinitely many integral points of degree $d$ or less over some number field. Generalizing Picard’s theorem, we prove an analogous result characterizing complex affine curves admitting a nonconstant holomorphic map from a degree $d$ (or less) analytic cover of $\mathbb{C}$.

A conjecture of Scharaschkin and Skorobogatov states that there is a Brauer–Manin obstruction to the existence of rational points on a smooth geometrically irreducible curve over a number field. In this paper, we verify the Scharaschkin–Skorobogatov conjecture for explicit families of generalized Mordell curves. Our approach uses standard techniques from the Brauer–Manin obstruction and the arithmetic of certain threefolds.

Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$, and let ${\it\varrho}_{\flat }$ and ${\it\varrho}_{\sharp }$ be odd two-dimensional Artin representations for which ${\it\varrho}_{\flat }\otimes {\it\varrho}_{\sharp }$ is self-dual. The progress on modularity achieved in recent decades ensures the existence of normalized eigenforms $f$, $g$, and $h$ of respective weights two, one, and one, giving rise to $E$, ${\it\varrho}_{\flat }$, and ${\it\varrho}_{\sharp }$ via the constructions of Eichler and Shimura, and of Deligne and Serre. This article examines certain $p$-adic iterated integrals attached to the triple $(f,g,h)$, which are $p$-adic avatars of the leading term of the Hasse–Weil–Artin $L$-series $L(E,{\it\varrho}_{\flat }\otimes {\it\varrho}_{\sharp },s)$ when it has a double zero at the centre. A formula is proposed for these iterated integrals, involving the formal group logarithms of global points on $E$—referred to as Starkpoints—which are defined over the number field cut out by ${\it\varrho}_{\flat }\otimes {\it\varrho}_{\sharp }$. This formula can be viewed as an elliptic curve analogue of Stark’s conjecture on units attached to weight-one forms. It is proved when $g$ and $h$ are binary theta series attached to a common imaginary quadratic field in which $p$ splits, by relating the arithmetic quantities that arise in it to elliptic units and Heegner points. Fast algorithms for computing $p$-adic iterated integrals based on Katz expansions of overconvergent modular forms are then exploited to gather numerical evidence in more exotic scenarios, encompassing Mordell–Weil groups over cyclotomic fields, ring class fields of real quadratic fields (a setting which may shed light on the theory of Stark–Heegner points attached to Shintani-type cycles on ${\mathcal{H}}_{p}\times {\mathcal{H}}$), and extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ with Galois group a central extension of the dihedral group $D_{2n}$ or of one of the exceptional subgroups $A_{4}$, $S_{4}$, and $A_{5}$ of $\mathbf{PGL}_{2}(\mathbb{C})$.

We show that there are no non-trivial stratified bundles over a smooth simply connected quasi-projective variety over an algebraic closure of a finite field if the variety admits a normal projective compactification with boundary locus of codimension greater than or equal to $2$.

We describe a model-theoretic setting for the study of Shimura varieties, and study the interaction between model theory and arithmetic geometry in this setting. In particular, we show that the model-theoretic statement of a certain ${\mathcal{L}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{1},\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$ -sentence having a unique model of cardinality $\aleph _{1}$ is equivalent to a condition regarding certain Galois representations associated with Hodge-generic points. We then show that for modular and Shimura curves this ${\mathcal{L}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{1},\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$ -sentence has a unique model in every infinite cardinality. In the process, we prove a new characterisation of the special points on any Shimura variety.

In this paper we establish a Chowla–Selberg formula for abelian CM fields. This is an identity which relates values of a Hilbert modular function at CM points to values of Euler’s gamma function ${\rm\Gamma}$ and an analogous function ${\rm\Gamma}_{2}$ at rational numbers. We combine this identity with work of Colmez to relate the CM values of the Hilbert modular function to Faltings heights of CM abelian varieties. We also give explicit formulas for products of exponentials of Faltings heights, allowing us to study some of their arithmetic properties using the Lang–Rohrlich conjecture.

We solve the Diophantine equation $Y^{2}=X^{3}+k$ for all nonzero integers $k$ with $|k|\leqslant 10^{7}$ . Our approach uses a classical connection between these equations and cubic Thue equations. The latter can be treated algorithmically via lower bounds for linear forms in logarithms in conjunction with lattice-basis reduction.

Consider an elliptic curve defined over an imaginary quadratic field K with good reduction at the primes above p ≥ 5 and with complex multiplication by the full ring of integers of K. In this paper, we construct p-adic analogues of the Eisenstein-Kronecker series for such an elliptic curve as Coleman functions on the elliptic curve. We then prove p-adic analogues of the first and second Kronecker limit formulas by using the distribution relation of the Kronecker theta function.

It is well known that every elliptic curve over the rationals admits a parametrization by means of modular functions. In this short note, we show that only finitely many elliptic curves over $\mathbf{Q}$ can be parametrized by modular units. This answers a question raised by W. Zudilin in a recent work on Mahler measures. Further, we give the list of all elliptic curves $E$ of conductor up to 1000 parametrized by modular units supported in the rational torsion subgroup of $E$. Finally, we raise several open questions.

We prove an analog of the Yomdin–Gromov lemma for $p$-adic definable sets and more broadly in a non-Archimedean definable context. This analog keeps track of piecewise approximation by Taylor polynomials, a nontrivial aspect in the totally disconnected case. We apply this result to bound the number of rational points of bounded height on the transcendental part of $p$-adic subanalytic sets, and to bound the dimension of the set of complex polynomials of bounded degree lying on an algebraic variety defined over $\mathbb{C}(\!(t)\!)$, in analogy to results by Pila and Wilkie, and by Bombieri and Pila, respectively. Along the way we prove, for definable functions in a general context of non-Archimedean geometry, that local Lipschitz continuity implies piecewise global Lipschitz continuity.

We prove that formal Fourier Jacobi expansions of degree two are Siegel modular forms. As a corollary, we deduce modularity of the generating function of special cycles of codimension two, which were defined by Kudla. A second application is the proof of termination of an algorithm to compute Fourier expansions of arbitrary Siegel modular forms of degree two. Combining both results enables us to determine relations of special cycles in the second Chow group.