Title: An inhomogeneous Khintchine-Groshev Theorem without monotonicity

Speaker: Demi Allen (University of Warwick)

Time: 17 December, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: The classical (inhomogeneous) Khintchine-Groshev Theorem tells us that for a monotonic approximating function $\psi: \mathbb{N} \to [0,\infty)$ the Lebesgue measure of the set of (inhomogeneously) $\psi$-well-approximable points in $\mathbb{R}^{nm}$ is zero or full depending on, respectively, the convergence or divergence of $\sum_{q=1}^{\infty}{q^{n-1}\psi(q)^m}$. In the homogeneous case, it is now known that the monotonicity condition on $\psi$ can be removed whenever $nm>1$, and cannot be removed when $nm=1$. In this talk I will discuss recent work with Felipe A. Ramírez (Wesleyan, US) in which we show that the inhomogeneous Khintchine-Groshev Theorem is true without the monotonicity assumption on $\psi$ whenever $nm>2$. This result brings the inhomogeneous theory almost in line with the completed homogeneous theory. I will survey previous results towards removing monotonicity from the homogeneous and inhomogeneous Khintchine-Groshev Theorem before discussing the main ideas behind the proof our recent result.

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Title: Higher moment formulas for Siegel transforms and applications to limit distributions of functions of counting lattice points

Speaker: Jiyoung Han(Tata Institute)

Time: 3 December, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: The Siegel transform is one of the main tools when we consider problems related to counting lattice points using homogeneous dynamics. It is revealed by many mathematicians that Siegel’s integral formula and Rogers’ second moment formula are very useful to solve various quantitative and effective variants of classical problems in the geometry of numbers, such as the Gauss circle problem (generalized to convex sets) and Oppenheim conjecture. Furthermore, Rogers’ higher moment formulas, together with the method of moments, give us information about limit distributions related to these problems. In this talk, we revisit Rogers’ higher moment formulas with a new approach, and introduce higher moment formulas for Siegel transforms on the space of affine unimodular lattices and the space of unimodular lattices with a congruence condition. Using these formulas, we obtain the results of limit distributions, which are generalizations of the work of Rogers (1956), Södergren (2011), and Strömbergsson... Full Information

Title: Invariants of Diophantine Approximation

Speaker: Yitwah Cheung (Tsinghua University)

Time: 19 November, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: There is a natural generalization of the concept of convergents of the continued fraction to higher dimensions that does not involve any specific choice of norm. In this talk, I will motivate this concept from several different angles, within the framework of staircases, which is a rectilinear version of Kleinian sails. I will describe some results about dual convergents and illustrate the method of our approach towards constructing slowly unbounded A-orbits by sketching the proof of dichotomy of Hausdorff dimension phenomenon obtained in joint work with P. Hubert and H. Masur.

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Title: Shrinking target and horocycle equidistribution

Speaker: Jimmy Tseng (Exeter)

Time: 5 November, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: Consider a shrinking neighborhood of a cusp of the unit tangent bundle of a noncompact hyperbolic surface of finite area.  We discuss how a closed horocycle whose length goes to infinity can become equidistributed on this shrinking neighborhood, giving a sharp criterion in a natural case. This setup is closely related to number theory, and, as an example, our method yields a number-theoretic identity. 

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Title: Products of linear forms and distribution of translated measures

Speaker: Alex Gorodnik (University of Zurich)

Time: 22 October, 2021 14:00 UTC

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Abstract: We explore the behaviour of the counting function which represents the number of solutions of a multiplicative Diophantine problem. The argument is based on analysis of measures translated under a group action on homogeneous spaces. Ultimately we explain how estimates on correlations of translated measures lead to a quantitative asymptotic formula for the counting function. This is a joint work with Björklund and Fregolli.

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Title: Simultaneous rational approximation to successive powers of a real number

Speaker: Anthony Poels and Damien Roy (University of Ottawa)

Time: 8 October, 2021 14:00 UTC

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Abstract: Let $\xi\in\mathbb{R}\setminus\bar{\mathbb{Q}}$ be a real transcendental number and let $n$ be a positive integer. By pioneer work of Davenport and Schmidt from 1969, we know that the exponent $\tau_{n+1}(\xi)$ of best approximation to $\xi$ by algebraic integers of degree at most $n+1$ is at least equal to $1+1/\lambda_n(\xi)$, where $\lambda_n(\xi)$ stands for the uniform exponent of rational approximation to the successive powers $1,\xi,\dots,\xi^n$ of $\xi$. So any upper bound on $\lambda_n(\xi)$ which holds for any $\xi\in\mathbb{R}\setminus\bar{\mathbb{Q}}$ provides a lower bound on $\tau_{n+1}(\xi)$ which is also independent of $\xi$. In this talk, we present new tools which yield, for each integer $n\ge 4$, a significantly improved upper bound on $\lambda_n(\xi)$ and thus a refined lower bound on $\tau_{n+1}(\xi)$. The new lower bound is $n/2+a\sqrt{n}+4/3$ with $a=(1-\log(2))/2\simeq 0.153$, instead of the current $n/2+\mathcal{O}(1)$.

As usual, the starting point is the sequence of so-called minimal points $x_1,x_2,x_3,\dots$ in $\mathbb{Z}^{n+1}$ defined initially by... Full Information

Title: On the abc Conjecture in Algebraic Number Fields

Speaker: Andrew Scoones (University of York)

Time: 26 May, 2021 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: While the abc Conjecture remains open, much work has been done on weaker versions, and on generalising the conjecture to number fields. Stewart and Yu were able to give an exponential bound for $\max{a, b, c}$ in terms of the radical over the integers, while Györy was able to give an exponential bound for the projective height $H(a, b, c)$ in terms of the radical for algebraic integers. We generalise Stewart and Yu’s method to give an improvement on Györy’s bound for algebraic integers.

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Title: When can we find a simple description of the divergence of trajectories?

Speaker: Nattalie Tamam (UC San Diego)

Time: 19 May, 2021 15:30 UTC

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Abstract: It is well known that the only singular numbers are rational numbers. Dani’s correspondence ties this property to a simple algebraic description of divergent trajectories in $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ under the action of the diagonal group. Similar principles can be utilised to define obvious divergent trajectories in a more general setting. We will discuss the existence of non-obvious divergent trajectories under the action of different diagonal subgroups, and the diophantine meaning of their existence (or lack thereof). This is a joint work with Omri Nisan Solan.

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Title: Density of rational points near/on compact manifolds with certain curvature conditions

Speaker: Damaris Schindler (University of Göttingen)

Time: 12 May, 2021 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: In this talk I will discuss joint work with Shuntaro Yamagishi where we establish an asymptotic formula for the number of rational points, with bounded denominators, within a given distance to a compact submanifold $M$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with a certain curvature condition. Technically we build on work of Huang on the density of rational points near hypersurfaces. One of our goals is to explore generalisations to higher codimension. In particular we show that assuming certain curvature conditions in codimension at least two, leads to upper bounds for the number of rational points on M which are even stronger than what would be predicted by the analogue of Serre’s dimension growth conjecture.

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Title: Linear repetitivity in polytopal cut and project sets

Speaker: Henna Koivusalo (University of Bristol)

Time: 5 May, 2021 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: Cut and project sets are aperiodic point patterns obtained by projecting an irrational slice of the integer lattice to a subspace. One way of classifying aperiodic sets is to study the number and repetition of finite patterns. From this perspective, sets with patterns repeating linearly often, called linearly repetitive sets, can be viewed as the most ordered aperiodic sets. Repetitivity of a cut and project set depends on the slope and shape of the irrational slice. The cross-section of the slice is known as the window. In earlier works, joint with subsets of {Haynes, Julien, Sadun, Walton}, we showed that many properties of cut and project sets with a cube window can be studied in the language of Diophantine approximation. For example, linear repetitivity holds if and only if the following two conditions are satisfied: (i) the cut and project set has minimal number of different finite patterns (minimal... Full Information

Title: Generalization of Selberg's 3⁄16 theorem for convex cocompact thin subgroups of SO(n, 1)

Speaker: Pratyush Sarkar (Yale University)

Time: 28 April, 2021 13:30 UTC

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Abstract:v Selberg’s 3/16 theorem for congruence covers of the modular surface is a beautiful theorem which has a natural dynamical interpretation as uniform exponential mixing. Bourgain-Gamburd-Sarnak’s breakthrough works initiated many recent developments to generalize Selberg’s theorem for infinite volume hyperbolic manifolds. One such result is by Oh-Winter establishing uniform exponential mixing for convex cocompact hyperbolic surfaces. These are not only interesting in and of itself but can also be used for a wide range of applications including uniform resonance free regions for the resolvent of the Laplacian, affine sieve, and prime geodesic theorems. I will present a further generalization to higher dimensions and some of these immediate consequences.

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Title: Random matrix products and self-projective sets

Speaker: Natalia Jurga (University of St Andrews)

Time: 21 April, 2021 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: A finite set of matrices $A \subset \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ acts on one-dimensional real projective space $\mathbb{P}^1$ through its linear action on $\mathbb{R}^2$. In this talk we will be interested in the smallest closed subset of $\mathbb{P}^1$ which contains all attracting and neutral fixed points of matrices in $A$ and which is invariant under the projective action of $A$. Recently, Solomyak and Takahashi proved that if $A$ is uniformly hyperbolic and satisfies a Diophantine property, then the invariant set has Hausdorff dimension equal to the minimum of 1 and the critical exponent. In this talk we will discuss an extension of their result beyond the uniformly hyperbolic setting. This is based on joint work with Argyrios Christodoulou.

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Title: Divergent trajectories on products of homogenous spaces

Speaker: Lifan Guan (Gottingen)

Time: 14 April, 2021 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: Thanks to Dani correspondence, it is now well-known that the set of singular vectors is closely related to the set of points with divergent trajectories in certain homogeneous dynamical systems. Since Yitwah Cheung’s breakthrough work on the Hausdorff dimension of the set of 2-dim singular vectors, there have been lots of progress in singular vectors and divergent trajectories in the so-called “unweighted” cases. Otherwise, our understanding is quite limited. In this talk, I will mainly discuss the dimension formula for the set of divergent trajectories in products of “unweighted” homogeneous dynamical systems. This is a joint work with Jinpeng An, Antoine Marnat and Ronggang Shi.

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Title: Orbit closures of unipotent flows for hyperbolic manifolds with Fuchsian ends

Speaker: Minju Lee (Yale University)

Time: 17 March, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract : This is joint work with Hee Oh. We establish an analogue of Ratner’s orbit closure theorem for any connected closed subgroup generated by unipotent elements in $\mathrm{SO}(d,1)$ acting on the space $\Gamma\backslash\mathrm{SO}(d,1)$, assuming that the associated hyperbolic manifold $M=\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{H}^d$ is a convex cocompact manifold with Fuchsian ends. For $d = 3$, this was proved earlier by McMullen, Mohammadi and Oh. In a higher dimensional case, the possibility of accumulation on closed orbits of intermediate subgroups causes serious issues, but in the end, all orbit closures of unipotent flows are relatively homogeneous. Our results imply the following: for any $k\geq 1$,

(1) the closure of any $k$-horosphere in $M$ is a properly immersed submanifold;

(2) the closure of any geodesic $(k+1)$-plane in $M$ is a properly immersed submanifold;

(3) an infinite sequence of maximal properly immersed geodesic $(k+1)$-planes intersecting $\mathrm{core} M$ becomes dense in $M$.

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Title: Beyond Furstenberg's intersection conjecture

Speaker: Pablo Shmerkin (Torcuato Di Tella University)

Time: 10 March, 2021 16:30 UTC

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Abstract: Hillel Furstenberg conjectured in the 1960s that the intersections of closed $\times 2$ and $\times 3$-invariant Cantor sets have “small” Hausdorff dimension. This conjecture was proved independently by Meng Wu and by myself; recently, Tim Austin found a simple proof. I will present some generalizations of the intersection conjecture and other related results.

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Title: Diophantine approximation on the Veronese curve

Speaker: Dmitry Badziahin (University of Sydney)

Time: 24 February, 2021 10:00 UTC

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Abstract: In the talk we discuss the set $S_n(\lambda)$ of simultaneously $\lambda$-well approximable points in $\mathbb{R}^n$. These are the points $x$ such that the inequality \(\| x - p/q\|_\infty < q^{-\lambda - \epsilon}\) has infinitely many solutions in rational points $p/q$. Investigating the intersection of this set with a suitable manifold comprises one of the most challenging problems in Diophantine approximation. It is known that the structure of this set, especially for large $\lambda$, depends on the manifold. For some manifolds it may be empty, while for others it may have relatively large Hausdorff dimension.

We will concentrate on the case of the Veronese curve $V_n$. We discuss, what is known about the Hausdorff dimension of the set $S_n(\lambda) \cap V_n$ and will talk about the recent results of the speaker and Bugeaud which impose new bounds on that dimension.

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Title: Furstenberg's conjecture, Mahler's method, and finite automata

Speaker: Boris Adamczewski (Claude Bernard University Lyon 1)

Time: 17 February, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: It is commonly expected that expansions of numbers in multiplicatively independent bases, such as 2 and 10, should have no common structure. However, it seems extraordinarily difficult to confirm this naive heuristic principle in some way or another. In the late 1960s, Furstenberg suggested a series of conjectures, which became famous and aim to capture this heuristic. The work I will discuss in this talk is motivated by one of these conjectures. Despite recent remarkable progress by Shmerkin and Wu, it remains totally out of reach of the current methods. While Furstenberg’s conjectures take place in a dynamical setting, I will use instead the language of automata theory to formulate some related conjectures that formalize and express in a different way the same general heuristic. I will explain how the latter follow from some recent advances in Mahler’s method; a method in transcendental number theory initiated by Mahler in the... Full Information

Title: Inhomogeneous Diophantine Approximation on $M_0$ Sets with restricted denominators

Speaker: Manos Zafeiropoulos (TU Graz)

Time: 10 February, 2021 14:30 UTC

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Abstract:  Let $\mu$ be a probability measure with $\widehat{\mu}(t)\ll (\log |t|)^{-A}$ for some $A>0$, supported on a set $F\subseteq [0,1]$. Let $\mathcal{A}=(q_n)$ be an increasing sequence of integers. We establish a quantitative inhomogeneous Khintchine-type theorem in which the points of interest lie in $F$ and the “denominators” of the approximants belong to $\mathcal{A}$ in the following cases:   (i) $(q_n)$ is lacunary and $A>2$. (ii)The prime divisors of $(q_n)_{n=1}^{\infty}$ are restricted in a set of $k$ prime numbers and $A>2k$.

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Title: Inhomogeneous Diophantine approximation in the coprime setting

Speaker: Svetlana Jitomirskaya

Time: 16 December, 2020 16:00 UTC

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Abstract: Given $n\in\mathbb{N}$ and $x\in\mathbb{R}$, let \(||nx||^\prime=\min\{|nx-m|:m\in\mathbb{Z}, gcd(n,m)=1\}.\) Two conjectures in the coprime inhomogeneous Diophantine approximation stated, by analogy with the classical Diophantine approximation, that for any irrational number $\alpha$ and almost every $\gamma\in \mathbb{R}$, \(\liminf_{n\to \infty}n||\gamma -n\alpha||^{\prime}=0,\) and that there exists $C$ such that for all $\gamma\in \mathbb{R}$,

\[\liminf_{n\to \infty}n||\gamma -n\alpha||^{\prime} < C.\]

We will present our joint work with W. Liu that proves one of those and disproves the other.

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Title: Upper bound for the Hausdorff dimension of exceptional orbits in homogeneous spaces

Speaker: Shahriar Mirzadeh

Time: 9 December, 2020 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: Consider the set of points in a homogeneous space $G/\Gamma$ whose $g_t$-orbit misses a fixed open set. It has measure zero if the flow is ergodic. It has been conjectured that this set has Hausdorff dimension strictly smaller than the dimension of whole space. This conjecture is proved when $G/\Gamma$ is compact or when has real rank. In this talk we will prove the conjecture for probably the most important example of the higher rank case namely: $\mathrm{SL}(m+n, \mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SL}(m+n, \mathbb{Z})$ and $g_t = \mathrm{diag}{e^{t/m}, \dots , e^{t/m}, e^{-t/n}, \dots, e^{-t/n}}$. This homogeneous space has many applications in Diophantine approximation that will be discussed in the talk if time permits. This project is joint work with Dmitry Kleinbock.

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Title: Recent progress in p-adic Diophantine approximation

Speaker: Shreyasi Datta

Time: 2 December, 2020 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: Studying the $p$-adic analogue of Mahler’s conjecture was initiated by Sprind zuk in 1969. Subsequently, there were several partial results culminating in the work of Kleinbock and Tomanov, where the $S$-adic case of the Baker-Sprindzuk conjectures were settled in full generality. We provide a complete $p$-adic analogue of the results of D. Kleinbock on Diophantine exponents of affine subspaces. This answers a conjecture of Kleinbock and Tomanov. Recently, we proved $S$-arithmetic inhomogeneous Khintchine type theorems on analytic nondegenerate manifolds. For $S$ consisting of more than one valuation, the divergence results are new even in the homogeneous setting. This aformentioned result answers questions posed by Badziahin, Beresnevich and Velani and also it generalizes the work of Golsefidy and Mohammadi. In the first half of the talk, I will go over these results and in the seocnd half, I will try to concentrate on some of the technical details of the... Full Information

Title: Rational points near self-similar sets

Speaker: Han Yu

Time: 25 November, 2020 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: We show that the rational points are quite well ‘equidistributed’ near the middle 15th Cantor set $K$. As a consequence, it is possible to show that the set of well-approximable numbers has full Hausdorff dimension inside $K$. This answers a question of Levesley-Salp-Velani for $K$. In fact, it is possible to prove a slightly stronger result which partially answers a question of Bugeaud-Durand. The results also hold for some self-similar sets other than $K$. We will provide a sufficient condition and some other examples. We suspect that the above results hold for all self-similar sets with Hausdorff dimension bigger than $12\frac{1}{2}$ and with the open set condition. We will see some heuristics in the talk.

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Title: On the image in the torus of sparse points on expanding analytic curves

Speaker: Michael Bersudsky

Time: 18 November, 2020 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: It is known that the projection to the $2$-torus of the normalised parameter measure on a circle of radius $R$ in the plane becomes uniformly distributed as $R$ grows to infinity. I will discuss the following natural discrete analogue for this problem. Starting from an angle and a sequence of radii ${R_n}$ which diverges to infinity, I will consider the projection to the 2-torus of the $n$’th roots of unity rotated by this angle and dilated by a factor of $R_n$. The interesting regime in this problem is when $R_n$ is much larger than $n$ so that the dilated roots of unity appear sparsely on the dilated circle. I will discuss 3 types of results:

  1. Validity of equidistribution for all angles when the sparsity is polynomial.

  2. Failure of equidistribution for some super polynomial dilations.

  3. Equidistribution for almost all angles for arbitrary dilations.

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Title: Higher dimensional gap theorems in Diophantine approximation

Speaker: Alan Haynes

Time: 11 November, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: The three distance theorem states that, if $x$ is any real number and $N$ is any positive integer, the points $x, 2x, … , Nx \mod 1$ partition the unit interval into component intervals having at most $3$ distinct lengths. There are many higher dimensional analogues of this theorem, and in this talk we will discuss two of them. In the first we consider points of the form $mx+ny \mod 1$, where $x$ and $y$ are real numbers and $m$ and $n$ are integers taken from an expanding set in the plane. This version of the problem was previously studied by Geelen and Simpson, Chevallier, Erdős, and many other people, and it is closely related to the Littlewood conjecture in Diophantine approximation. The second version of the problem is a straightforward generalization to rotations on higher dimensional tori which, surprisingly, has been largely overlooked in the literature. For the... Full Information

Title: Dirichlet is not just Bad and Sing

Speaker: Antoine Marnat

Time: 4 November, 2020 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: It is well known that in dimension one, the set of Dirichlet improvable real numbers consists precisely of badly approximable and singular numbers. We show that in higher dimensions this disjoint union is not the full set of Dirichlet improvable vectors: we prove that there exist uncountably many Dirichlet improvable vectors that are neither badly approximable nor singular. We construct these numbers using the parametric geometry of numbers. Furthermore, by doing so we can choose the exponent of Diophantine approximation by a rational subspace of dimension exactly $d$, for any d between $0$ and $n-1$.

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Title: Simultaneous Diophantine approximation on manifolds by algebraic numbers

Speaker: Alessandro Pezzoni

Time: 28 October, 2020 14:30 UTC

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Abstract: Simultaneous Diophantine approximation on manifolds is notoriously complicated, since it requires to take into account the arithmetic properties of a manifold, as well as the analytic ones. In this talk we will make some progress towards a metric theory of approximation on manifolds by algebraic numbers with algebraic conjugate coordinates, generalising a conjecture of Sprindžuk’s.

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Title: Decay of Fourier transforms of fractal measures

Speaker: Jialun Li

Time: 21 October, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: We will talk about some of the recent works on estimating the decay of Fourier transforms of fractal measures, such as self-similar measures and Furstenberg measures. The proof is based on renewal theorems for stopping times of random walks on $\mathbb{R}$.

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Title: Small values at integer points of generic subhomogeneous functions

Speaker: Mishel Skenderi

Time: 14 October, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: This talk will be based on joint work with Dmitry Kleinbock that has been motivated by several recent papers (among them, those of Athreya-Margulis, Bourgain, Ghosh-Gorodnik-Nevo, Kelmer-Yu). Given a certain sort of group $G$ and certain sorts of functions $f: \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}$ and $\psi : \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}_{>0}$, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions so that for Haar-almost every $g \in G$, there exist infinitely many (respectively, finitely many) $v \in \mathbb{Z}^n$ for which \(|(f \circ g)(v)| \le \psi(\|v\|).\) We also give a sufficient condition in the setting of uniform approximation. As a consequence of our methods, we obtain generalizations to the case of vector-valued (simultaneous) approximation with no additional effort. In our work, we use probabilistic results in the geometry of numbers that go back several decades to the work of Siegel, Rogers, and W. Schmidt; these results have recently found new life thanks to a 2009... Full Information

Title: Hyperbolic Actions of Higher Rank Abelian Groups

Speaker: Ralf Spatzier

Time: 30 September, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: We study transitive $\mathbb{R} ^k \times \mathbb{Z}^\ell$ actions on arbitrary compact manifolds with a projectively dense set of Anosov elements and $1$-dimensional coarse Lyapunov foliations. Such actions are called totally Cartan actions. We completely classify such actions as built from low-dimensional Anosov flows and diffeomorphisms and affine actions, verifying the Katok-Spatzier conjecture for this class. This is achieved by introducing a new tool, the action of a dynamically defined topological group describing paths in coarse Lyapunov foliations, and understanding its generators and relations. We obtain applications to the Zimmer program. This talk is based on joint work with Kurt Vinhage. 

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Title: Simultaneous rational approximation to exponentials of algebraic numbers

Speaker: Damien Roy

Time: 23 September, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: The theorem of Lindemann-Weierstrass asserts that the exponentials of distinct algebraic numbers are linearly independent over the field of rational numbers. The proof uses a construction of simultaneous rational approximations to such exponentials values, which goes back to Hermite. In this talk, we show that, from an adelic perspective, these approximations are essentially best possible. This point of view partly explains the nature of the algebraic numbers whose exponentials have a structured continuous fraction expansion. We also propose few specific conjectures regarding simultaneous approximations to such values in adèle rings.

The proof of our main result requires a separate analysis for each place of the associated number field. For the Archimedean places, it relies on the structure of the graph drawn in the complex plane by the paths of fastest descent for the norm of a general univariate complex polynomial starting from the roots of its derivative and ending... Full Information

Title: A fully-inhomogeneous version of Gallagher's theorem

Speaker: Sam Chow

Time: 16 September, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract. Gallagher’s theorem describes the multiplicative diophantine approximation rate of a typical vector. We establish a fully-inhomogeneous version of Gallagher’s theorem, a diophantine fibre refinement, and a sharp and unexpected threshold for Liouville fibres. Along the way, we prove an inhomogeneous version of the Duffin–Schaeffer conjecture for a class of non-monotonic approximation functions. Joint with Niclas Technau.

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Title: Higher order uniformity of the Liouville function

Speaker: Kaisa Matomaki

Time: 26 August, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: The Liouville function takes a value +1 or -1 at a natural number $n$ depending on whether $n$ has an even or an odd number of prime factors. The Liouville function is believed to behave more or less randomly. In particular a famous conjecture of Sarnak says that the Liouville function does not correlate with any sequence of “low complexity” whereas a longstanding conjecture of Chowla says that the Liouville function has negligible correlations with its own shifts. I will discuss conjectures of Sarnak and Chowla and my very recent work with Radziwiłł, Tao, Teräväinen, and Ziegler, where we show that, in almost all intervals of length $X^\varepsilon$, the Liouville function does not correlate with polynomial phases or more generally with nilsequences. I will also discuss applications to superpolynomial word complexity for the Liouville sequence and to a new averaged version of Chowla’s conjecture.

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Title: The distribution of conjugate algebraic numbers, a random polynomial approach

Speaker: Denis Koleda

Time: 19 August, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: In the talk we consider the spatial distribution of points that have algebraic (Galois) conjugate coordinates of fixed degree and bounded height. We give an asymptotic formula for counting such points in a wide class of regions of Euclidean space (as the parameter that bounds heights grows to infinity). We explain connection of this formula to random polynomials with i.i.d. coefficients. We also discuss some corollaries and applications of the formula. The talk is based on a joint work with F. Götze and D. Zaporozhets.

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Title: Diophantine approximations, large intersections and geodesics in negative curvature

Speaker: Anish Ghosh

Time: 12 August, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: I will discuss new results on the `shrinking target problem’  including a logarithm law for approximation by geodesics in negatively curved manifolds and Hausdorff dimension estimates for finer spiraling phenomena of geodesics. I will also discuss the large intersection property of Falconer in the context of negative curvature and some applications to Diophantine approximation and to hyperbolic geometry. This is joint work with Debanjan Nandi.

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Title: Some problems in uniform Diophantine approximation

Speaker: Anurag Rao

Time: 5 August, 2020 13:00 UTC

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Note: the starting time is earlier than usual. The talk will only take one hour.

Abstract: We study a norm sensitive Diophantine approximation problem arising from the work of Davenport and Schmidt on the improvement of Dirichlet’s theorem. Its supremum norm case was recently considered by the Kleinbock and Wadleigh, and here we extend the set-up by replacing the supremum norm with an arbitrary norm. This gives rise to a class of shrinking target problems for one-parameter diagonal flows on the space of lattices, with the targets being neighborhoods of the critical locus of a suitably scaled norm ball. We use methods from geometry of numbers and dynamics to generalize a result due to Andersen and Duke on measure zero and uncountability of the set of numbers for which Minkowski approximation theorem can be improved. The choice of the Euclidean norm on $\mathbb{R}^2$ corresponds to studying geodesics on a hyperbolic... Full Information

Title: Dirichlet Improvability, Equidistribution, and Grassmannians

Speaker: Pengyu Yang

Time: 29 July, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: As a natural generalisation of Dirichlet’s approximation theorem on real numbers, Dirichlet’s approximation theorem on $m\times n$ real matrices tells us the following: given $m$ real linear forms in $n$ variables, we can find an integral vector such that the evaluations of all the linear forms at this integral vector are simultaneous small. In the 1960s Davenport and Schmidt showed that Dirichlet’s theorem is non-improvable for almost all matrices, and they asked if the analogous result holds for a submanifold of the space of $m\times n$ matrices. This problem is related to an equidistribution problem in the space of unimodular lattices in $\mathbb{R}^n$. In this talk I will present some recent progress on this problem, and I will explain its connections to the geometry of Grassmannian manifolds. 

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Title: Mass transference principle from rectangles to rectangles in Diophantine approximation

Speaker: Baowei Wang

Time: 22 July, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Note: This talk will only take one hour.

Abstract: As is well known, Dirichlet’s theorem and Minkowski’s theorem are two fundamental results in Diophantine approximation. One says that all points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ will fall into infinitely many balls centered at rationals with specific radius; while the other says that all points will fall into infinitely many rectangles centered at rationals with specific sidelengths. This motives a further study on the metric theory of limsup sets defined by a sequence of balls or rectangles. Since the landmark works of Beresnevich & Velani (2006) and Beresnevich, Dickinson & Velani (2006) where the mass transference principle was found, the metric theory for limsup sets defined by a sequence balls or istropic thicken of general sets has been sufficiently well established. While, the metric theory for limsup sets defined by a sequence of rectangles are not as rich as the ball case. In this talk,... Full Information

Title: Singular vectors, from Khintchine to nowadays

Speaker: Nikolay Moshchevitin

Time: 8 July, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: Many concepts in Diophantine Approximation have their origin in the famous paper “Über eine Klasse linearer diophantischer Approximationen” by A. Khintchine (1926). The results of this paper were rediscovered many times by different mathematicians. In particular, Khintchine was the first who observed the phenomenon of singularity in higher-dimensional Diophantine Approximation. In our lecture we discuss several problems related to singular vectors and best approximation (minimal points) as well as some related topics dealing with Diophantine exponents and approximation on algebraic and analytic surfaces which were considered recently in author’s joint papers with D. Kleinbock and B. Weiss. Also we suppose to discuss some related open problems.

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Title: Winning property of badly approximable points on curves

Speaker: Lei Yang

Time: 1 July, 2020 13:30 UTC

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Abstract: We will prove that badly approximable points (no matter weighted or unweighted) on any analytic non-degenerate curve in $\mathbb{R}^n$ is an absolute winning set. This confirms a key conjecture in the area stated by Badziahin and Velani (2014) which represents a far-reaching generalisation of Davenport’s problem from the 1960s. Amongst various consequences of our main result is a solution to Bugeaud’s problem on real numbers badly approximable by algebraic numbers of arbitrary degree. This work is joint with Victor Beresnevich and Erez Nesharim.

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Title: On the Duffin-Schaeffer Conjecture

Speaker: James Maynard

Time: 17 June, 2020 13:00 UTC

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Abstract: Almost 80 years ago Duffin and Schaeffer conjectured a beautiful strengthening of Khinchin’s classical result: Given a sequence of possible forms of rational approximation, either almost all reals can be approximated in this manner or almost none can be, and there is a simple calculation to tell which case we are in. I’ll talk about recent work with D. Koukoulopoulos which establishes this conjecture. This relies on a blend of different techniques, recasting the problem as a structural question in additive combinatorics, and then approaching this via studying a particular family of graphs to reduce it to a problem in analytic number theory.

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Title: New bounds on the covering density of a lattice

Speaker: Barak Weiss

Time: 10 June, 2020 12:30 UTC

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Abstract: We obtain new upper bounds on the minimal density of lattice coverings of $\mathbb{R}^n$ by dilates of a convex body $K$. We also obtain bounds on the probability (with respect to the natural Haar-Siegel measure on the space of lattices) that a randomly chosen lattice $L$ satisfies $L+K=\mathbb{R}^n$. Joint work with Or Ordentlich and Oded Regev.

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Title: Random walks, spectral gaps, and Khintchine's theorem on fractals

Speaker: Osama Khalil

Time: 3 June, 2020 14:00 UTC

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Abstract. In 1984, Mahler asked how well typical points on Cantor’s set can be approximated by rational numbers. His question fits within a program, set out by himself in the 1930s, attempting to determine conditions under which subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$ inherit the Diophantine properties of the ambient space. Since the approximability of typical points in Euclidean space by rational points is governed by Khintchine’s classical theorem, the ultimate form of Mahler’s question asks whether an analogous zero-one law holds for fractal measures. Significant progress has been achieved in recent years, albeit, almost all known results have been of “convergence type”. In this talk, we will discuss the first instances where a complete analogue of Khinchine’s theorem for fractal measures is obtained. The class of fractals for which our results hold includes those generated by rational similarities of $\mathbb{R}^d$ and having sufficiently small Hausdorff co-dimension. The main new ingredient is an... Full Information