The squared distance curvature is a kind of two-point curvature the sign of which turned out crucial for the smoothness of optimal transportation maps on Riemannian manifolds. Positivity properties of that new curvature have been established recently for all the simply connected compact rank one symmetric spaces, except the Cayley plane. Direct proofs were given for the sphere, an indirect one via the Hopf fibrations) for the complex and quaternionic projective spaces. Here, we present a direct proof of a property implying all the preceding ones, valid on every positively curved Riemannian locally symmetric space.

Fix an elliptic curve $E/\mathbb{Q}$ and assume the Riemann Hypothesis for the $L$-function $L(E_D, s)$ for every quadratic twist $E_D$ of $E$ by $D\in\mathbb{Z}$. We combine Weil's explicit formula with techniques of Heath-Brown to derive an asymptotic upper bound for the weighted moments of the analytic rank of $E_D$. We derive from this an upper bound for the density of low-lying zeros of $L(E_D, s)$ that is compatible with the random matrix models of Katz and Sarnak. We also show that for any unbounded increasing function $f$ on $\mathbb{R}$, the analytic rank and (assuming in addition the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture) the number of integral points of $E_D$ are less than $f(D)$ for almost all $D$.

Ramanujan famously found congruences like $p(5n+4)\equiv 0 \operatorname{mod} 5$ for the partition function. We provide a method to find all simple congruences of this type in the coefficients of the inverse of a modular form on $\Gamma_{1}(4)$ that is non-vanishing on the upper half plane. This is applied to answer open questions about the (non)-existence of congruences in the generating functions for overpartitions, crank differences, and 2-colored $F$-partitions.

A theory of higher rank multiresolution analysis is given in the setting of abelian multiscalings. This theory enables the construction, from a higher rank MRA, of finite wavelet sets whose multidilations have translates forming an orthonormal basis in $L^2(\mathbb R^d)$. While tensor products of uniscaled MRAs provide simple examples we construct many nonseparable higher rank wavelets. In particular we construct \emph{Latin square wavelets} as rank~$2$ variants of Haar wavelets. Also we construct nonseparable scaling functions for rank $2$ variants of Meyer wavelet scaling functions, and we construct the associated nonseparable wavelets with compactly supported Fourier transforms. On the other hand we show that compactly supported scaling functions for biscaled MRAs are necessarily separable.

Let $K$ denote a compact real symmetric subset of $\mathbb{C}$ and let $A_{\mathbb R}(K)$ denote the real Banach algebra of all real symmetric continuous functions on $K$ that are analytic in the interior $K^\circ$ of $K$, endowed with the supremum norm. We characterize all unimodular pairs $(f,g)$ in $A_{\mathbb R}(K)^2$ which are reducible. In addition, for an arbitrary compact $K$ in $\mathbb C$, we give a new proof (not relying on Banach algebra theory or elementary stable rank techniques) of the fact that the Bass stable rank of $A(K)$ is $1$. Finally, we also characterize all compact real symmetric sets $K$ such that $A_{\mathbb R}(K)$, respectively $C_{\mathbb R}(K)$, has Bass stable rank $1$.

Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ complex Hermitian (or real symmetric) matrices with eigenvalues $a_1 \ge \dots \ge a_n$ and $b_1 \ge \dots \ge b_n$. All possible inertia values, ranks, and multiple eigenvalues of $A + B$ are determined. Extension of the results to the sum of $k$ matrices with $k > 2$ and connections of the results to other subjects such as algebraic combinatorics are also discussed.

Kumjian and Pask introduced an aperiodicity condition for higher rank graphs. We present a detailed analysis of when this occurs in certain rank 2 graphs. When the algebra is aperiodic, we give another proof of the simplicity of $\mathrm{C}^*(\mathbb{F}^+_{\theta})$. The periodic $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebras are characterized, and it is shown that $\mathrm{C}^*(\mathbb{F}^+_{\theta}) \simeq \mathrm{C}(\mathbb{T})\otimes\mathfrak{A}$ where $\mathfrak{A}$ is a simple $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebra.

Given a complete CAT(0) space $X$ endowed with a geometric action of a group $\Gamma$, it is known that if $\Gamma$ contains a free abelian group of rank $n$, then $X$ contains a geometric flat of dimension $n$. We prove the converse of this statement in the special case where $X$ is a convex subcomplex of the CAT(0) realization of a Coxeter group $W$, and $\Gamma$ is a subgroup of $W$. In particular a convex cocompact subgroup of a Coxeter group is Gromov-hyperbolic if and only if it does not contain a free abelian group of rank 2. Our result also provides an explicit control on geometric flats in the CAT(0) realization of arbitrary Tits buildings.

Let $q$ be an algebraic integer of degree $d \geq 2$. Consider the rank of the multiplicative subgroup of $\BbC^*$ generated by the conjugates of $q$. We say $q$ is of {\em full rank} if either the rank is $d-1$ and $q$ has norm $\pm 1$, or the rank is $d$. In this paper we study some properties of $\BbZ[q]$ where $q$ is an algebraic integer of full rank. The special cases of when $q$ is a Pisot number and when $q$ is a Pisot-cyclotomic number are also studied. There are four main results. \begin{compactenum}[\rm(1)] \item If $q$ is an algebraic integer of full rank and $n$ is a fixed positive integer, then there are only finitely many $m$ such that $\disc\left(\BbZ[q^m]\right)=\disc\left(\BbZ[q^n]\right)$. \item If $q$ and $r$ are algebraic integers of degree $d$ of full rank and $\BbZ[q^n] = \BbZ[r^n]$ for infinitely many $n$, then either $q = \omega r'$ or $q={\rm Norm}(r)^{2/d}\omega/r'$, where $r'$ is some conjugate of $r$ and $\omega$ is some root of unity. \item Let $r$ be an algebraic integer of degree at most $3$. Then there are at most $40$ Pisot numbers $q$ such that $\BbZ[q] = \BbZ[r]$. \item There are only finitely many Pisot-cyclotomic numbers of any fixed order. \end{compactenum}

Hua's fundamental theorem of the geometry of hermitian matrices characterizes bijective maps on the space of all $n\times n$ hermitian matrices preserving adjacency in both directions. The problem of possible improvements has been open for a while. There are three natural problems here. Do we need the bijectivity assumption? Can we replace the assumption of preserving adjacency in both directions by the weaker assumption of preserving adjacency in one direction only? Can we obtain such a characterization for maps acting between the spaces of hermitian matrices of different sizes? We answer all three questions for the complex hermitian matrices, thus obtaining the optimal structural result for adjacency preserving maps on hermitian matrices over the complex field.

An $n \times n$ matrix is said to be totally nonnegative if every minor of $A$ is nonnegative. In this paper we completely characterize all possible Jordan canonical forms of irreducible totally nonnegative matrices. Our approach is mostly combinatorial and is based on the study of weighted planar diagrams associated with totally nonnegative matrices.

We give a description of the monoid of Murray-von Neumann equivalence classes of projections for multiplier algebras of a wide class of $\sigma$-unital simple $C^\ast$-algebras $A$ with real rank zero and stable rank one. The lattice of ideals of this monoid, which is known to be crucial for understanding the ideal structure of the multiplier algebra $\mul$, is therefore analyzed. In important cases it is shown that, if $A$ has finite scale then the quotient of $\mul$ modulo any closed ideal $I$ that properly contains $A$ has stable rank one. The intricacy of the ideal structure of $\mul$ is reflected in the fact that $\mul$ can have uncountably many different quotients, each one having uncountably many closed ideals forming a chain with respect to inclusion.

Let $F$ be a divisor on the blow-up $X$ of $\pr^2$ at $r$ general points $p_1, \dots, p_r$ and let $L$ be the total transform of a line on $\pr^2$. An approach is presented for reducing the computation of the dimension of the cokernel of the natural map $\mu_F \colon \Gamma \bigl( \CO_X(F) \bigr) \otimes \Gamma \bigl( \CO_X(L) \bigr) \to \Gamma \bigl( \CO_X(F) \otimes \CO_X(L) \bigr)$ to the case that $F$ is ample. As an application, a formula for the dimension of the cokernel of $\mu_F$ is obtained when $r = 7$, completely solving the problem of determining the modules in minimal free resolutions of fat point subschemes\break $m_1 p_1 + \cdots + m_7 p_7 \subset \pr^2$. All results hold for an arbitrary algebraically closed ground field~$k$.

Let $R$ be a countable, principal ideal domain which is not a field and $A$ be a countable $R$-algebra which is free as an $R$-module. Then we will construct an $\aleph_1$-free $R$-module $G$ of rank $\aleph_1$ with endomorphism algebra End$_RG = A$. Clearly the result does not hold for fields. Recall that an $R$-module is $\aleph_1$-free if all its countable submodules are free, a condition closely related to Pontryagin's theorem. This result has many consequences, depending on the algebra $A$ in use. For instance, if we choose $A = R$, then clearly $G$ is an indecomposable `almost free' module. The existence of such modules was unknown for rings with only finitely many primes like $R = \hbox{\Bbbvii Z}_{(p)}$, the integers localized at some prime $p$. The result complements a classical realization theorem of Corner's showing that any such algebra is an endomorphism algebra of some torsion-free, reduced $R$-module $G$ of countable rank. Its proof is based on new combinatorial-algebraic techniques related with what we call {\it rigid tree-elements\/} coming from a module generated over a forest of trees.

Let $A$ be a simple $C^*$-algebra with real rank zero, stable rank one and weakly unperforated $K_0(A)$ of countable rank. We show that a monomorphism $\phi\colon C(S^2) \to A$ can be approximated pointwise by homomorphisms from $C(S^2)$ into $A$ with finite dimensional range if and only if certain index vanishes. In particular, we show that every homomorphism $\phi$ from $C(S^2)$ into a UHF-algebra can be approximated pointwise by homomorphisms from $C(S^2)$ into the UHF-algebra with finite dimensional range. As an application, we show that if $A$ is a simple $C^*$-algebra of real rank zero and is an inductive limit of matrices over $C(S^2)$ then $A$ is an AF-algebra. Similar results for tori are also obtained. Classification of ${\bf Hom}\bigl(C(X),A\bigr)$ for lower dimensional spaces is also studied.