We introduce and study a remarkable family of real probability measures $\pi_{st}$ that we call free Bessel laws. These are related to the free Poisson law $\pi$ via the formulae $\pi_{s1}=\pi^{\boxtimes s}$ and ${\pi_{1t}=\pi^{\boxplus t}}$. Our study includes definition and basic properties, analytic aspects (supports, atoms, densities), combinatorial aspects (functional transforms, moments, partitions), and a discussion of the relation with random matrices and quantum groups.

We investigate the number of integral solutions possessed by a pair of diagonal cubic equations in a large box. Provided that the number of variables in the system is at least fourteen, and in addition the number of variables in any non-trivial linear combination of the underlying forms is at least eight, we obtain an asymptotic formula for the number of integral solutions consistent with the product of local densities associated with the system.

Perelman established a differential Li--Yau--Hamilton (LYH) type inequality for fundamental solutions of the conjugate heat equation corresponding to the Ricci flow on compact manifolds. As an application of the LYH inequality, Perelman proved a pseudolocality result for the Ricci flow on compact manifolds. In this article we provide the details for the proofs of these results in the case of a complete noncompact Riemannian manifold. Using these results we prove that under certain conditions, a finite time singularity of the Ricci flow must form within a compact set. The conditions are satisfied by asymptotically flat manifolds. We also prove a long time existence result for the K\"ahler--Ricci flow on complete nonnegatively curved K\"ahler manifolds.

We give another proof of Vojta's $1+\varepsilon$ conjecture.

Reversibility of the Fleming--Viot process with mutation, selection, and recombination is well understood. In this paper, we study the reversibility of a system of Fleming--Viot processes that live on a countable number of colonies interacting with each other through migrations between the colonies. It is shown that reversibility fails when both migration and mutation are non-trivial.

Let $A_p(G)$ be the Figa-Talamanca, Herz Banach Algebra on $G$; thus $A_2(G)$ is the Fourier algebra. Strong Ditkin (SD) and Extremely Strong Ditkin (ESD) sets for the Banach algebras $A_p^r(G)$ are investigated for abelian and nonabelian locally compact groups $G$. It is shown that SD and ESD sets for $A_p(G)$ remain SD and ESD sets for $A_p^r(G)$, with strict inclusion for ESD sets. The case for the strict inclusion of SD sets is left open. A result on the weak sequential completeness of $A_2(F)$ for ESD sets $F$ is proved and used to show that Varopoulos, Helson, and Sidon sets are not ESD sets for $A_2(G)$, yet they are such for $A_2^r(G)$ for discrete groups $G$, for any $1\le r\le 2$. A result is given on the equivalence of the sequential and the net definitions of SD or ESD sets for $\sigma$-compact groups. The above results are new even if $G$ is abelian.

In this paper, we study the non-vanishing and transcendence of special values of a varying class of $L$-functions and their derivatives. This allows us to investigate the transcendence of Petersson norms of certain weight one modular forms.

We establish the asymptotic behaviour of the partition function, the heat content, the integrated eigenvalue counting function, and, for certain points, the on-diagonal heat kernel of generalized Sierpinski carpets. For all these functions the leading term is of the form $x^{\gamma}\phi(\log x)$ for a suitable exponent $\gamma$ and $\phi$ a periodic function. We also discuss similar results for the heat content of affine nested fractals.

We characterize the continuous $q$-ultraspherical polynomials in terms of the special form of the coefficients in the expansion $\mathcal{D}_q P_n(x)$ in the basis $\{P_n(x)\}$, $\mathcal{D}_q$ being the Askey--Wilson divided difference operator. The polynomials are assumed to be symmetric, and the connection coefficients are multiples of the reciprocal of the square of the $L^2$ norm of the polynomials. A similar characterization is given for the discrete $q$-ultraspherical polynomials. A new proof of the evaluation of the connection coefficients for big $q$-Jacobi polynomials is given.

Using standard transformation and summation formulas for basic hypergeometric series we obtain an explicit polynomial form of the $q$-analogue of the 9-$j$ symbols, introduced by the author in a recent publication. We also consider a limiting case in which the 9-$j$ symbol factors into two Hahn polynomials. The same factorization occurs in another limit case of the corresponding $q$-analogue.

In this paper we determine the limiting distributional behavior for sums of infinitesimal conditionally free random variables. We show that the weak convergence of classical convolution and that of conditionally free convolution are equivalent for measures in an infinitesimal triangular array, where the measures may have unbounded support. Moreover, we use these limit theorems to study the conditionally free infinite divisibility. These results are obtained by complex analytic methods without reference to the combinatorics of c-free convolution.