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1. Zeroes of polynomials on definable hypersurfaces: pathologies exist, but they are rare

   https://doi.org/10.1093/qmath/haz022  

   Basu, Saugata; Lerario, Antonio; Natarajan, Abhiram (October 2019, The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics)

   Abstract Given a sequence $$\{Z_d\}_{d\in \mathbb{N}}$$ of smooth and compact hypersurfaces in $${\mathbb{R}}^{n-1}$$, we prove that (up to extracting subsequences) there exists a regular definable hypersurface $$\Gamma \subset {\mathbb{R}}\textrm{P}^n$$ such that each manifold $$Z_d$$ is diffeomorphic to a component of the zero set on $$\Gamma$$ of some polynomial of degree $$d$$. (This is in sharp contrast with the case when $$\Gamma$$ is semialgebraic, where for example the homological complexity of the zero set of a polynomial $$p$$ on $$\Gamma$$ is bounded by a polynomial in $$\deg (p)$$.) More precisely, given the above sequence of hypersurfaces, we construct a regular, compact, semianalytic hypersurface $$\Gamma \subset {\mathbb{R}}\textrm{P}^{n}$$ containing a subset $$D$$ homeomorphic to a disk, and a family of polynomials $$\{p_m\}_{m\in \mathbb{N}}$$ of degree $$\deg (p_m)=d_m$$ such that $$(D, Z(p_m)\cap D)\sim ({\mathbb{R}}^{n-1}, Z_{d_m}),$$ i.e. the zero set of $$p_m$$ in $$D$$ is isotopic to $$Z_{d_m}$$ in $${\mathbb{R}}^{n-1}$$. This says that, up to extracting subsequences, the intersection of $$\Gamma$$ with a hypersurface of degree $$d$$ can be as complicated as we want. We call these ‘pathological examples’. In particular, we show that for every $$0 \leq k \leq n-2$$ and every sequence of natural numbers $$a=\{a_d\}_{d\in \mathbb{N}}$$ there is a regular, compact semianalytic hypersurface $$\Gamma \subset {\mathbb{R}}\textrm{P}^n$$, a subsequence $$\{a_{d_m}\}_{m\in \mathbb{N}}$$ and homogeneous polynomials $$\{p_{m}\}_{m\in \mathbb{N}}$$ of degree $$\deg (p_m)=d_m$$ such that (0.1)$$\begin{equation}b_k(\Gamma\cap Z(p_m))\geq a_{d_m}.\end{equation}$$ (Here $$b_k$$ denotes the $$k$$th Betti number.) This generalizes a result of Gwoździewicz et al. [13]. On the other hand, for a given definable $$\Gamma$$ we show that the Fubini–Study measure, in the Gaussian probability space of polynomials of degree $$d$$, of the set $$\Sigma _{d_m,a, \Gamma }$$ of polynomials verifying (0.1) is positive, but there exists a constant $$c_\Gamma$$ such that $$\begin{equation*}0<{\mathbb{P}}(\Sigma_{d_m, a, \Gamma})\leq \frac{c_{\Gamma} d_m^{\frac{n-1}{2}}}{a_{d_m}}.\end{equation*}$$ This shows that the set of ‘pathological examples’ has ‘small’ measure (the faster $$a$$ grows, the smaller the measure and pathologies are therefore rare). In fact we show that given $$\Gamma$$, for most polynomials a Bézout-type bound holds for the intersection $$\Gamma \cap Z(p)$$: for every $$0\leq k\leq n-2$$ and $t>0$: $$\begin{equation*}{\mathbb{P}}\left(\{b_k(\Gamma\cap Z(p))\geq t d^{n-1} \}\right)\leq \frac{c_\Gamma}{td^{\frac{n-1}{2}}}.\end{equation*}$$ 

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2. Distributions on partitions arising from Hilbert schemes and hook lengths

   https://doi.org/10.1017/fms.2022.45  

   Bringmann, Kathrin; Craig, William; Males, Joshua; Ono, Ken (January 2022, Forum of Mathematics, Sigma)

   Abstract Recent works at the interface of algebraic combinatorics, algebraic geometry, number theory and topology have provided new integer-valued invariants on integer partitions. It is natural to consider the distribution of partitions when sorted by these invariants in congruence classes. We consider the prominent situations that arise from extensions of the Nekrasov–Okounkov hook product formula and from Betti numbers of various Hilbert schemes of n points on $${\mathbb {C}}^2$$ . For the Hilbert schemes, we prove that homology is equidistributed as $$n\to \infty $$ . For t -hooks, we prove distributions that are often not equidistributed. The cases where $$t\in \{2, 3\}$$ stand out, as there are congruence classes where such counts are zero. To obtain these distributions, we obtain analytic results of independent interest. We determine the asymptotics, near roots of unity, of the ubiquitous infinite products $$ \begin{align*}F_1(\xi; q):=\prod_{n=1}^{\infty}\left(1-\xi q^n\right), \ \ \ F_2(\xi; q):=\prod_{n=1}^{\infty}\left(1-(\xi q)^n\right) \ \ \ {\mathrm{and}}\ \ \ F_3(\xi; q):=\prod_{n=1}^{\infty}\left(1-\xi^{-1}(\xi q)^n\right). \end{align*} $$ 

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3. Khintchine-type recurrence for 3-point configurations

   https://doi.org/10.1017/fms.2022.97  

   Ackelsberg, Ethan; Bergelson, Vitaly; Shalom, Or (January 2022, Forum of Mathematics, Sigma)

   Abstract The goal of this paper is to generalise, refine and improve results on large intersections from [2, 8]. We show that if G is a countable discrete abelian group and $$\varphi , \psi : G \to G$$ are homomorphisms, such that at least two of the three subgroups $$\varphi (G)$$ , $$\psi (G)$$ and $$(\psi -\varphi )(G)$$ have finite index in G , then $$\{\varphi , \psi \}$$ has the large intersections property . That is, for any ergodic measure preserving system $$\textbf {X}=(X,\mathcal {X},\mu ,(T_g)_{g\in G})$$ , any $$A\in \mathcal {X}$$ and any $$\varepsilon>0$$ , the set $$ \begin{align*} \{g\in G : \mu(A\cap T_{\varphi(g)}^{-1} A \cap T_{\psi(g)}^{-1} A)>\mu(A)^3-\varepsilon\} \end{align*} $$ is syndetic (Theorem 1.11). Moreover, in the special case where $$\varphi (g)=ag$$ and $$\psi (g)=bg$$ for $$a,b\in \mathbb {Z}$$ , we show that we only need one of the groups $aG$ , $bG$ or $(b-a)G$ to be of finite index in G (Theorem 1.13), and we show that the property fails, in general, if all three groups are of infinite index (Theorem 1.14). One particularly interesting case is where $$G=(\mathbb {Q}_{>0},\cdot )$$ and $$\varphi (g)=g$$ , $$\psi (g)=g^2$$ , which leads to a multiplicative version of the Khintchine-type recurrence result in [8]. We also completely characterise the pairs of homomorphisms $$\varphi ,\psi $$ that have the large intersections property when $$G = {{\mathbb Z}}^2$$ . The proofs of our main results rely on analysis of the structure of the universal characteristic factor for the multiple ergodic averages $$ \begin{align*} \frac{1}{|\Phi_N|} \sum_{g\in \Phi_N}T_{\varphi(g)}f_1\cdot T_{\psi(g)} f_2. \end{align*} $$ In the case where G is finitely generated, the characteristic factor for such averages is the Kronecker factor . In this paper, we study actions of groups that are not necessarily finitely generated, showing, in particular, that, by passing to an extension of $$\textbf {X}$$ , one can describe the characteristic factor in terms of the Conze–Lesigne factor and the $$\sigma $$ -algebras of $$\varphi (G)$$ and $$\psi (G)$$ invariant functions (Theorem 4.10). 

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4. Painlevé-III Monodromy Maps Under the $$D_6\to D_8$$ Confluence and Applications to the Large-Parameter Asymptotics of Rational Solutions

   https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2024.019  

   Barhoumi, Ahmad; Lisovyy, Oleg; Miller, Peter D; Prokhorov, Andrei (March 2024, Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications)

   The third Painlevé equation in its generic form, often referred to as Painlevé-III($$D_6$$), is given by $$ \frac{{\rm d}^2u}{{\rm d}x^2} =\frac{1}{u}\left(\frac{{\rm d}u}{{\rm d}x} \right)^2-\frac{1}{x} \frac{{\rm d}u}{{\rm d}x} + \frac{\alpha u^2 + \beta}{x}+4u^3-\frac{4}{u}, \qquad \alpha,\beta \in \mathbb C. $$ Starting from a generic initial solution $$u_0(x)$$ corresponding to parameters $$\alpha$$, $$\beta$$, denoted as the triple $$(u_0(x),\alpha,\beta)$$, we apply an explicit Bäcklund transformation to generate a family of solutions $$(u_n(x),\alpha + 4n,\beta + 4n)$$ indexed by $$n \in \mathbb N$$. We study the large $$n$$ behavior of the solutions $$(u_n(x), \alpha + 4n, \beta + 4n)$$ under the scaling $x = z/n$ in two different ways: (a) analyzing the convergence properties of series solutions to the equation, and (b) using a Riemann-Hilbert representation of the solution $$u_n(z/n)$$. Our main result is a proof that the limit of solutions $$u_n(z/n)$$ exists and is given by a solution of the degenerate Painlevé-III equation, known as Painlevé-III($$D_8$$), $$ \frac{{\rm d}^2U}{{\rm d}z^2} =\frac{1}{U}\left(\frac{{\rm d}U}{{\rm d}z}\right)^2-\frac{1}{z} \frac{{\rm d}U}{{\rm d}z} + \frac{4U^2 + 4}{z}.$$ A notable application of our result is to rational solutions of Painlevé-III($$D_6$$), which are constructed using the seed solution $(1,4m,-4m)$ where $$m \in \mathbb C \setminus \big(\mathbb Z + \frac{1}{2}\big)$$ and can be written as a particular ratio of Umemura polynomials. We identify the limiting solution in terms of both its initial condition at $z = 0$ when it is well defined, and by its monodromy data in the general case. Furthermore, as a consequence of our analysis, we deduce the asymptotic behavior of generic solutions of Painlevé-III, both $$D_6$$ and $$D_8$$ at $z = 0$. We also deduce the large $$n$$ behavior of the Umemura polynomials in a neighborhood of $z = 0$. 

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5. Edge Expansion and Spectral Gap of Nonnegative Matrices

   https://doi.org/10.1137/1.9781611975994.73  

   Mehta, Jenish C.; Schulman, Leonard J. (January 2020, Proceedings of the 2020 ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms)

   The classic graphical Cheeger inequalities state that if $$M$$ is an $$n\times n$$ \emph{symmetric} doubly stochastic matrix, then \[ \frac{1-\lambda_{2}(M)}{2}\leq\phi(M)\leq\sqrt{2\cdot(1-\lambda_{2}(M))} \] where $$\phi(M)=\min_{S\subseteq[n],|S|\leq n/2}\left(\frac{1}{|S|}\sum_{i\in S,j\not\in S}M_{i,j}\right)$$ is the edge expansion of $$M$$, and $$\lambda_{2}(M)$$ is the second largest eigenvalue of $$M$$. We study the relationship between $$\phi(A)$$ and the spectral gap $$1-\re\lambda_{2}(A)$$ for \emph{any} doubly stochastic matrix $$A$$ (not necessarily symmetric), where $$\lambda_{2}(A)$$ is a nontrivial eigenvalue of $$A$$ with maximum real part. Fiedler showed that the upper bound on $$\phi(A)$$ is unaffected, i.e., $$\phi(A)\leq\sqrt{2\cdot(1-\re\lambda_{2}(A))}$$. With regards to the lower bound on $$\phi(A)$$, there are known constructions with \[ \phi(A)\in\Theta\left(\frac{1-\re\lambda_{2}(A)}{\log n}\right), \] indicating that at least a mild dependence on $$n$$ is necessary to lower bound $$\phi(A)$$. In our first result, we provide an \emph{exponentially} better construction of $$n\times n$$ doubly stochastic matrices $$A_{n}$$, for which \[ \phi(A_{n})\leq\frac{1-\re\lambda_{2}(A_{n})}{\sqrt{n}}. \] In fact, \emph{all} nontrivial eigenvalues of our matrices are $$0$$, even though the matrices are highly \emph{nonexpanding}. We further show that this bound is in the correct range (up to the exponent of $$n$$), by showing that for any doubly stochastic matrix $$A$$, \[ \phi(A)\geq\frac{1-\re\lambda_{2}(A)}{35\cdot n}. \] As a consequence, unlike the symmetric case, there is a (necessary) loss of a factor of $$n^{\alpha}$ for $$\frac{1}{2}\leq\alpha\leq1$$ in lower bounding $$\phi$$ by the spectral gap in the nonsymmetric setting. Our second result extends these bounds to general matrices $$R$$ with nonnegative entries, to obtain a two-sided \emph{gapped} refinement of the Perron-Frobenius theorem. Recall from the Perron-Frobenius theorem that for such $$R$$, there is a nonnegative eigenvalue $$r$$ such that all eigenvalues of $$R$$ lie within the closed disk of radius $$r$$ about $$0$$. Further, if $$R$$ is irreducible, which means $$\phi(R)>0$$ (for suitably defined $$\phi$$), then $$r$$ is positive and all other eigenvalues lie within the \textit{open} disk, so (with eigenvalues sorted by real part), $$\re\lambda_{2}(R) 

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