Several structural results about permutation groups of finite rank definable in differentially closed fields of characteristic zero (and other similar theories) are obtained. In particular, it is shown that every finite rank definably primitive permutation group is definably isomorphic to an algebraic permutation group living in the constants. Applications include the verification, in differentially closed fields, of the finite Morley rank permutation group conjectures of Borovik-Deloro and Borovik-Cherlin. Applying the results to binding groups for internality to the constants, it is deduced that if complete types p and q are of rank m and n, respectively, and are nonorthogonal, then the $(m+3)$rd Morley power of p is not weakly orthogonal to the $(n+3)$rd Morley power of q. An application to transcendence of generic solutions of pairs of algebraic differential equations is given.

We introduce and study the notion of a generalised Hecke orbit in a Shimura variety. We define a height function on such an orbit and study its properties. We obtain lower bounds for the sizes of Galois orbits of points in a generalised Hecke orbit in terms of this height function, assuming the ‘weakly adelic Mumford–Tate hypothesis’ and prove the generalised André–Pink–Zannier conjecture under this assumption, using Pila–Zannier strategy.

In this article, we establish the Grothendieck–Serre conjecture over valuation rings: for a reductive group scheme $G$ over a valuation ring $V$ with fraction field $K$, a $G$-torsor over $V$ is trivial if it is trivial over $K$. This result is predicted by the original Grothendieck–Serre conjecture and the resolution of singularities. The novelty of our proof lies in overcoming subtleties brought by general nondiscrete valuation rings. By using flasque resolutions and inducting with local cohomology, we prove a non-Noetherian counterpart of Colliot-Thélène–Sansuc's case of tori. Then, taking advantage of techniques in algebraization, we obtain the passage to the Henselian rank-one case. Finally, we induct on Levi subgroups and use the integrality of rational points of anisotropic groups to reduce to the semisimple anisotropic case, in which we appeal to properties of parahoric subgroups in Bruhat–Tits theory to conclude. In the last section, by using extension properties of reflexive sheaves on formal power series over valuation rings and patching of torsors, we prove a variant of Nisnevich's purity conjecture.

Let ${\mathfrak g}$ be a complex simple Lie algebra and ${\mathfrak n}$ the nilradical of a parabolic subalgebra of ${\mathfrak g}$. We consider some properties of the coadjoint representation of ${\mathfrak n}$ and related algebras of invariants. This includes (i) the problem of existence of generic stabilizers, (ii) a description of the Frobenius semiradical of ${\mathfrak n}$ and the Poisson center of the symmetric algebra , (iii) the structure of as -module, and (iv) the description of square integrable (= quasi-reductive) nilradicals. Our main technical tools are the Kostant cascade in the set of positive roots of ${\mathfrak g}$ and the notion of optimization of ${\mathfrak n}$.

Let G be a simple algebraic group with ${\mathfrak g}={\textrm{Lie }} G$ and ${\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}\subset{\mathfrak g}$ the minimal nilpotent orbit. For a ${\mathbb Z}_2$-grading ${\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak g}_0\oplus{\mathfrak g}_1$, let $G_0$ be a connected subgroup of G with ${\textrm{Lie }} G_0={\mathfrak g}_0$. We study the $G_0$-equivariant projections $\varphi\,:\,\overline{{\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}}\to {\mathfrak g}_0$ and $\psi:\overline{{\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}}\to{\mathfrak g}_1$. It is shown that the properties of $\overline{\varphi({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})}$ and $\overline{\psi({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})}$ essentially depend on whether the intersection ${\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}\cap{\mathfrak g}_1$ is empty or not. If ${\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}\cap{\mathfrak g}_1\ne\varnothing$, then both $\overline{\varphi({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})}$ and $\overline{\psi({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})}$ contain a 1-parameter family of closed $G_0$-orbits, while if ${\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}\cap{\mathfrak g}_1=\varnothing$, then both are $G_0$-prehomogeneous. We prove that $\overline{G{\cdot}\varphi({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})}=\overline{G{\cdot}\psi({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})}$. Moreover, if ${\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}\cap{\mathfrak g}_1\ne\varnothing$, then this common variety is the affine cone over the secant variety of ${\mathbb P}({\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}})\subset{\mathbb P}({\mathfrak g})$. As a digression, we obtain some invariant-theoretic results on the affine cone over the secant variety of the minimal orbit in an arbitrary simple G-module. In conclusion, we discuss more general projections that are related to either arbitrary reductive subalgebras of ${\mathfrak g}$ in place of ${\mathfrak g}_0$ or spherical nilpotent G-orbits in place of ${\mathcal O}_{\textsf{min}}$.

In this paper we develop a new technique for showing that a nonlinear algebraic differential equation is strongly minimal based on the recently developed notion of the degree of non-minimality of Freitag and Moosa. Our techniques are sufficient to show that generic order $h$ differential equations with non-constant coefficients are strongly minimal, answering a question of Poizat (1980).

An affine variety with an action of a semisimple group G is called “small” if every nontrivial G-orbit in X is isomorphic to the orbit of a highest weight vector. Such a variety X carries a canonical action of the multiplicative group ${\mathbb {K}^{*}}$ commuting with the G-action. We show that X is determined by the ${\mathbb {K}^{*}}$-variety $X^U$ of fixed points under a maximal unipotent subgroup $U \subset G$. Moreover, if X is smooth, then X is a G-vector bundle over the algebraic quotient $X /\!\!/ G$.

If G is of type ${\mathsf {A}_n}$ ($n\geq 2$), ${\mathsf {C}_{n}}$, ${\mathsf {E}_{6}}$, ${\mathsf {E}_{7}}$, or ${\mathsf {E}_{8}}$, we show that all affine G-varieties up to a certain dimension are small. As a consequence, we have the following result. If $n \geq 5$, every smooth affine $\operatorname {\mathrm {SL}}_n$-variety of dimension $< 2n-2$ is an $\operatorname {\mathrm {SL}}_n$-vector bundle over the smooth quotient $X /\!\!/ \operatorname {\mathrm {SL}}_n$, with fiber isomorphic to the natural representation or its dual.

We show that the only finite quasi-simple non-abelian groups that can faithfully act on rationally connected threefolds are the following groups: ${\mathfrak{A}}_5$ , ${\text{PSL}}_2(\textbf{F}_7)$ , ${\mathfrak{A}}_6$ , ${\text{SL}}_2(\textbf{F}_8)$ , ${\mathfrak{A}}_7$ , ${\text{PSp}}_4(\textbf{F}_3)$ , ${\text{SL}}_2(\textbf{F}_{7})$ , $2.{\mathfrak{A}}_5$ , $2.{\mathfrak{A}}_6$ , $3.{\mathfrak{A}}_6$ or $6.{\mathfrak{A}}_6$ . All of these groups with a possible exception of $2.{\mathfrak{A}}_6$ and $6.{\mathfrak{A}}_6$ indeed act on some rationally connected threefolds.

We classify all $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial Fano intrinsic quadrics of dimension three and Picard number one having at most canonical singularities.

We develop the formalism of universal torsors in equivariant birational geometry and apply it to produce new examples of nonbirational but stably birational actions of finite groups.

We compute the number of points over finite fields of the character stack associated to a compact surface group and a reductive group with connected centre. We find that the answer is a polynomial on residue classes (PORC). The key ingredients in the proof are Lusztig’s Jordan decomposition of complex characters of finite reductive groups and Deriziotis’s results on their genus numbers. As a consequence of our main theorem, we obtain an expression for the E-polynomial of the character stack.

In characteristic $0$ , symplectic automorphisms of K3 surfaces (i.e., automorphisms preserving the global $2$ -form) and non-symplectic ones behave differently. In this paper, we consider the actions of the group schemes $\mu _{n}$ on K3 surfaces (possibly with rational double point [RDP] singularities) in characteristic p, where n may be divisible by p. We introduce the notion of symplecticness of such actions, and we show that symplectic $\mu _{n}$ -actions have similar properties, such as possible orders, fixed loci, and quotients, to symplectic automorphisms of order n in characteristic $0$ . We also study local $\mu _n$ -actions on RDPs.

For $G = \mathrm {GL}_2, \mathrm {SL}_2, \mathrm {PGL}_2$ we compute the intersection E-polynomials and the intersection Poincaré polynomials of the G-character variety of a compact Riemann surface C and of the moduli space of G-Higgs bundles on C of degree zero. We derive several results concerning the P=W conjectures for these singular moduli spaces.

We consider G, a linear algebraic group defined over $\Bbbk $ , an algebraically closed field (ACF). By considering $\Bbbk $ as an embedded residue field of an algebraically closed valued field K, we can associate to it a compact G-space $S^\mu _G(\Bbbk )$ consisting of $\mu $ -types on G. We show that for each $p_\mu \in S^\mu _G(\Bbbk )$ , $\mathrm {Stab}^\mu (p)=\mathrm {Stab}\left (p_\mu \right )$ is a solvable infinite algebraic group when $p_\mu $ is centered at infinity and residually algebraic. Moreover, we give a description of the dimension of $\mathrm {Stab}\left (p_\mu \right )$ in terms of the dimension of p.

For a commutative ring R, we define the notions of deformed Picard algebroids and deformed twisted differential operators on a smooth, separated, locally of finite type R-scheme and prove these are in a natural bijection. We then define the pullback of a sheaf of twisted differential operators that reduces to the classical definition when R = ℂ. Finally, for modules over twisted differential operators, we prove a theorem for the descent under a locally trivial torsor.

We investigate families of minimal rational curves on Schubert varieties, their Bott–Samelson desingularizations, and their generalizations constructed by Nicolas Perrin in the minuscule case. In particular, we describe the minimal families on small resolutions of minuscule Schubert varieties.

We study exceptional Jordan algebras and related exceptional group schemes over commutative rings from a geometric point of view, using appropriate torsors to parametrize and explain classical and new constructions, and proving that over rings, they give rise to nonisomorphic structures.

We begin by showing that isotopes of Albert algebras are obtained as twists by a certain $\mathrm F_4$ -torsor with total space a group of type $\mathrm E_6$ and, using this, that Albert algebras over rings in general admit nonisomorphic isotopes even in the split case, as opposed to the situation over fields. We then consider certain $\mathrm D_4$ -torsors constructed from reduced Albert algebras, and show how these give rise to a class of generalised reduced Albert algebras constructed from compositions of quadratic forms. Showing that this torsor is nontrivial, we conclude that the Albert algebra does not uniquely determine the underlying composition, even in the split case. In a similar vein, we show that a given reduced Albert algebra can admit two coordinate algebras which are nonisomorphic and have nonisometric quadratic forms, contrary, in a strong sense, to the case over fields, established by Albert and Jacobson.

We systematically produce algebraic varieties with torus action by constructing them as suitably embedded subvarieties of toric varieties. The resulting varieties admit an explicit treatment in terms of toric geometry and graded ring theory. Our approach extends existing constructions of rational varieties with torus action of complexity one and delivers all Mori dream spaces with torus action. We exhibit the example class of ‘general arrangement varieties’ and obtain classification results in the case of complexity two and Picard number at most two, extending former work in complexity one.

We exhibit invariants of smooth projective algebraic varieties with integer values, whose nonvanishing modulo $p$ prevents the existence of an action without fixed points of certain finite $p$-groups. The case of base fields of characteristic $p$ is included. Counterexamples are systematically provided to test the sharpness of our results.

We describe all degenerations of three-dimensional anticommutative algebras $\mathfrak{A}\mathfrak{c}\mathfrak{o}\mathfrak{m}_{3}$ and of three-dimensional Leibniz algebras $\mathfrak{L}\mathfrak{e}\mathfrak{i}\mathfrak{b}_{3}$ over $\mathbb{C}$. In particular, we describe all irreducible components and rigid algebras in the corresponding varieties.