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Benjamin Howard

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin Howard.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

A Gross-Kohnen-Zagier formula for Heegner-Drinfeld cycles

Let $F$ be the field of rational functions on a smooth projective curve over a finite field, and let $π$ be an unramified cuspidal automorphic representation for $\mathrm{PGL}_2$ over $F$. We prove a variant of the formula of Yun and Zhang relating derivatives of the $L$-function of $π$ to the self-intersections of Heegner-Drinfeld cycles on moduli spaces of shtukas. In our variant, instead of a self-intersection, we compute the intersection pairing of Heegner-Drinfeld cycles coming from two different quadratic extensions of $F$, and relate the intersection to the $r$-th derivative of a product of two toric period integrals.

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arXiv2018

On the averaged Colmez conjecture

This is an expository article on the averaged version of Colmez's conjecture, relating Faltings heights of CM abelian varieties to Artin L-functions. It is based on the author's lectures at the Current Developments in Mathematics conference held at Harvard in 2018.

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arXiv2017

Faltings heights of abelian varieties with complex multiplication

Let M be the Shimura variety associated with the group of spinor similitudes of a rational quadratic space over of signature (n,2). We prove a conjecture of Bruinier-Kudla-Yang, relating the arithmetic intersection multiplicities of special divisors and big CM points on M to the central derivatives of certain $L$-functions. As an application of this result, we prove an averaged version of Colmez's conjecture on the Faltings heights of CM abelian varieties.

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arXiv2016

Height pairings on orthogonal Shimura varieties

Let $M$ be the Shimura variety associated to the group of spinor similitudes of a quadratic space over $\mathbb{Q}$ of signature $(n,2)$. We prove a conjecture of Bruinier and Yang, relating the arithmetic intersection multiplicities of special divisors and CM points on $M$ to the central derivatives of certain $L$-functions. Each such $L$-function is the Rankin-Selberg convolution associated with a cusp form of half-integral weight $n/2 +1 $, and the weight $n/2$ theta series of a positive definite quadratic space of rank $n$. When $n=1$ the Shimura variety $M$ is a classical quaternionic Shimura curve, and our result is a variant of the Gross-Zagier theorem on heights of Heegner points.

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arXiv2014

Heights of Kudla-Rapoport divisors and derivatives of L-functions

We study special cycles on integral models of Shimura varieties associated with unitary similitude groups of signature (n-1,1). We construct an arithmetic theta lift from harmonic Maass forms of weight 2-n to the arithmetic Chow group of the integral model of a unitary Shimura variety, by associating to a harmonic Maass form f a linear combination of Kudla-Rapoport divisors, equipped with the Green function given by the regularized theta lift of f. Our main result is an equality of two complex numbers: (1) the height pairing of the arithmetic theta lift of f against a CM cycle, and (2) the central derivative of the convolution L-function of a weight n cusp form (depending on f) and the theta function of a positive definite hermitian lattice of rank n-1. When specialized to the case n=2, this result can be viewed as a variant of the Gross-Zagier formula for Shimura curves associated to unitary groups of signature (1,1). The proof relies on, among other things, a new method for computing improper arithmetic intersections.

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arXiv2014

Configuration spaces of complex and real spheres

We study the GIT-quotient of the Cartesian power of projective space modulo the projective orthogonal group. A classical isomorphism of this group with the Inversive group of birational transformations of the projective space of one dimension less allows one to interpret these spaces as configuration spaces of complex or real spheres.

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arXiv2014

Complex multiplication cycles and Kudla-Rapoport divisors II

This paper is about the arithmetic of Kudla-Rapoport divisors on Shimura varieties of type GU(n-1,1). In the first part of the paper we construct a toroidal compactification of N. Kramer's integral model of the Shimura variety. This extends work of K.-W. Lan, who constructed a compactification at unramified primes. In the second, and main, part of the paper we use ideas of Kudla to construct Green functions for the Kudla-Rapoport divisors on the open Shimura variety, and analyze the behavior of these functions near the boundary of the compactification. The Green functions turn out to have logarithmic singularities along certain components of the boundary, up to log-log error terms. Thus, by adding a prescribed linear combination of boundary components to a Kudla-Rapoport divisor one obtains a class in the arithmetic Chow group of Burgos-Kramer-Kuhn. In the third and final part of the paper we compute the arithmetic intersection of each of these divisors with a cycle of complex multiplication points. The computation is quickly reduced to the calculations of the author's earlier work Complex multiplication cycles and Kudla-Rapoport divisors. The arithmetic intersection multiplicities are shown to appear as Fourier coefficients of the diagonal restriction of the central derivative of a Hilbert modular Eisenstein series.

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arXiv2014

The ring of evenly weighted points on the line

Let $M_w = (\Pj^1)^n \q \mathrm{SL}_2$ denote the geometric invariant theory quotient of $(\Pj^1)^n$ by the diagonal action of $\mathrm{SL}_2$ using the line bundle $\mathcal{O}(w_1,w_2,...,w_n)$ on $(\Pj^1)^n$. Let $R_w$ be the coordinate ring of $M_w$. We give a closed formula for the Hilbert function of $R_w$, which allows us to compute the degree of $M_w$. The graded parts of $R_w$ are certain Kostka numbers, so this Hilbert function computes stretched Kostka numbers. If all the weights $w_i$ are even, we find a presentation of $R_w$ so that the ideal $I$ of this presentation has a quadratic Gröbner basis. In particular, $R_w$ is Koszul. We obtain this result by studying the homogeneous coordinate ring of a projective toric variety arising as a degeneration of $M_w$.

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arXiv2013

Complex multiplication cycles and Kudla-Rapoport divisors

We study the intersections of special cycles on a unitary Shimura variety of signature (n-1,1), and show that the intersection multiplicities of these cycles agree with Fourier coefficients of Eisenstein series. The results are new cases of conjectures of Kudla, and suggest a Gross-Zagier theorem for unitary Shimura varieties.

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arXiv2012

The Heegner point Kolyvagin system

Perrin-Riou has formulated a form of the Iwasawa main conjecture, which relates Heegner points to the Selmer group of an elliptic curve as one goes up the anticyclotomic Z_p extension of a quadratic imaginary field K. Building on the earlier work of Bertolini on this conjecture, and making use of the recent work of Mazur and Rubin on Kolyvagin's theory of Euler systems, we prove one divisibility of Perrin-Riou's conjectured equality. As a consequence, one obtains an upper bound on the rank of the Mordell-Weil group E(K) in terms of Heegner points.

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arXiv2012

Iwasawa theory of Heegner points on abelian varieties of GL_2 type

In an earlier paper the author proved one divisibility of Perrin- Riou's Iwasawa main conjecture for Heegner points on elliptic curves. In the present paper, that result is generalized to abelian varieties of GL2-type (i.e. abelian varieties with real multiplication defined over totally real fields) under the hypothesis that the abelian variety is associated to a Hilbert modular form via a construction of Zhang.

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arXiv2012

Derived p-adic heights and p-adic L-functions

If E is an elliptic curve defined over a number field and p is a prime of good ordinary reduction for E, a theorem of Rubin relates the p-adic height pairing on the p-power Selmer group of E to the first derivative of a cohomologically defined p-adic L-function attached to E. Bertolini and Darmon have defined a sequence of "derived" p-adic heights. In this paper we give an alternative definition of the p-adic height pairing and prove a generalization of Rubin's result, relating the derived heights to higher derivatives of p-adic L-functions. We also relate degeneracies in the derived heights to the failure of the Selmer group of E over a Z_p-extension to be "semi-simple" as an Iwasawa module, generalizing results of Perrin-Riou.

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arXiv2012

The Iwasawa-theoretic Gross-Zagier theorem

We prove Mazur and Rubin's Iwasawa-theoretic Gross-Zagier conjecture (under some restrictive hypotheses), which relates Heegner points in towers of number fields to the 2-variable p-adic L-function. The result generalizes Perrin-Riou's p-adic Gross-Zagier theorem.

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arXiv2012

Bipartite Euler systems

If E is an elliptic curve over Q and K is an imaginary quadratic field, there is an Iwasawa main conjecture predicting the behavior of the Selmer group of E over the anticyclotomic Z_p-extension of K. The main conjecture takes different forms depending on the sign of the functional equation of L(E/K,s). In the present work we combine ideas of Bertolini and Darmon with those of Mazur and Rubin to shown that the main conjecture, regardless of the sign of the functional equation, can be reduced to proving the nonvanishing of sufficiently many p-adic L-functions attached to a family of congruent modular forms.

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arXiv2012

Special cohomology classes for modular Galois representations

Building on ideas of Vatsal, Cornut proved a conjecture of Mazur asserting the generic nonvanishing of Heegner points on an elliptic curve E as one ascends the anticyclotomic Z_p-extension of a quadratic imaginary extension K/Q. In the present article Cornut's result is extended by replacing the elliptic curve E with the Galois cohomology of Deligne's 2-dimensional l-adic representation attached to a modular form of weight 2k>2, and replacing the family of Heegner points with an analogous family of special cohomology classes.

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arXiv2012

Central derivatives of L-functions in Hida families

We prove a result of the following type: given a Hida family of modular forms, if there exists a weight two form in the family whose L-function vanishes to exact order one at s=1, then all but finitely many weight two forms in the family enjoy this same property. The analogous result for order of vanishing zero is also true, and is an easy consequence of the existence of the Mazur-Kitagawa two-variable p-adic L-function.

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arXiv2012

Twisted Gross-Zagier theorems

The theorems of Gross-Zagier and Zhang relate the Néron-Tate heights of complex multiplication points on the modular curve X_0(N) (and on Shimura curve analogues) with the central derivatives of automorphic L-functions. We extend these results to include certain CM points on Shimura curves of higher level structure. These results are motivated by applications to Hida theory which are described in the companion article "Central derivatives of L-functions in Hida families."

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