arXiv subjects

Johannes Schmitt

Publications and source records attributed to Johannes Schmitt.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Motivic Euler characteristics of moduli spaces of curves

A combination of recent results of Canning--Larson--Payne--Willwacher and Payne--Willwacher is that the motivic Euler characteristic of the moduli space $M_{g,n}$ of nonsingular curves with $n$ markings is polynomial in the Tate motive if and only if $g=0$ or $3g+2n<25$. In the cases when $g\geq 1$ and $3g+2n<25$, there are $32$ pairs $(g,n)$ where the motivic Euler characteristic has been computed. We compute the motivic Euler characteristic for $9$ more pairs, leaving only $6$ pairs where the motivic Euler characteristic is polynomial but unknown. In genus $4$, we moreover compute the answer when $n=7$, i.e.~the first non-polynomial case.

math.AG↗

arXiv2026

Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics

This declaration calls for action to address the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence within mathematics research. Technological developments have repeatedly transformed the practice of mathematics. Recent artificial intelligence technologies, including symbolic and neural methods for the generation and formalization of mathematics, may already have initiated a significant chapter in this long history. Among researchers, artificial intelligence has produced a wide range of reactions: enthusiasm for its potential to yield new discoveries; intimidation by the pace of developments; indifference to these rapid changes; and concern for the implications, both for mathematics and in wider society. Mathematicians have a choice about whether and how to adopt artificial intelligence in the conduct of their research. They also have a responsibility to ensure the continued flourishing of the discipline. This Declaration calls upon mathematicians to exercise this responsibility, and provides recommendations for individuals, institutions, government, and industry. Although we adopt the perspective of mathematical research, much of what we write applies equally to other aspects of mathematics. This includes work in the broader mathematical sciences, education, mentoring, publishing, funding, science policy, and use of mathematics in the wider world.

math.HO↗

arXiv2026

Euler characteristics of strata of $k$-differentials

We compute the orbifold Euler characteristics of strata of $k$-differentials on the moduli space of smooth pointed curves. Our main result is a closed coefficient-extraction formula in terms of hyperbolic functions, valid for arbitrary strata and generalizing the Harer--Zagier formula for the Euler characteristic of the moduli space of curves. In particular, these Euler characteristics are polynomial in the prescribed orders at the marked points. The proof first uses Riemann--Roch and Serre duality to reduce the computation to the Hurwitz case $k=0$, which is then evaluated using the representation theory of the symmetric group and Fock-space techniques. We also give an intersection-theoretic expression for the same invariants as tautological integrals over double ramification cycles and derive a recursion which uniquely determines them from genus zero. For odd $k$ and odd orders, we introduce a spin-weighted refinement and formulate corresponding closed and intersection-theoretic conjectural expressions. Finally, we determine the large-genus asymptotics of the Euler characteristics.

math.AG↗

arXiv2026

The Gorenstein property and Pixton's conjecture for compact type moduli

We show that the tautological ring of $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}^{\mathrm{ct}}$ is not Gorenstein for $g\geq 2$ and $2g+n\geq 12$. We prove new cases of Pixton's conjecture that the $3$-spin relations are a complete set of relations for the tautological ring, including $\mathcal{M}_{6}^{\mathrm{ct}}$, $\mathcal{M}_{5,2}^{\mathrm{ct}}$, and $\mathcal{M}_7^{\mathrm{ct}}$. These are the first known cases where Pixton's conjecture is true, but the tautological ring is not Gorenstein. These results are also a key ingredient in recent work on non-tautological cycles on the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties.

math.AG↗

arXiv2026

On Normalizers of Parabolic Subgroups of Quaternionic Reflection Groups

By work of Howlett and Muraleedaran--Taylor, a parabolic subgroup of a real or complex reflection group always admits a complement in its normalizer. In this note, we investigate this phenomenon for quaternionic reflection groups. Here, in contrast to the real and complex setting, we find that complements of parabolic subgroups do not exist in general. Indeed, there are infinitely many examples of quaternionic reflection groups in arbitrary rank greater than 2 with a parabolic subgroup that does not admit a complement in its normalizer. We give a full classification of parabolic subgroups of irreducible quaternionic reflection groups and describe their complements, if the latter exist.

math.GR↗

arXiv2026

Invariants in the cohomology of the complement of quaternionic reflection arrangements

Let $\mathcal A$ be a hyperplane arrangement in a vector space $V$ and $G \leq GL(V)$ a group fixing $\mathcal A$. In case when $G$ is a complex reflection group and $\mathcal A=\mathcal A(G)$ is its reflection arrangement in $V$, Douglass, Pfeiffer, and Röhrle studied the invariants of the $Q G$-module $H^*(M(\mathcal A);Q)$, the rational, singular cohomology of the complement space $M(\mathcal A)$ in $V$. In this paper we generalize the work in Douglass, Pfeiffer, and Röhrle to the case of quaternionic reflection groups, first classified by Cohen in 1980. We obtain a straightforward generalization of the Hilbert--Poincaré series of the ring of invariants in the cohomology from the complex case when the quaternionic reflection group is complex-reducible according to Cohen's classification. Surprisingly, only one additional family of new types of Poincaré polynomials occurs in the quaternionic setting which is not realised in the complex case, namely those of a particular class of imprimitive irreducible quaternionic reflection groups. We utilize a new description of the lattices of intersections of imprimitive groups as Dowling lattices. Finally, we discuss bases of the space of $G$-invariants in $H^*(M(\mathcal A);Q)$.

math.RT↗

arXiv2026

Humanity's Last Exam

Benchmarks are important tools for tracking the rapid advancements in large language model (LLM) capabilities. However, benchmarks are not keeping pace in difficulty: LLMs now achieve over 90\% accuracy on popular benchmarks like MMLU, limiting informed measurement of state-of-the-art LLM capabilities. In response, we introduce Humanity's Last Exam (HLE), a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, designed to be the final closed-ended academic benchmark of its kind with broad subject coverage. HLE consists of 2,500 questions across dozens of subjects, including mathematics, humanities, and the natural sciences. HLE is developed globally by subject-matter experts and consists of multiple-choice and short-answer questions suitable for automated grading. Each question has a known solution that is unambiguous and easily verifiable, but cannot be quickly answered via internet retrieval. State-of-the-art LLMs demonstrate low accuracy and calibration on HLE, highlighting a significant gap between current LLM capabilities and the expert human frontier on closed-ended academic questions. To inform research and policymaking upon a clear understanding of model capabilities, we publicly release HLE at https://lastexam.ai.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2026

Namikawa--Weyl groups of symplectic quotient singularities

We classify the Namikawa--Weyl groups associated to symplectic quotient singularities $V/G$ when $G$ is a symplectic reflection group. Our classification shows that every irreducible Weyl group can be realized as a factor of the Namikawa--Weyl group of $V/G$ for a suitable $G$.

math.SG↗

arXiv2026

Universal compactified Jacobians: cohomological invariance and boundary combinatorics

Pagani and Tommasi have introduced a class of smoothable fine compactified Jacobians $\overline{\mathcal{J}}_{g,n}^d(σ)\rightarrow \overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ over the moduli space of stable curves, depending nontrivially on the degree $d$ and the choice of a stability condition $σ$. A theorem of Migliorini-Shende-Viviani implies that the cohomology of $\overline{\mathcal{J}}_{g,n}^d(σ)$ is independent of $d$ and $σ$, a statement which is quite unexpected from the point of view of the boundary geometry of these spaces. We reprove this independence statement using a direct combinatorial argument, summing up contributions of individual strata. The Appendix includes a result by J. Feusi characterizing when $\mathcal{J}_{g,n}^d$ and $\mathcal{J}_{g,n}^{d'}$ are $S_n$-equivariantly isomorphic over $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$, and a result by Q. Yin showing that $[\mathcal{J}^d_g]$ and $[\mathcal{J}^{d'}_g]$ are not always equal in $K_0(\text{Var}_{\mathbb{C}})$.

math.AG↗

arXiv2026

ProofCouncil: An LLM Agent for Solving Open Mathematical Problems

Large language models (LLMs) have shown increasing promise in solving open problems in mathematics. However, their performance can be further improved through agentic workflows tailored to real-world mathematical practice. To this end, we introduce ProofCouncil, a mathematical agent that is designed to tackle open problems using an author-critic architecture. ProofCouncil served as a submission to the second batch of FirstProof, a challenge consisting of 10 real-world mathematical problems that agents must solve autonomously. Its submissions for 6 of the 10 problems were judged by the referees to be correct up to at most minor revisions, showing the best performance among participating teams. We also evaluate ProofCouncil on 30 open problems collected from mathematical researchers. Among the 21 solutions that received human feedback, 5 were judged completely correct, 2 more were judged promising pending final verification, and a further 8 contained useful partial progress. In this short paper, we describe the development of ProofCouncil and the agent-building library used to create it, which we release as open source to the community.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2026

IMProofBench: Benchmarking AI on Research-Level Mathematical Proof Generation

As the mathematical capabilities of large language models (LLMs) improve, it becomes increasingly important to evaluate their performance on research-level tasks at the frontier of mathematical knowledge. However, existing benchmarks are limited, as they focus solely on final-answer questions or high-school competition problems. To address this gap, we introduce IMProofBench, a private benchmark consisting of 77 peer-reviewed problems developed by expert mathematicians. Each problem requires a detailed proof and is paired with subproblems that have final answers, supporting both an evaluation by human experts and a large-scale quantitative analysis through automated grading. Furthermore, unlike prior benchmarks, the evaluation setup simulates a realistic research environment: models operate in an agentic framework with tools like web search for literature review and mathematical software such as SageMath. Our results show that current LLMs can already solve a significant percentage of research-level questions. IMProofBench will continue to evolve as a dynamic benchmark in collaboration with the mathematical community, ensuring its relevance for evaluating the next generation of LLMs.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

Human vs Machine Mathematical Difficulty on Project Euler: An Experimental Analysis

We study how the effort and success probability of frontier AI systems scale with human difficulty on problems from Project Euler, an online platform of computational mathematics problems. Our dataset, from the MathArena benchmark, consists of 3840 attempts across 50 problems and 26 model configurations, with problem difficulty measured by the site's public human solve times. Motivated by a proposal of Timothy Gowers, we test a power-law relation $t_{\text{machine}} = a \cdot t_{\text{human}}^b$ between generated-token cost per successful answer and human time, and find $b < 1$ for 20 of the 25 models with usable fits, including the strongest base models; this operationalization therefore does not support an earlier prediction that machines scale worse than humans with difficulty. We also investigate whether success probability on the tested problems can be modeled by a simple exponential decay $p_{\text{success}} = e^{c t_{\text{human}}}$, predicting a linear relation between $\log p_{\text{success}}$ and $t_{\text{human}}$. Using a binning approach for data aggregation we find moderate empirical support (median bin-level $R^2 = 0.92$ across the 22 best-covered configurations) for this model. Following METR, we also fit logistic success curves and extract 50\% task-length horizons $h_{50}$; the strongest configurations in our 20 April 2026 snapshot reach roughly $2.5$--$4.3$ hours on our fastest-five human baseline, with a log-linear fit through the state-of-the-art frontier giving a descriptive doubling time of about $75$~days for the SOTA $h_{50}$.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2026

Torelli loci, product cycles, and the homomorphism conjecture for $\mathcal{A}_g$

The tautological $\mathbb{Q}$-subalgebra $\mathsf{R}^*(\mathcal{A}_g) \subset \mathsf{CH}^*(\mathcal{A}_g)$ of the Chow ring of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties is generated by the Chern classes of the Hodge bundle. There is a canonical $\mathbb{Q}$-linear projection operator $\mathsf{taut}: \mathsf{CH}^*(\mathcal{A}_g) \rightarrow \mathsf{R}^*(\mathcal{A}_g).$ We present here new calculations of intersection products of the Torelli locus in $\mathcal{A}_g$ with the product loci $\mathcal{A}_{r}\times \mathcal{A}_{g-r} \rightarrow \mathcal{A}_g$ for $r\leq 3$. The results suggest that $\mathsf{taut}$ is a $\mathbb{Q}$-algebra homomorphism, at least for special cycles. We discuss a conjectural framework for this homomorphism property. Our calculations follow two independent approaches. The first is a direct study of the excess intersection geometry of the fiber product of the Torelli and product morphisms. The second recasts the geometry in terms of families Gromov-Witten classes, which are computed by a wall-crossing formula related to unramified maps. We define tautological projections of cycles on the fiber products $\mathcal X_g^s \to \mathcal A_g$ of the universal family. We compute these projections for a class of product cycles on $\mathcal X_g^s$ in terms of a determinant involving the universal theta divisors and Poincaré classes. Using Abel-Jacobi pullbacks of product cycles on $\mathcal X_g^s$ and their projections, we construct a new family of classes which we conjecture to lie in the Gorenstein kernels of the tautological rings $\mathsf{R}^*(\mathcal M^{\mathrm{ct}}_{g,n})$. In particular, we construct nontrivial elements of the Gorenstein kernels of $\mathsf{R}^5(\mathcal{M}_{5,2}^{\mathrm{ct}})$ and $\mathsf{R}^5(\mathcal{M}_{4,4}^{\mathrm{ct}})$.

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

Extremal descendant integrals on moduli spaces of curves: An inequality discovered and proved in collaboration with AI

For the pure $ψ$-class intersection numbers $D(\textbf{e})=\langle τ_{e_1} \cdots τ_{e_n} \rangle_g$ on the moduli space $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ of stable curves, we determine for which choices of $\textbf{e}=(e_1, \ldots, e_n)$ the value of $D(\textbf{e})$ becomes extremal. The intersection number is minimal for powers of a single $ψ$-class (i.e. all $e_i$ but one vanish), whereas maximal values are obtained for balanced vectors ($|e_i - e_j| \leq 1$ for all $i,j$). The proof uses the nefness of the $ψ$-classes combined with Khovanskii--Teissier log-concavity. Apart from the mathematical content, this paper is also meant as an experiment in collaborations between human mathematicians and AI models: the proof of the above result was found and formulated by the AI models GPT-5 and Gemini 3 Pro. Large parts of the paper were drafted by Claude Opus 4.5, and a part of the argument was formalized in Lean with the help of Claude Code and GPT-5.2. The paper aims for maximal transparency on the authorship of different sections and the employed AI tools (including prompts and conversation logs).

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

Homogeneous Khovanskii bases and MUVAK bases

In 2019, Kaveh and Manon introduced Khovanskii bases as a special 'Gröbner-like' generating system of an algebra. We extend their work by considering an arbitrary grading on the algebra and propose a definition for a 'homogeneous Khovanskii basis' that respects this grading. We generalize Khovanskii bases further by taking multiple valuations into account (MUVAK bases). We give algorithms in both cases. MUVAK bases appear in the computation of the Cox ring of a minimal model of a quotient singularity. Our algorithm is an improvement of an algorithm by Yamagishi in this situation.

math.AC↗

arXiv2025

A tale of two moduli spaces: logarithmic and multi-scale differentials

Multi-scale differentials were constructed by M.~Bainbridge, D.~Chen, Q.~Gendron, S.~Grushevsky, and M.~Möller, from the viewpoint of flat and complex geometry, for the purpose of compactifying moduli spaces of curves together with a differential with prescribed orders of zeros and poles. Logarithmic differentials were constructed by S.~Marcus and J.~Wise, as a generalization of stable rubber maps from Gromov--Witten theory. Modulo the global residue condition that isolates the main components of the compactification, we show that these two kinds of differentials are equivalent, and establish an isomorphism of their (coarse) moduli stacks. Moreover, we describe the rubber and multi-scale spaces as an explicit blowup of the moduli space of stable pointed rational curves in the case of genus zero, and as a global blowup of the incidence variety compactification for arbitrary genera, which implies their projectivity. We also propose a refined double ramification cycle formula in the twisted Hodge bundle which interacts with the universal line bundle class.

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

One part leaky covers

In our previous work [CMS24] we defined a new class of enumerative invariants called $k$-leaky double Hurwitz descendants, generalizing both descendant integrals of double ramification cycles and $k$-leaky double Hurwitz numbers. Here, we focus on the one-part version of these numbers, i.e.\ when the positive ramification profile is $(d)$. We derive recursions and use them to produce explicit formulas and structure results for some infinite families of these numbers.

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

Admissible covers and stable maps

Moduli spaces of admissible covers and stable maps of target curves give rise to cycles on $\overline{M}_{g,n}$. We prove a formula relating these cycles. It recovers both the Ekedahl-Lando-Shapiro-Vainshtein formula and the Gromov-Witten/Hurwitz correspondence, providing a cycle-theoretic refinement thereof. The formula is verified computationally in low-genus cases with the help of Johannes Schmitt.

math.AG↗