arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ross Paterson.
A conjecture of Malle predicts the quantity of number fields with bounded discriminant of given Galois group. We present a lower bound matching this in the case of quartic fields with Galois group $A_4$.
For every $n \geq 2$ we determine the asymptotic formula for the number of integer triples $(a,b,c)$ of bounded absolute value such that the generalised Fermat equation given by $ax^n+by^n+cz^n=0$ is everywhere locally soluble. We compute the leading constant, answering a question of Loughran--Rome--Sofos, and determine that the conjectures of Loughran--Smeets and Loughran--Rome--Sofos hold for such equations.
Let K be a multiquadratic number field. We investigate the average dimension of 2-Selmer groups over K for the family of all elliptic curves over the rational numbers (ordered by height). We give upper and lower bounds for this average. In the special case of quadratic fields, these bounds are arbitrarily close for a positive proportion of K. Our bounds are achieved by studying the genus theory invariant for 2-Selmer groups over such fields, whose average we similarly bound and, in many cases, determine. We make use of a variant of the Ekedahl sieve for local sums, which we present in appropriate generality for further applications.
Let $D\neq 1$ be a fixed squarefree integer. For elliptic curves $E/\mathbb{Q}$, writing $E_D$ for the quadratic twist by $D$, we consider the question of how often $E(\mathbb{Q})$ and $E_D(\mathbb{Q})$ generate $E(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{D}))$. We bound the proportion of $E/\mathbb{Q}$, ordered by height, for which this is not the case, showing that it is very small for typical $D$. The central theorem is concerned with intersections of 2-Selmer groups of quadratic twists. We establish their average size in terms of a product of local densities. We additionally propose a heuristic model for these intersections, which explains our result and similar results in the literature. This heuristic predicts further results in other families.
We study the behaviour of conductors of L-functions associated to certain Weil--Deligne representations under twisting. For each global field K we prove a sharp upper bound for the conductor of the Rankin--Selberg L-function associated to a pair of abelian varieties.
We show that if F is the rational numbers or a multiquadratic number field, p is 2,3, or 5, and K/F is a Galois extension of degree a power of p, then for elliptic curves E/Q ordered by height, the average dimension of the p-Selmer groups of E/K is bounded. In particular, this provides a bound for the average K-rank of elliptic curves E/Q for such K. Additionally, we give bounds for certain representation-theoretic invariants of Mordell--Weil groups over Galois extensions of such F. The central result is: for each finite Galois extension K/F of number fields and prime number p, as E/Q varies, the difference in dimension between the Galois fixed space in the p-Selmer group of E/K and the p-Selmer group of E/F has bounded average.
Let $E/\mathbb{Q}$ be an elliptic curve with full rational 2-torsion. As d varies over squarefree integers, we study the behaviour of the quadratic twists $E_d$ over a fixed quadratic extension $K/\mathbb{Q}$. We prove that for 100% of twists the dimension of the 2-Selmer group over K is given by an explicit local formula, and use this to show that this dimension follows an Erd\H{o}s--Kac type distribution. This is in stark contrast to the distribution of the dimension of the corresponding 2-Selmer groups over $\mathbb{Q}$, and this discrepancy allows us to determine the distribution of the 2-torsion in the Shafarevich--Tate groups of the $E_d$ over K also. As a consequence of our methods we prove that, for 100% of twists d, the action of $\operatorname{Gal}(K/\mathbb{Q})$ on the 2-Selmer group of $E_d$ over K is trivial, and the Mordell--Weil group $E_d(K)$ splits integrally as a direct sum of its invariants and anti-invariants. On the other hand, we give examples of thin families of quadratic twists in which a positive proportion of the 2-Selmer groups over K have non-trivial $\operatorname{Gal}(K/\mathbb{Q})$-action, illustrating that the previous results are genuinely statistical phenomena.