Using the Dedekind zeta function, one can randomly select an ideal in a Dedekind domain. Then the factorization of the randomly selected ideal into a product of prime ideals has very nice statistical properties. Using these properties one can examine the number of distinct prime ideals there are in the factorization and prove a central limit theorem as a certain parameter tends to one. This talk is based on joint work with E. Hsu.

In this talk, we study arithmetic properties of the pentagram map, a dynamical system on convex polygons in the real projective plane. The map sends a polygon to the shape formed by intersecting certain diagonals. This simple operation turns out to define a discrete integrable system, meaning roughly that it can be viewed as a translation map on a family of tori. We show that the pentagram map’s first or second iterate is birational to a translation on a family of Jacobian varieties of algebraic curves. In work in progress, we explore the question of which pentagram-like maps are integrable vs. chaotic. 

The classical Sylvester-Gallai theorem says that if a finite set of points in the Euclidean plane has the property that the line joining any two points contains a third point from the set, then all the points must be collinear. More generally, a Sylvester-Gallai type configuration is a finite set of geometric objects with certain "local" dependencies. A remarkable phenomenon is that the local constraints give rise to global dimension bounds for linear SG-type configurations, and such results have found far reaching applications to complexity theory and coding theory.

In this talk we will discuss non-linear generalizations of SG-type configurations which consist of polynomials. We will discuss how the commutative-algebraic principle of Stillman uniformity can shed light on low dimensionality of SG-configurations. I’ll talk about recent progress showing that these non-linear SG-type configurations are indeed low-dimensional as conjectured by Gupta. This is based on joint work with R. Oliveira.

The famous primitive element theorem states that every number field K is of the form Q(a) for some element a in K, called a primitive element. In fact, it is clear from the proof of this theorem that not only there are infinitely many such primitive elements in K, but in fact most elements in K are primitive. This observation raises the question about finding a primitive element of small “size”, where the standard way of measuring size is with the use of a height function. We discuss some conjectures and known results in this direction, as well as some of our recent work on a variation of this problem which includes some additional avoidance conditions. Joint work with Lenny Fukshansky at Claremont McKenna College.