7 October Daniel Gulotta (University of Oxford) Vanishing theorems for Shimura varieties at unipotent level We prove a vanishing result for the compactly supported cohomology of certain infinite level Shimura varieties. More specifically, if X_{K_p K^p} is a Shimura variety of Hodge type for a group G that becomes split over Q_p, and K_p is a unipotent subgroup of G(Q_p), then the compactly supported p-adic etale cohomology of X_{K_p K^p} vanishes above the middle degree. We will also give an application to eliminating the nilpotent ideal in the construction of certain Galois representations. This talk is based on joint work with Ana Caraiani and Christian Johansson and on joint work with Ana Caraiani, Chi-Yun Hsu, Christian Johansson, Lucia Mocz, Emanuel Reinecke, and Sheng-Chi Shih. 14 October Sam Chow (University of Warwick) Rado's criterion over squares and higher powers Given a finite colouring of the integers, is there a monochromatic Pythagorean triple? With Sofia Lindqvist and Sean Prendiville, we provide an affirmative answer in the analogous setting of generalised Pythagorean equations in five or more variables. Moreover, we show that a diagonal equation in sufficiently many variables has this property if and only if some non-empty subset of the coefficients sums to zero, which is a higher-degree version of Rado's characterisation of the linear case. 21 October Christopher Daw (University of Reading) Unlikely intersections in the moduli space of principally polarized abelian surfaces The Zilber-Pink conjecture predicts that an irreducible algebraic curve V in $\mathcal{A}_2$, which is not contained in a proper special subvariety, has finite intersection with the special curves. The special curves in $\mathcal{A}_2$ comprise three families, namely, those curves parametrizing abelian surfaces with (1) quaternionic multiplication; (2) an isogeny to the square of an elliptic curve; (3) an isogeny to a product of elliptic curves, at least one of which has complex multiplication. In previous work, we handled the latter family assuming a large Galois orbits conjecture, and we established this conjecture when V satisfies certain conditions. In this talk, I will explain new work in which we handle the remaining families. The new ingredients are certain quantitative results in the reduction theory of algebraic groups. 28 October Sarah Peluse (University of Oxford) Bounds in the polynomial Szemerédi theorem Let P_1,...,P_m be polynomials with integer coefficients and zero constant term. Bergelson and Leibman’s polynomial generalization of Szemerédi’s theorem states that any subset A of {1,...,N} that contains no nontrivial progressions x,x+P_1(y),...,x+P_m(y) must satisfy |A|=o(N). In contrast to Szemerédi's theorem, quantitative bounds for Bergelson and Leibman's theorem (i.e., explicit bounds for this o(N) term) are not known except in very few special cases. In this talk, I will discuss recent progress on this problem. 4 November Giada Grossi (UCL) The p-part of BSD for residually reducible elliptic curves of rank one Let E be an elliptic curve over the rationals and p a prime such that E admits a rational p-isogeny satisfying some assumptions. In a joint work with J. Lee and C. Skinner, we prove the anticyclotomic Iwasawa main conjecture for E/K for some suitable quadratic imaginary field K. I will explain our strategy and how this, combined with complex and p-adic Gross-Zagier formulae allows us to prove that if E has rank one, then the p-part of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer formula for E/Q holds true. 11 November Chris Williams (University of Warwick) p-adic L-functions for symplectic representations of GL(2n) Let F be a totally real field, and let pi be an automorphic representation of GL(2n)/F that admits a Shalika model (that is, it is a transfer from GSpin(2n+1)). When pi is ordinary at p, recent independent work of Gehrman and Dimitrov--Januszewski--Raghuram gives a p-adic L-function attached to pi, that is, a p-adic measure interpolating its classical critical L-values. I will report on ongoing joint work with Daniel Barrera and Mladen Dimitrov where we generalise this to the non-ordinary case using overconvergent cohomology. Rather than standard overconvergent cohomology, defined with respect to the maximal torus in GL(2n), our results use a more flexible definition defined with respect to the subgroup GL(n) x GL(n), allowing weaker non-criticality conditions. I will start by giving a brief introduction to p-adic L-functions, and if time allows, will say a few words about our second main result, the variation of this construction in p-adic families. 18 November Matthew Bisatt (University of Bristol) Tame torsion of Jacobians and the inverse Galois problem Fix a positive integer g and prime p. Does there exist a genus g curve, defined over the rationals, such that the mod p representation of its Jacobian is everywhere tamely ramified? We will give an affirmative answer to this question via the theory of hyperelliptic Mumford curves and give an application to a variant of the inverse Galois problem. This is joint work with Tim Dokchitser. 25 November Kyle Pratt (University of Oxford) Low-lying zeros of Dirichlet L-functions I will present work in progress with Sary Drappeau and Maksym Radziwill on low-lying zeros of Dirichlet L-functions. By way of motivation I will discuss some results on the spacings of zeros of the Riemann zeta function, and the conjectures of Katz and Sarnak relating the distribution of low-lying zeros of L-functions to eigenvalues of random matrices. I will then describe some ideas behind the proof of our theorem. 2 December Pip Goodman (University of Bristol)