Author Archives: Persiflage

Upcoming Attractions

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Persiflage

There’s a packed schedule for graduate classes at Chicago next Fall: Ngô Bảo Châu on automorphic forms (TueTh 11:00-12:30), Akhil Mathew on perfectoid spaces (MWF 12:30-1:30), and George Boxer and me on (higher) Hida theory (MW 1:30-3:00). Strap yourself in! … Continue reading →

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Nobody Cares About Your Paper

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Persiflage

I handle quite a few papers (though far fewer than other editors I know) as an associate editor at Mathematische Zeitschrift. Since the acceptance rate at Math Zeit is something in the neighbourhood of 20%, there are certainly good papers … Continue reading →

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Chicago Seminar Roundup

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Persiflage

Here are two questions I had about the past two number theory seminars. I haven’t had the opportunity to think about either of them seriously, so they may be easy (or more likely stupid). Anthony Várilly-Alvarado: Honestly, I’ve never quite … Continue reading →

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The boundaries of Sato-Tate, part I

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Persiflage

A caveat: the following questions are so obvious that they have surely been asked elsewhere, and possibly given much more convincing answers. References welcome! The Sato-Tate conjecture implies that the normalized trace of Frobenius \(b_p \in [-2,2]\) for a non-CM … Continue reading →

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Australiana

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Persiflage

Some short observations from my recent trip: Only in the same sense as Captain Renault could you possibly be shocked (shocked!) by what Bancroft drops into his pants. The 90th percentile quality coffee in Melbourne (random mall coffee) is at … Continue reading →

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Fan Mail

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Persiflage

Edit: A previous version of this post has been edited upon request. Somewhat less salaciously, I received a Christmas card from an academic couple of whom I am absolutely sure I have never met. (I just checked my mailbox at … Continue reading →

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Alinea

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Persiflage

Fresh off my dining experiences in Jerusalem, I returned home for some more local dining. From smoked juniper bushes to edible stones, I arrived at Alinea fearing that I would be underwhelmed but left leaving very happy. Rather than try … Continue reading →

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This year in Jerusalem

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Persiflage

I just returned from spending almost a week in Jerusalem (my first ever visit to Israel). The main reason for my visit was to talk with Alex Lubotzky (and Shai Evra) about mathematics, but there was plenty of time for … Continue reading →

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The paramodular conjecture is false for trivial reasons

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Persiflage

(This is part of a series of occasional posts discussing results and observations in my joint paper with Boxer, Gee, and Pilloni mentioned here.) Brumer and Kramer made a conjecture positing a bijection between isogeny classes of abelian surfaces \(A/\mathbf{Q}\) … Continue reading →

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Hiring Season

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Persiflage

Lizard 1: Wait, explain again why we bury our young in the sand and thereby place them into mortal peril? Lizard 2: So they develop character! If it was good enough for me, it’s good enough for them. (Feel free … Continue reading →

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