Related papers: The Casas-Alvero conjecture for infinitely many de…

A celebrated theorem of Shoda states that over any field K (of characteristic 0), every matrix with trace 0 can be expressed as a commutator AB-BA, or, equivalently, that the set of values of the polynomial f(x,y)=xy-yx on the nxn-matrix…

The inverse conjecture for the Gowers norms $U^d(V)$ for finite-dimensional vector spaces $V$ over a finite field $\F$ asserts, roughly speaking, that a bounded function $f$ has large Gowers norm $\|f\|_{U^d(V)}$ if and only if it…

Let F = F_p for any fixed prime p >= 2. An affine-invariant property is a property of functions on F^n that is closed under taking affine transformations of the domain. We prove that all affine-invariant property having local…

Given a separable nonconstant polynomial $f(x)$ with integer coefficients, we consider the set $S$ consisting of the squarefree parts of all the rational values of $f(x)$, and study its behavior modulo primes. Fixing a prime $p$, we…

An outstanding conjecture on roots of Ehrhart polynomials says that all roots $\alpha$ of the Ehrhart polynomial of an integral convex polytope of dimension $d$ satisfy $-d \leq \Re(\alpha) \leq d-1$. In this paper, we suggest some…

Borwein and Choi conjectured that a polynomial $P(x)$ with coefficients $\pm1$ of degree $N-1$ is cyclotomic iff $$P(x)=\pm \Phi_{p_1}(\pm x)\Phi_{p_2}(\pm x^{p_1})\cdots \Phi_{p_r}(\pm x^{p_1p_2\cdots p_{r-1}})$$ where $N=p_1p_2\cdots…

We show that algebraic formulas and constant-depth circuits are closed under taking factors. In other words, we show that if a multivariate polynomial over a field of characteristic zero has a small constant-depth circuit or formula, then…

Let $g(x)$ be a fixed non-constant complex polynomial. It was conjectured by Schinzel that if $g(h(x))$ has boundedly many terms, then $h(x)\in \C[x]$ must also have boundedly many terms. Solving an older conjecture raised by R\'enyi and by…

In a first (theoretical) part of this paper, we prove a number of constraints on hypothetical counterexamples to the Casas-Alvero conjecture, building on ideas of Graf von Bothmer, Labs, Schicho and van de Woestijne that were recently…

For any real polynomial $p(x)$ of even degree $n$, Shapiro [{\it Arnold Math. J.} 1(1) (2015), 91--99] conjectured that the sum of the number of real zeros of $(n-1)(p')^2 - np p''$ and the number of real zeros of $p$ is positive. We…

Let $p$ be a fixed prime number, and $N$ be a large integer. The 'Inverse Conjecture for the Gowers norm' states that if the "$d$-th Gowers norm" of a function $f:\F_p^N \to \F_p$ is non-negligible, that is larger than a constant…

Let $X\subset\mathbb P^4$ be a very general hypersurface of degree $d\ge6$. Griffiths and Harris conjectured in 1985 that the degree of every curve $C\subset X$ is divisible by $d$. Despite substantial progress by Koll\'ar in 1991, this…

In the classical theory of $L$-series, the exact order (of zero) at a trivial zero is easily computed via the functional equation. In the characteristic $p$ theory, it has long been known that a functional equation of classical $s\mapsto…

In a recent paper, the first author proved the log-concavity of the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of a matroid realizable over a field of characteristic 0, answering a long-standing conjecture of Read in graph theory. We…

We prove a nearly polynomial inverse theorem for the Gowers $U^d$ norm, over finite fields of non-small characteristic, for polynomials of degree $d+1$. The case of degree $d$ was very recently settled by Mili\'{c}evi\'{c} and…

We prove Polya's conjecture of 1943: For a real entire function of order greater than 2, with finitely many non-real zeros, the number of non-real zeros of the n-th derivative tends to infinity with n. We use the saddle point method and…

A degree-$d$ polynomial $p$ in $n$ variables over a field $\F$ is {\em equidistributed} if it takes on each of its $|\F|$ values close to equally often, and {\em biased} otherwise. We say that $p$ has a {\em low rank} if it can be expressed…

A classic result by Carbery and Wright states that a polynomial of Gaussian random variables exhibits anti-concentration in the following sense: for any degree $d$ polynomial $f$, one has the estimate $P( |f(x)| \leq \varepsilon \cdot…

Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $m$, with nonnegative and non-decreasing coefficients. We settle the conjecture that for any positive real number $d$, the coefficients of $P(x+d)$ form a unimodal sequence, of which the special case $d$…

We study the sum of the squares of the irreducible character degrees not divisible by some prime $p$, and its relationship with the the corresponding quantity in a $p$-Sylow normalizer. This leads to study a recent conjecture by E.…