Colloquium Mathematics, Professor P. Stevenhagen

24 June 2014

Join us for coffee and tea at 15.30 p.m.

Date:	Tuesday, June 24th 2014
Speaker:	Prof. Peter Stevenhagen, University Leiden
Room:	5161.0293 (Bernoulliborg)
Time:	16.00

Title: From Artin’s conjecture to Serre curves

Abstract:

In 1927, the German mathematician Emil Artin conjectured that for any non-square integer x different from -1, the powers of x will fill up all (non-zero) residue classes modulo a prime number p for infinitely many p. For instance, the powers of 2 fill up the residue classes modulo 3, 5, and 11, but not modulo 7 or 17. The conjecture also predicts a density for the set of such primes p, which for x=2 it is about 37%. I will explain why the conjecture is still unproved for all values of x, but can be proved if one is willing to assume the generalized Riemann hypothesis. Then, I will focus on the computation of the associated densities, for which Artin made a mistake that was only discovered after computer calculations in the 1950’s(!). The computation of such densities now be realized in a more conceptual way that allows various generalizations, of which I will discuss the example of Serre curves. These are elliptic curves over the rationals for which the associated Galois representation on their torsion points is `maximal’ in a sense that I will define.

Colloquium coordinators are Prof.dr. A.C.D. van Enter (e-mail : A.C.D.van.Enter@rug.nl) and
Dr. A.V. Kiselev (e-mail: a.v.kiselev rug.nl )

http://www.rug.nl/research/jbi/news/colloquia/mathematics-colloquia/

Last modified:10 February 2021 2.27 p.m.

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