Canonical bases in excellent classes

We show that any (atomic) excellent class can be expanded with hyperimaginaries to form an (atomic) excellent class which has canonical bases. When is, in addition, of finite U-rank, then is also simple and has a full canonical bases theorem. This positive situation contrasts starkly with homogeneous model theory for example, where the eq-expansion may fail to be homogeneous. However, this paper shows that expanding an ω-stable, homogeneous class gives rise to an excellent class, which is simple if is of finite U-ran

Computing canonical heights using arithmetic intersection theory

For several applications in the arithmetic of abelian varieties it is important to compute canonical heights. Following Faltings and Hriljac, we show how the canonical height on the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve can be computed using arithmetic intersection theory on a regular model of the curve in practice. In the case of hyperelliptic curves we present a complete algorithm that has been implemented in Magma. Several examples are computed and the behavior of the running time is discussed.Comment: 29 pages. Fixed typos and minor errors, restructured some sections. Added new Example

A monodromy criterion for extending curves

A family of proper smooth curves of genus $\geq 2$, parametrised by an open dense subset $U$ of a normal variety $S$, extends to $S$ if the natural map $\pi_1(U) \to \pi_1(S)$ on fundamental groups is an isomorphism. The criterion of this note is actually more precise.Comment: 12 pages; revised version including a section on outer representations for families of curve

On an analogue of the James conjecture

We give a counterexample to the most optimistic analogue (due to Kleshchev and Ram) of the James conjecture for Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier algebras associated to simply-laced Dynkin diagrams. The first counterexample occurs in type A_5 for p = 2 and involves the same singularity used by Kashiwara and Saito to show the reducibility of the characteristic variety of an intersection cohomology D-module on a quiver variety. Using recent results of Polo one can give counterexamples in type A in all characteristics.Comment: 12 pages. v2: final versio