The Cohen-Lenstra Heuristic: Methodology and Results

In number theory, great efforts have been undertaken to study the Cohen-Lenstra probability measure on the set of all finite abelian $p$-groups. On the other hand, group theorists have studied a probability measure on the set of all partitions induced by the probability that a randomly chosen $n\times n$-matrix over \FF_p is contained in a conjucagy class associated with this partitions, for $n \to \infty$. This paper shows that both probability measures are identical. As a consequence, a multitide of results can be transferred from each theory to the other one. The paper contains a survey about the known methods to study the probability measure and about the results that have been obtained so far, from both communities

A weighted M\"obius function

For a fixed odd prime $\ell$, we define a variant of the classical M\"{o}bius function on the poset of isomorphism classes of finite abelian $\ell$-groups, then we prove an analog of Hall's theorem on the vanishing of the M\"{o}bius function.Comment: 7 pages, new introduction, updated reference

Counting Co-Cyclic Lattices

There is a well-known asymptotic formula, due to W. M. Schmidt (1968) for the number of full-rank integer lattices of index at most $V$ in $\mathbb{Z}^n$. This set of lattices $L$ can naturally be partitioned with respect to the factor group $\mathbb{Z}^n/L$. Accordingly, we count the number of full-rank integer lattices $L \subseteq \mathbb{Z}^n$ such that $\mathbb{Z}^n/L$ is cyclic and of order at most $V$, and deduce that these co-cyclic lattices are dominant among all integer lattices: their natural density is $\left(\zeta(6) \prod_{k=4}^n \zeta(k)\right)^{-1} \approx 85\%$. The problem is motivated by complexity theory, namely worst-case to average-case reductions for lattice problems

Gauss composition over an arbitrary base

The classical theorems relating integral binary quadratic forms and ideal classes of quadratic orders have been of tremendous importance in mathematics, and many authors have given extensions of these theorems to rings other than the integers. However, such extensions have always included hypotheses on the rings, and the theorems involve only binary quadratic forms satisfying further hypotheses. We give a complete statement of the relationship between binary quadratic forms and modules for quadratic algebras over any base ring, or in fact base scheme. The result includes all binary quadratic forms, and commutes with base change. We give global geometric as well as local explicit descriptions of the relationship between forms and modules.Comment: submitte