pℓp^\ell-Torsion Points In Finite Abelian Groups And Combinatorial Identities

The main aim of this article is to compute all the moments of the number of $p^\ell$-torsion elements in some type of nite abelian groups. The averages involved in these moments are those de ned for the Cohen-Lenstra heuristics for class groups and their adaptation for Tate-Shafarevich groups. In particular, we prove that the heuristic model for Tate-Shafarevich groups is compatible with the recent conjecture of Poonen and Rains about the moments of the orders of $p$-Selmer groups of elliptic curves. For our purpose, we are led to de ne certain polynomials indexed by integer partitions and to study them in a combinatorial way. Moreover, from our probabilistic model, we derive combinatorial identities, some of which appearing to be new, the others being related to the theory of symmetric functions. In some sense, our method therefore gives for these identities a somehow natural algebraic context.Comment: 24 page

Path counting and random matrix theory

We establish three identities involving Dyck paths and alternating Motzkin paths, whose proofs are based on variants of the same bijection. We interpret these identities in terms of closed random walks on the halfline. We explain how these identities arise from combinatorial interpretations of certain properties of the $\beta$-Hermite and $\beta$-Laguerre ensembles of random matrix theory. We conclude by presenting two other identities obtained in the same way, for which finding combinatorial proofs is an open problem.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures and diagrams; submitted to the Electronic Journal of Combinatoric