A qq-microscope for supercongruences

By examining asymptotic behavior of certain infinite basic ($q$-) hypergeometric sums at roots of unity (that is, at a "$q$-microscopic" level) we prove polynomial congruences for their truncations. The latter reduce to non-trivial (super)congruences for truncated ordinary hypergeometric sums, which have been observed numerically and proven rarely. A typical example includes derivation, from a $q$-analogue of Ramanujan's formula $$\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{\binom{4n}{2n}{\binom{2n}{n}}^2}{2^{8n}3^{2n}}\,(8n+1) =\frac{2\sqrt{3}}{\pi},$$ of the two supercongruences $$S(p-1)\equiv p\biggl(\frac{-3}p\biggr)\pmod{p^3} \quad\text{and}\quad S\Bigl(\frac{p-1}2\Bigr) \equiv p\biggl(\frac{-3}p\biggr)\pmod{p^3},$$ valid for all primes $p>3$, where $S(N)$ denotes the truncation of the infinite sum at the $N$-th place and $(\frac{-3}{\cdot})$ stands for the quadratic character modulo $3$.Comment: 26 page

Supercongruences and Complex Multiplication

We study congruences involving truncated hypergeometric series of the form_rF_{r-1}(1/2,...,1/2;1,...,1;\lambda)_{(mp^s-1)/2} = \sum_{k=0}^{(mp^s-1)/2} ((1/2)_k/k!)^r \lambda^k where p is a prime and m, s, r are positive integers. These truncated hypergeometric series are related to the arithmetic of a family of algebraic varieties and exhibit Atkin and Swinnerton-Dyer type congruences. In particular, when r=3, they are related to K3 surfaces. For special values of \lambda, with s=1 and r=3, our congruences are stronger than what can be predicted by the theory of formal groups because of the presence of elliptic curves with complex multiplications. They generalize a conjecture made by Rodriguez-Villegas for the \lambda=1 case and confirm some other supercongruence conjectures at special values of \lambda.Comment: 19 page

A regularization algorithm for matrices of bilinear and sesquilinear forms

We give an algorithm that uses only unitary transformations and for each square complex matrix constructs a *congruent matrix that is a direct sum of a nonsingular matrix and singular Jordan blocks.Comment: 18 page

Minimal isometric immersions into S^2 x R and H^2 x R

For a given simply connected Riemannian surface Sigma, we relate the problem of finding minimal isometric immersions of Sigma into S^2 x R or H^2 x R to a system of two partial differential equations on Sigma. We prove that a constant intrinsic curvature minimal surface in S^2 x R or H^2 x R is either totally geodesic or part of an associate surface of a certain limit of catenoids in H^2 x R. We also prove that if a non constant curvature Riemannian surface admits a continuous one-parameter family of minimal isometric immersions into S^2 x R or H^2 x R, then all these immersions are associate