The first factor of the class number of the pp-th cyclotomic field

Kummer's conjecture states that the relative class number of the $p$-th cyclotomic field follows a strict asymptotic law. Granville has shown it unlikely to be true -- it cannot be true if we assume the truth of two other widely believed conjectures. We establish a new bound for the error term in Kummer's conjecture, and more precisely we prove that $\log(h_p^-)=\frac{p+3}{4}\log(p) + \frac{p}{2}\log(2\pi)+\log(1-\beta)+O(\log_2 p)$, where $\beta$ is a possible Siegel zero of an $L(s,\chi)$, $\chi$ odd.Comment: 8 page

Dimensions of the irreducible representations of the symmetric and alternating group

We establish the existence of an irreducible representation of $A_n$ whose dimension does not occur as the dimension of an irreducible representation of $S_n$, and vice versa. This proves a conjecture by Tong-Viet. The main ingredient in the proof is a result on large prime factors in short intervals.Comment: 24 page

Asymptotic expansions, LL-values and a new Quantum Modular Form

In 2010 Zagier introduced the notion of a quantum modular form. One of his first examples was the "strange" function $F(q)$ of Kontsevich. Here we produce a new example of a quantum modular form by making use of some of Ramanujan's mock theta functions. Using these functions and their transformation behaviour, we also compute asymptotic expansions similar to expansions of $F(q)$.Comment: 7 page

Irregular behaviour of class numbers and Euler-Kronecker constants of cyclotomic fields: the log log log devil at play

Kummer (1851) and, many years later, Ihara (2005) both posed conjectures on invariants related to the cyclotomic field $\mathbb Q(\zeta_q)$ with $q$ a prime. Kummer's conjecture concerns the asymptotic behaviour of the first factor of the class number of $\mathbb Q(\zeta_q)$ and Ihara's the positivity of the Euler-Kronecker constant of $\mathbb Q(\zeta_q)$ (the ratio of the constant and the residue of the Laurent series of the Dedekind zeta function $\zeta_{\mathbb Q(\zeta_q)}(s)$ at $s=1$). If certain standard conjectures in analytic number theory hold true, then one can show that both conjectures are true for a set of primes of natural density 1, but false in general. Responsible for this are irregularities in the distribution of the primes. With this survey we hope to convince the reader that the apparently dissimilar mathematical objects studied by Kummer and Ihara actually display a very similar behaviour.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, survey, to appear in `Irregularities in the Distribution of Prime Numbers - Research Inspired by Maier's Matrix Method', Eds. J. Pintz and M. Th. Rassia

Dimensions of the irreducible representations of the symmetric and alternating group

We establish the existence of an irreducible representation of A_n whose dimension does not occur as the dimension of an irreducible representation of S_n, and vice versa. This proves a conjecture by Tong-Viet. The main ingredient in the proof is a result on large primefactors in short interval