Maximal Newton points and the quantum Bruhat graph

We discuss a surprising relationship between the partially ordered set of Newton points associated to an affine Schubert cell and the quantum cohomology of the complex flag variety. The main theorem provides a combinatorial formula for the unique maximum element in this poset in terms of paths in the quantum Bruhat graph, whose vertices are indexed by elements in the finite Weyl group. Key to establishing this connection is the fact that paths in the quantum Bruhat graph encode saturated chains in the strong Bruhat order on the affine Weyl group. This correspondence is also fundamental in the work of Lam and Shimozono establishing Peterson's isomorphism between the quantum cohomology of the finite flag variety and the homology of the affine Grassmannian. One important geometric application of the present work is an inequality which provides a necessary condition for non-emptiness of certain affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties in the affine flag variety.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figures best viewed in color; final version to appear in Michigan Math.

Sub-Weyl subconvexity for Dirichlet L-functions to prime power moduli

We prove a subconvexity bound for the central value L(1/2, chi) of a Dirichlet L-function of a character chi to a prime power modulus q=p^n of the form L(1/2, chi)\ll p^r * q^(theta+epsilon) with a fixed r and theta\approx 0.1645 < 1/6, breaking the long-standing Weyl exponent barrier. In fact, we develop a general new theory of estimation of short exponential sums involving p-adically analytic phases, which can be naturally seen as a p-adic analogue of the method of exponent pairs. This new method is presented in a ready-to-use form and applies to a wide class of well-behaved phases including many that arise from a stationary phase analysis of hyper-Kloosterman and other complete exponential sums.Comment: 54 pages, submitted, 201

Generic Newton points and the Newton poset in Iwahori double cosets

We consider the Newton stratification on Iwahori double cosets in the loop group of a reductive group. We describe a group-theoretic condition on the generic Newton point, called cordiality, under which the Newton poset (i.e. the index set for non-empty Newton strata) is saturated and Grothendieck's conjecture on closures of the Newton strata holds. Finally, we give several large classes of Iwahori double cosets for which this condition is satisfied by studying certain paths in the associated quantum Bruhat graph.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure; expanded introduction, generalized main theorem, changed section numbers; final version to appear in Forum of Mathematics, Sigm

Applying parabolic Peterson: affine algebras and the quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian

The Peterson isomorphism relates the homology of the affine Grassmannian to the quantum cohomology of any flag variety. In the case of a partial flag, Peterson’s map is only a surjection, and one needs to quotient by a suitable ideal on the affine side to map isomorphically onto the quantum cohomology. We provide a detailed exposition of this parabolic Peterson isomorphism in the case of the Grassmannian of m-planes in complex n-space, including an explicit recipe for doing quantum Schubert calculus in terms of the appropriate subset of non-commutative k-Schur functions. As an application, we recast Postnikov’s affine approach to the quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian as a consequence of parabolic Peterson by showing that the affine nilTemperley–Lieb algebra arises naturally when forming the requisite quotient of the homology of the affine Grassmannian

The second moment of twisted modular L-functions

We prove an asymptotic formula with a power saving error term for the (pure or mixed) second moment of central values of L-functions of any two (possibly equal) fixed cusp forms f, g twisted by all primitive characters modulo q, valid for all sufficiently factorable q including 99.9% of all admissible moduli. The two key ingredients are a careful spectral analysis of a potentially highly unbalanced shifted convolution problem in Hecke eigenvalues and power-saving bounds for sums of products of Kloosterman sums where the length of the sum is below the square-root threshold of the modulus. Applications are given to simultaneous non-vanishing and lower bounds on higher moments of twisted L-functions.Comment: 64 page