Hilbert modular surfaces for square discriminants and elliptic subfields of genus 2 function fields

We compute explicit rational models for some Hilbert modular surfaces corresponding to square discriminants, by connecting them to moduli spaces of elliptic K3 surfaces. Since they parametrize decomposable principally polarized abelian surfaces, they are also moduli spaces for genus-2 curves covering elliptic curves via a map of fixed degree. We thereby extend classical work of Jacobi, Hermite, Bolza etc., and more recent work of Kuhn, Frey, Kani, Shaska, V\"olklein, Magaard and others, producing explicit families of reducible Jacobians. In particular, we produce a birational model for the moduli space of pairs (C,E) of a genus 2 curve C and elliptic curve E with a map of degree n from C to E, as well as a tautological family over the base, for 2 <= n <= 11. We also analyze the resulting models from the point of view of arithmetic geometry, and produce several interesting curves on them.Comment: 36 pages. Final versio

Examples of abelian surfaces with everywhere good reduction

We describe several explicit examples of simple abelian surfaces over real quadratic fields with real multiplication and everywhere good reduction. These examples provide evidence for the Eichler-Shimura conjecture for Hilbert modular forms over a real quadratic field. Several of the examples also support a conjecture of Brumer and Kramer on abelian varieties associated to Siegel modular forms with paramodular level structures.Comment: 26 pages. Final version (to appear in Mathematische Annalen

Multiplicative excellent families of elliptic surfaces of type E_7 or E_8

We describe explicit multiplicative excellent families of rational elliptic surfaces with Galois group isomorphic to the Weyl group of the root lattices E_7 or E_8. The Weierstrass coefficients of each family are related by an invertible polynomial transformation to the generators of the multiplicative invariant ring of the associated Weyl group, given by the fundamental characters of the corresponding Lie group. As an application, we give examples of elliptic surfaces with multiplicative reduction and all sections defined over Q for most of the entries of fiber configurations and Mordell-Weil lattices in [Oguiso-Shioda '91], as well as examples of explicit polynomials with Galois group W(E_7) or W(E_8).Comment: 23 pages. Final versio

Algorithmic design of self-assembling structures

We study inverse statistical mechanics: how can one design a potential function so as to produce a specified ground state? In this paper, we show that unexpectedly simple potential functions suffice for certain symmetrical configurations, and we apply techniques from coding and information theory to provide mathematical proof that the ground state has been achieved. These potential functions are required to be decreasing and convex, which rules out the use of potential wells. Furthermore, we give an algorithm for constructing a potential function with a desired ground state.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure