Author Archives: Persiflage

Catalan’s Constant and periods

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Persiflage

There is a 60th birthday conference in honour of Frits Beukers in Utrech in July; I’m hoping to swing by there on the way to Oberwolfach. Thinking about matters Beukers made me reconsider an question that I’ve had for while. … Continue reading →

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Exposition is not underrated

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Persiflage

It seems to be the conventional wisdom (for example, some of the comments here) that exposition is undervalued in our profession. I disagree. To cast things in economic terms, let’s take “valued” to mean one of two things: increased salary … Continue reading →

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Galois Representations for non-self dual forms, Part III

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Persiflage

Here are some complements to the previous remarks, considered in Part I and Part II. First, in order to deal with non-zero weights, one has to replace the Shimura varieties \(Y\), \(X\), \(W\) by Kuga-Satake varieties over these spaces. This … Continue reading →

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Inverse Galois Problem

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Persiflage

My favourite group as far as the inverse Galois problem goes is \(G = \mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbf{F}_p)\). This is not known to be a Galois group over \(\mathbf{Q}\) for any \(p > 13\), the difficulty of course being that is must correspond … Continue reading →

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Galois Representations for non self-dual forms, Part II

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Persiflage

(Now with updates!) Let’s recap from part I. We have a Shimura variety \(Y\), a minimal projective compactification \(X\), and a (family of) smooth toroidal compactifications \(W\). We also have Galois representations of the correct shape associated to eigenclasses in … Continue reading →

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Cambridge Days

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Persiflage

Dinner at the Helmand: Zagat rating 27 (Food) and 20 (Service). After I was seated, it was fifteen minutes until I was brought a menu. Sixty seconds later, the waitress asked what I wanted to order, and then pouted when … Continue reading →

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Galois Representations for non self-dual forms, Part I

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Persiflage

This is the first of a series of posts discussing the recent work of Harris, Lan, Taylor, and Thorne on constructing Galois representations associated to regular algebraic automorphic forms for \(\mathrm{GL}(n)\) over a CM field \(F/F^{+}\). I will dispense with … Continue reading →

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Office Toys

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Persiflage

I think I need one of these for my office, possibly to point at undergraduates when they ask for a higher grade: . For the full story, see here.

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Straight from the top to the bottom

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Persiflage

Possibly the worst programme on radio is NPR’s “from the top.” Ostensibly the show is about showcasing young performers in classical music. Yet, in reality, it is all about the incredibly annoying host, Christopher O’Riley, for whom condescension has become … Continue reading →

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Stephen Fry

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Persiflage

Never let it be said that this blog shies away from confronting sacred cows. Today’s target: Stephen Fry. In the video below, Fry tries to have his cake and eat it too — calling out grammar pedants for “showing off … Continue reading →

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