We prove a range of new sum-product type growth estimates over a general field $\mathbb{F}$, in particular the special case $\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{F}_p$. They are unified by the theme of "breaking the $3/2$ threshold", epitomising the previous state of the art. These estimates stem from specially suited applications of incidence bounds over $\mathbb{F}$, which apply to higher moments of representation functions. We establish the estimate $|R[A]| \gtrsim |A|^{8/5}$ for cardinality of the set $R[A]$ of distinct cross-ratios defined by triples of elements of a (sufficiently small if $\mathbb{F}$ has positive characteristic, similarly for the rest of the estimates) set $A\subset \mathbb{F}$, pinned at infinity. The cross-ratio naturally arises in various sum-product type questions of projective nature and is the unifying concept underlying most of our results. It enables one to take advantage of its symmetry properties as an onset of growth of, for instance, products of difference sets. The geometric nature of the cross-ratio enables us to break the version of the above threshold for the minimum number of distinct triangle areas $Ouu'$, defined by points $u,u'$ of a non-collinear point set $P\subset \mathbb{F}^2$. Another instance of breaking the threshold is showing that if $A$ is sufficiently small and has additive doubling constant $M$, then $|AA|\gtrsim M^{-2}|A|^{14/9}$. This result has a second moment version, which allows for new upper bounds for the number of collinear point triples in the set $A\times A\subset \mathbb{F}^2$, the quantity often arising in applications of geometric incidence estimates.

We consider point distributions in compact connected two-point homogeneous spaces (Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank one). All such spaces are known: they are the spheres in the Euclidean spaces, the real, complex and quaternionic projective spaces and the octonionic projective plane. For all such spaces the best possible bounds for the quadratic discrepancies and sums of pairwise distances are obtained in the paper (Theorems 2.1 and 2.2). Distributions of points of -designs on such spaces are also considered (Theorem 2.3). In particular, it is shown that the optimal -designs meet the best possible bounds for quadratic discrepancies and sums of pairwise distances (Corollary 2.1). Our approach is based on the Fourier analysis on two-point homogeneous spaces and explicit spherical function expansions for discrepancies and sums of distances (Theorems 4.1 and 4.2).

The lonely runner conjecture, now over fifty years old, concerns the following problem. On a unit-length circular track, consider runners starting at the same time and place, each runner having a different constant speed. The conjecture asserts that each runner is lonely at some point in time, meaning at a distance at least from the others. We formulate a function field analogue, and give a positive answer in some cases in the new setting.

We consider sequences of the form $\left(a_{n} \alpha\right)_{n}$ mod 1, where $\alpha\in\left[0,1\right]$ and where $\left(a_{n}\right)_{n}$ is a strictly increasing sequence of positive integers. If the asymptotic distribution of the pair correlations of this sequence follows the Poissonian model for almost all $\alpha$ in the sense of Lebesgue measure, we say that $(a_n)_n$ has the metric pair correlation property. Recent research has revealed a connection between the metric theory of pair correlations of such sequences, and the additive energy of truncations of $(a_n)_{n}$. Bloom, Chow, Gafni and Walker speculated that there might be a convergence/divergence criterion which fully characterises the metric pair correlation property in terms of the additive energy, similar to Khintchine's criterion in the metric theory of Diophantine approximation. In the present paper we give a negative answer to such speculations, by showing that such a criterion does not exist. To this end, we construct a sequence $(a_n)_n$ having large additive energy which, however, maintains the metric pair correlation property.

Using recent work of the first author~\cite{Bet}, we prove a strong version of the Manin-Peyre's conjectures with a full asymptotic and a power-saving error term for the two varieties respectively in $\mathbb{P}^2 \times \mathbb{P}^2$ with bihomogeneous coordinates $[x_1:x_2:x_3],[y_1:y_2,y_3]$ and in $\mathbb{P}^1\times \mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$ with multihomogeneous coordinates $[x_1:y_1],[x_2:y_2],[x_3:y_3]$ defined by the same equation $x_1y_2y_3+x_2y_1y_3+x_3y_1y_2=0$. We thus improve on recent work of Blomer, Br\"udern and Salberger \cite{BBS} and provide a different proof based on a descent on the universal torsor of the conjectures in the case of a del Pezzo surface of degree 6 with singularity type $\mathbf{A}_1$ and three lines (the other existing proof relying on harmonic analysis \cite{CLT}). Together with~\cite{Blomer2014} or with recent work of the second author \cite{Dest2}, this settles the study of the Manin-Peyre's conjectures for this equation.

We discuss 1-factorizations of complete graphs that “match” a given Hadamard matrix. We prove the existence of these factorizations for two families of Hadamard matrices: Walsh matrices and certain Paley matrices.

Let $X:=\mathbb{A}^{n}_{R}$ be the $n$-dimensional affine space over a discrete valuation ring $R$ with fraction field $K$. We prove that any pointed torsor $Y$ over $\mathbb{A}^{n}_{K}$ under the action of an affine finite type group scheme can be extended to a torsor over $\mathbb{A}^{n}_{R}$ possibly after pulling $Y$ back over an automorphism of $\mathbb{A}^{n}_{K}$. The proof is effective. Other cases, including $X=\alpha_{p,R}$, will also be discussed.

It was shown by Gruslys, Leader and Tan that any finite subset of $\mathbb{Z}^n$ tiles $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for some $d$. The first non-trivial case is the punctured interval, which consists of the interval $\{-k,\ldots,k\} \subset \mathbb{Z}$ with its middle point removed: they showed that this tiles $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for $d = 2k^2$, and they asked if the dimension needed tends to infinity with $k$. In this note we answer this question: we show that, perhaps surprisingly, every punctured interval tiles $\mathbb{Z}^4$.

We characterize all bounded Hankel operators $\Gamma $ such that $\Gamma^*\Gamma$ has finite spectrum. We identify spectral data corresponding to such operators and construct inverse spectral theory including the characterization of these spectral data.