We study variants of the local models constructed by the second author and Zhu and consider corresponding integral models of Shimura varieties of abelian type. We determine all cases of good, resp. of semi-stable, reduction under tame ramification hypotheses.

In this note, we give a list of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in weighted projective 4-spaces with the property that a hypersurface contains naturally a pencil of K3 variety. For completeness we also obtain a similar list in the case K3 hypersurfaces in weighted projective 3-spaces. The first list significantly enlarges the list of K3-fibrations of\KlemmLercheMayr~ which has been obtained on some assumptions on the weights. Our lists are expected to correspond to examples of the so-called heterotic-type II duality\KachruVafa\KachruSilverstein.

We study the existence of Artin–Schreier curves with large a‑number. We show that Artin–Schreier curves with large a‑number can be written in certain forms and discuss their supersingularity. We also give a basis of the de Rham cohomology of Artin–Schreier curves. By computing the rank of the Hasse–Witt matrix of the curve, we also give bounds on the a‑number of trigonal curves of genus 5 in small characteristic.

We prove that the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves of the Brill-Noether variety G^r_d (C) that parametrizing linear series of degree d and dimension r on a general smooth projective curve C is indecomposable when d ≤ g(C)−1.

We derive an effective recursion for Witten's r-spin intersection numbers, using Witten's conjecture relating r-spin numbers to the Gel'fand-Dikii hierarchy (Theorem 4.1). Consequences include closed-form descriptions of the intersection numbers (for example, in terms of gamma functions: Propositions 5.2 and 5.4, Corollary 5.5). We use these closed-form descriptions to prove Harer-Zagier's formula for the Euler characteristic of M_ {g, 1}. Finally in Section 6, we extend Witten's series expansion formula for the Landau-Ginzburg potential to study r-spin numbers in the small phase space in genus zero. Our key tool is the calculus of formal pseudodifferential operators, and is partially motivated by work of Brezin and Hikami.