We show that the recently proposed weak gravity conjecture\cite{AMNV0601} can be extended to a class of scalar field theories. Taking gravity into account, we find an upper bound on the gravity interaction strength, expressed in terms of scalar coupling parameters. This conjecture is supported by some two-dimensional models and noncommutative field theories.

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Denote by Mnthe set of n ×ncomplex matrices. Let f:Mn→[0, ∞)be a continuous map such that f(μUAU∗) =f(A)for any complex unit μ, A ∈Mnand unitary U∈Mn, f(X) =0if and only if X=0and the induced map t →f(tX)is monotonically increasing on [0, ∞)for any rank onenilpotent X∈Mn. Characterization is given for surjective maps φon Mnsatisfying f(AB−BA) =f(φ(A)φ(B) −φ(B)φ(A)). The general theorem isthen used to deduce results on special cases when the function is the pseudo spectrum and the pseudo spectral radius.

We study groups of automorphisms and birational transformations of quasi-projective varieties. Two methods are combined; the first one is based on p-adic analysis, the second makes use of isoperimetric inequalities and Lang–Weil estimates. For instance, we show that, if SLn(Z) acts faithfully on a complex quasi-projective variety X by birational transformations, then dim(X)⩾n−1 and X is rational if dim(X)=n−1.