The local-global conjecture for Apollonian circle packings is false
In a primitive integral Apollonian circle packing, the curvatures that appear must fall into one of six or eight residue classes modulo $24$. The local-global conjecture states that every sufficiently large integer in one of these residue classes appears as a curvature in the packing. We prove that this conjecture is false for many packings, by proving that certain quadratic and quartic families are missed. The new obstructions are a property of the thin Apollonian group (and not its Zariski closure), and are a result of quadratic and quartic reciprocity, reminiscent of a Brauer-Manin obstruction. Based on computational evidence, we formulate a new conjecture.
Authors
- Summer Haag
- Katherine E. Stange (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2294-0397)
- James Rickards (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3387-9368)
- Clyde Kertzer
Institutions
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Saint Mary's University (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Annals of Mathematics
- Published
- 2024-08-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.4007/annals.2024.200.2.6
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Mathematical Dynamics and Fractals
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.34
Funders
- University of Colorado Boulder