July 27 – August 2, 2025Rational Points 2025Workshop at Franken-Akademie Schloss Schney |
This workshop is the tenth in a series that started with the workshops
In the tradition of the earlier events, this workshop aims at bringing together the leading experts in the field, covering a broad spectrum reaching from the more theoretically-oriented over the explicit to the algorithmic aspects. The fundamental problem motivating the workshop asks for a description of the set of rational points X(Q) for a given algebraic variety X defined over Q. When X is a curve, the structure of this set is known, and the most interesting question is how to determine it explicitly for a given curve. When X is higher-dimensional, much less is known about the structure of X(Q), even when X is a surface. So here the open questions are much more basic for our understanding of the situation, and on the algorithmic side, the focus is on trying to decide if a given variety does have any rational point at all.
By bringing together the leading experts and giving them the opportunity to present their latest results and their view on the field in general, we hope to provide a fertile basis for animated discussions. As a result, we hope to achieve a better understanding of the current state of the art and, more importantly, to identify and explore the most promising directions for future work.
This is a workshop with about 50 participants. Participation is by invitation. Every participant is expected to contribute actively to the success of the event, by giving talks and/or by taking part in the discussions. There will be two invited talks every morning (9:30-10:30 and 11:15-12:15); the afternoons will be available for shorter invited talks, discussions, informal talks and collaboration. Wednesday afternoon is free.
Sunday, July 27, is arrival day; Saturday, August 2, is departure day. Accommodation is provided at the Franken-Akademie Schloss Schney. Here is a plan of the various buildings. The local costs (room and board) will be covered for all participants (assuming the funding works out).
Schney has a railway station, which is a short walk (uphill to the castle) from the Franken-Akademie. The station of Lichtenfels is a short taxi ride (or a longer walk) away and offers a variety of regional and long-distance train connections. There are connections from Frankfurt or Munich Airport that take 3-4 hours or from Nuremberg Airport in about 1:30 hours, see the Deutsche Bahn website.
Participants are expected to cover travel expenses from their own sources.
Michael Stoll (Universität Bayreuth)
Jennifer Balakrishnan (Boston University), Samir Siksek (University of Warwick), Bianca Viray (University of Washington).