I will review some classical problems in number theory concerning the statistical distribution of the primes, square-free numbers and values of the divisor function; for example, fluctuations in the number of primes in short intervals and in arithmetic progressions.  I will then explain how analogues of these problems in the function field setting can be resolved by expressing them in terms of matrix integrals. 

I will describe joint work with Manjul Bhargava (Princeton) and Tom Fisher (Cambridge) in which we determine the probability that random equation from certain families  has a solution either locally (over the reals or the p-adics), everywhere locally,  or globally. Three kinds of equation will be considered: quadratics in any number of variables, ternary cubics and hyperelliptic quartics.

Thanks to the p-adic local Langlands correspondence for GL_2(Q_p), one "knows" all admissible unitary topologically irreducible representations of GL_2(Z_p). In this talk I will focus on some elementary properties of their restriction to GL_2(Z_p): for instance, to what extent does the restriction to GL_2(Z_p) allow one to recover the original representation, when is the restriction of finite length, etc.

In sieve theory, one is concerned with estimating the size of a sifted set, which avoids certain residue classes modulo many primes. For example, the problem of counting primes corresponds to the situation when the residue class 0 is removed for each prime in a suitable range. This talk will be concerned about what happens when a positive proportion of residue classes is removed for each prime, and especially when this proporition is more than a half. In doing so we will come across an algebraic question: given a polynomial f(x) in Z[x], what is the average size of the value set of f reduced modulo primes?

Given an abelian variety A over a number field k, its Kummer variety X is the quotient of A by the automorphism that sends each point P to -P. We study p-adic density and weak approximation on X by relating its rational points to rational points of quadratic twists of A. This leads to many examples of K3 surfaces over Q whose rational points lie dense in the p-adic topology, or in product topologies arising from p-adic topologies. Finally, the same method is used to prove that if the Brauer--Manin obstruction controls the failure of weak approximation on all Kummer varieties, then ranks of quadratic twists of (non-trivial) abelian varieties are unbounded. This last fact arises from joint work with David Holmes.

In 1989, Selberg defined what came to be known as the "Selberg class" of $L$-functions, giving rise to a new subfield of analytic number theory in the intervening quarter century. Despite its popularity, a few things have always bugged me about the definition of the Selberg class. I will discuss these nitpicks and describe some modest attempts at overcoming them, with new applications.