Functional transcendence for the unipotent Albanese map (Q2239235)

Given a curve \(\mathcal X\) defined over the ring of integers of a \(p\)-adic field \(K\), a basepoint \(b \in \mathcal X(\mathcal O_{K})\), and a positive integer \(n\), the (\(n\)th) unipotent Albanese map \(j_{n}\) is a rigid \(K\)-analytic map from \(X(\mathcal O_{K})\) to a certain unipotent quotient \(\Pi^{\mathrm{dR}}_{n}/F^0\) of the de Rham fundamental group of \(\mathcal X\). This map was originally constructed by \textit{M. Kim} [Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci. 45, No. 1, 89--133 (2009; Zbl 1165.14020)], who also proved that the image of \(j_{n}\) is Zariski-dense. This observation plays a crucial role in the \(p\)-adic `nonabelian Chabauty-Kim method' for computing/bounding the set of rational points on a curve defined over \(\mathbb Q\). Specifically, if \(Z\subseteq \Pi^{\mathrm{dR}}_{n}/F^0\) is an algebraic subvariety of positive codimension, \(j_{n}^{-1}(Z) \subseteq X(\mathcal O_{K})\) has lower dimension than \(X_{K}\). In particular, if \(X_{K}\) is a curve, then \(j_{n}^{-1}(Z)\) is finite. In the Chabuaty-Kim method, one takes \(Z\) to be a proper subvariety containing the image of the global points on the curve. Hast's main theorem is a functional transcendence result refining Kim's observation that the image of the unipotent Albanese map \(j_{n}\) is Zariski dense. This theorem says that the dimension of any irreducible analytic component \(W\) of the intersection of the graph of \(j_{n}\) with an algebraic subvariety of \(X_{K} \times \Pi^{\mathrm{dR}}_{n}/F^0\) is at most the expected dimension for such an intersection, unless the projection of \(W\) to \(X_{K}\) is contained in a `weakly special subvariety' (in the sense of [\textit{B. Klingler}, ``Hodge loci and atypical intersections: conjectures'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1711.09387}]). As applications of the main theorem, Hast generalizes the abelian Chabauty's method (the \(n = 1\) case) and the nonabelian Chabauty-Kim method to study rational points on higher dimensional varieties \(V\) and (by replacing a curve \(X\) over a number field \(F\) with the restriction of scalars \(\mathrm{Res}^{F}_{\mathbb Q}\)) the \(F\)-rational points on curves. For instance, under a rank versus dimension inequality for the Albanese variety \(A\) of \(V\), Hast proves that the image of the rational points on \(V\) under the Albanese map is contained in a finite union of cosets of proper abelian subvarieties of \(A\). Moreover, Hast extends the Chabauty-Kim method to prove finiteness of \(F\)-rational points on curves in essentially all cases where the method previously recovered finiteness of \(\mathbb Q\)-rational points on curves. This includes: integral points on \(\mathbb P^1\) minus at least 3 points, CM elliptic curves minus the origin, curves with a dominant map to a curve with CM Jacobian, and (assuming either the Fontaine-Mazur conjecture or the Bloch-Kato conjecture) all hyperbolic curves. To prove the main result, Hast first uses the Ax-Schanuel conjecture for variations of mixed Hodge structure (now a theorem of \textit{K. C. T. Chiu} [``Ax-Schanuel for variations of mixed Hodge structures'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2101.10968}] and of \textit{Z. Gao} and \textit{B. Klingler} [``The Ax-Schanuel conjecture for variations of mixed Hodge structures'', \url{arXiv:2101.10938}]) to deduce functional transcendence properties for the complex analogue of the unipotent Albanese map. Hast then converts the complex functional transcendence results to \(p\)-adic functional transcendence results by a formal argument comparing the power series involved in the complex and \(p\)-adic constructions. For the applications to Chabauty's method and the Chabauty-Kim method, Hast proves a number of inequalities relating dimensions of various cohomology groups and quotients of the pro-unipotent fundamental group of the curve. Many of the applications to the Chabauty-Kim method over number fields were discovered independently and simultaneously by \textit{N. Dogra} [``Unlikely intersections and the Chabauty-Kim method over number fields'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1903.05032}] by very different methods. Dogra's work uses only \(p\)-adic techniques, as opposed to the complex analytic techniques used in Hast's work.