Research
Research interests:
interactions of nonarchimedean, logarithmic & tropical geometry; applications to arithmetic singularities, geometric ramification theory and motivic integration.
I am interested in starting new collaborations, feel free to reach out.
Papers
4. Monodromy degree of temperate reduction curves. preprint [pdf]
3. The different for base change of arithmetic curves. preprint [ArXiv link]
2. Harmonic covers of skeleta. submitted. [ArXiv link]
1. Jumps of Jacobians via orthogonal canonical forms. (joint with Michaël Maex and Enis Kaya), Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 153 (2025), 947-961, [Journal/DOI link] [ArXiv link]
Thesis
supervised by Prof. Dr. Johannes Nicaise (KU Leuven)
Title: 'Harmonic covers of skeleta and wildly ramified curves'. [pdf]
(contains papers 1-4 above along with background material).
Here are the slides of the public phd defense, intended for a general audience (beware of simplifications!)
slides, posters, notes
slides for a talk on 2-dimensional wild Galois quotient singularities (september 2025)
poster on harmonic covers of Berkovich skeleta (january 2025)
poster on the different function for covers of arithmetic curves (2023)
upcoming plans:
6-10 Oct, Lille: Workshop on nonarchimedean geometry
links to various local research seminars
online:
links to some mathematical organisations and initiatives in belgium:
Belgian Mathematical Society :: Welcome
Platform wiskunde vlaanderen: Voor iedereen in Vlaanderen die met wiskunde in aanraking komt
recreational mathematics: MathsJam - Bollebus - PRIME
Education and outreach
Next to my experience as a teaching assistant I am also an aspiring educator and I am involved with outreach programs such as VWO and Summer of Science, and I plan to start some own projects soon or later. This academic year (2025-26) I am finishing an Educative Master at University of Antwerp. I plan to conduct a small research project on STEAM education. I am searching for collaborators and open for suggestions: please get in touch via the email address below.
contact: art (dot) waeterschoot (at) student (dot) uantwerpen (dot) be
outreach
Here are a few documents that came out of various outreach endeavours. Feel free to use them at own risk.
some ongoing off-beat projects
I am passionate on interdisciplinary works which aim to bridge the gap between recreational mathematics, conceptual art and didactical practices. Feel free to share with me any other projects in this direction! I am currently working on:
an algebra book which contains no symbols (only arrows) and argues by pictures. The aim is to introduce to a wide mathematical audience the idea that category theory is a fertile and geometrically intuitive theory for deconstructing language and arguments. Inspired by Oliver Byrne's coloured version of Elements of Euclid
a popular text on various 'analogies' in number theory that does not try to explain, but tries to show the imagination and creativity behind important ideas (like function field analogies, p-adic numbers, rationality zeta functions via étale cohomology, primes-knots, spec Z as a curve, vojta's conjectures, etc)
Various mathematical internet links:
some personal opinions
In the ongoing climate destruction, we should minimize flying movements. At the universities this means we should mostly attend local seminars and conferences. Let us not stop talking about caring for the planet and its earthlings. I wholeheartedly endorse the motivation behind initiatives such as CAGE.
I avoid using Chatgpt and other generative AI in classroom tasks. we should all be raising more awareness about the ecological risks that AI data centers create, like the huge consumption of energy and water, the generation of new hazardous waste and their strong dependence on unsustainably mined rare earth minerals, see this UN report or this MIT report. We should also be warned by the genuinely terrifying potential geopolitical threats, as echoed by multiple leading experts. It is severely worrying how much irrepairable ecological damage AI and its data centers are already creating, how much generative AI fails to be transparant technology, and how it kills human creativity and undermines expert authority in the long run. Let the humans learn from their own mistakes, not the mistakes of machines. At this moment, it is not clear to me if 100% ethical, sustainable and transparant generative AI research can even exist. Please prove me wrong and send me counterarguments.
Universities and governments should follow legal obligations dictated by international law -- in the midst of an extraordinary humanitarian crisis and brutal genocide by the Isreali government I fully support the public letter of Belgian Universities for Palestine which carefully questions the existing collaborations with institutions based in occupying countries. I recommend reading Researching Palestine. I also signed the Belgian Citizen's Bill for Palestine Echoing the Call for Justice. Everyone should consider taking action to put academic and economic pressure on the Israeli institutions as well as to put political pressure on local governments to recognize the Palestinian state unconditionally.
