Hi, I am a research fellow at the KU Leuven Mathematics Department, Algebra Section. My research focuses on arithmetic geometry, more specifically on the interactions of nonarchimedean & tropical geometry in arithmetic settings. I am also active in mathematics outreach and education.
contact: art (dot) waeterschoot (at) kuleuven (dot) be
cv: [pdf]
Here is another picture of me, taken not so long after the one on the right.
Research interests:
I am interested in degenerations and the tropical nature of nonarchimedean skeleta, especially in arithmetic settings. Concretely, I want to improve our understanding of the retraction to the Berkovich skeleton, by explicitly computing tropical shadows of various objects such as forms, currents, cohomology, cycles, coefficients, local systems, Arakelov invariants...
In my PhD thesis (see below) I developed a tropical Poincaré-Lelong formalism on skeleta and obtained applications to wild ramification problems for arithmetic curves. I plan to further develop it in the coming years. I am also interested in logarithmic geometry and motivic integration.
I am interested in starting new research 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. published. (joint with Michaël Maex and Enis Kaya), Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 153 (2025), 947-961, [Journal/DOI link] [ArXiv link]
PhD Thesis
I defended my PhD thesis in June 2025. It contains papers 1-4 above along with background material.
Title: 'Harmonic covers of skeleta and wildly ramified curves'. [pdf]
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Johannes Nicaise (KU Leuven)
Here are the slides of the public phd defense, intended for a general audience (beware of simplifications!)
slides, posters, expository notes
slides: 'on a family of 2-dimensional wild quotient singularities' (CAGE, september 2025)
poster: 'harmonic covers of Berkovich skeleta' (CIRM, january 2025)
poster: 'the different function for covers of arithmetic curves' (Heidelberg, 2023)
slides: 'pullback of weight functions and logarithmic differents'. (Regensburg, 2022)
link to expository slides and notes, and reading seminar notes
outreach and miscellaneous links
some news & upcoming travel plans:
I am now finishing an academic teaching degree (Educatieve Master) at the Antwerp School of Education, currently doing a mini-project on inquiry-based mathematical education
7-8 April: attending the Benelux Mathematical Congress
20 April - 30 June: teaching in a secundary school in Brussels
16-18 June: attending and speaking at SNATG - Lille 2026
2-4 July: attending LMS–Sheffield 2026
6-10 July: organising a science camp for young kids in Brussels
12-18 july: attending the Perverse Sheaves VIU summer school
20 july - 27 july: visiting the UK
23-30 July: I sincerely hope many colleagues and mathematical communities will follow the example of the SMF and boycott the ICM 2026 in the USA: It is imperative that hosting countries respect human rights and protect basic democratic values. See this website.
1-4 sept: attending Wuppertal summer school on geometry in positive characteristic
9-11 Sept: co-organising the BSSM, a summer school in Brussels open for all undergraduate mathematics students
