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Rena Chu

I am a postdoc at the University of Göttingen, mentored by Lilian Matthiesen. I am interested in analytic number theory, more specifically, additive and multiplicative character sums, and additive combinatorics.

I obtained my PhD at Duke University in May 2025. My advisor was Lillian Pierce.

Before starting a PhD at Duke, I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and a master's degree (Part III) at the University of Cambridge.

Emails:

rena[dot]chu[at]alumni[dot]duke[dot]edu

rena[dot]chu[at]mathematik[dot]uni-goettingen[dot]de (emails sent here will get forwarded to the above Duke alumni email)

Here is a list of my publications and preprints:

Short character sums of inhomogeneous polynomials, preprint (arXiv)
Counterexamples for generalizations of the non-elliptic Schrödinger maximal operator, preprint (arXiv)
Estimates for short character sums evaluated at homogeneous polynomials,

J. London Math. Soc. 112 (2025), no. 5, e70351 (arXiv)

Generalizations of the Schrödinger maximal operator: building arithmetic counterexamples, with L. B. Pierce,

J. Anal. Math. 151 (2023), no. 1, 59-114 (arXiv)

Counterexamples for high-degree generalizations of the Schrödinger maximal operator, with C. An and L. B. Pierce,

Int. Math. Res. Not. IMRN (2023), no. 10, 8371-8418 (arXiv)

Constant root number on integer fibres of elliptic surfaces, with J. Desjardins,

J. Number Theory 246 (2023), 294-325 (arXiv)

Recent talks:

Jul 2026 University of Göttingen Number Theory Seminar
Jun 2026 Graz-ISTA Number Theory Days
Jun 2026 Charles University Number Theory Seminar
Feb 2026 ELAZ 2026 (contributed)
Feb 2026 University of Cambridge Discrete Analysis Seminar
Feb 2026 Warwick Number Theory Seminar
Nov 2025 ETH Number Theory Seminar
Nov 2025 Purdue Analytic Number Theory and Harmonic Analysis Seminar (PANTHA)
Oct 2025 University of Göttingen Number Theory Seminar

Recent funding and awards:

Katherine Goodman Stern Fellowship, Duke University, 2024/2025
L.P. Smith Award for Teaching Excellence, 2024
Finalist for the Jane Street Graduate Research Fellowship, 2024

Recent workshops and conferences attended:

May 2026 Workshop on Discrete harmonic analysis and analytic number theory, Budapest, Hungary
Feb 2026 ELAZ 2026, Strobl, Austria
Sep 2025 2025 Clay Research Conference: Zeta and L-functions, Oxford, UK
Sep 2025 Kopp Summer School: Discrete Directions in Harmonic Analysis, Kopp, Germany
June 2025 Diophantine Equations, Combinatorics, Analysis in Number Theory (DECANT), Edinburgh, UK
Apr 2025 AMS Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting, Hartford, CT
Mar 2025 Hot Topics: Interactions between Harmonic Analysis, Homogeneous Dynamics, and Number Theory, SLMath

Teaching:

Math 112L Laboratory Calculus II (Instructor), Fall 2023
Summer Workshop in Math (SWiM) at Duke (Instructor), Summer 2023
IAS Women and Mathematics Program (TA), May 2023
Math 111L Laboratory Calculus I (Instructor), Fall 2022
Math 290 Special Topics in the History of Mathematics (Grader), Spring 2022
Math 111L Laboratory Calculus I (TA), Fall 2021

Expository writing:

On large gaps between primes, Cambridge Part III essay (an exposition of Long gaps between primes by Ford, Green, Konyagin, Maynard, and Tao)
On Waring's problem with restricted digits (an exposition of Waring's problem with restricted digits by Green) (pdf)
On Roth's theorem on Diophantine approximation of algebraic numbers (an exposition of Roth's theorem as recorded in Diophantine Approximation by Schmidt) (pdf)

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