Effective Methods for Diophantine Finiteness

Abstract

Let $K \subset \mathbb{C}$ be a number field, and let $\mathcal{O}_{K,N} = \mathcal{O}_{K}[N^{-1}]$ be its ring of $N$-integers. Recently, Lawrence and Venkatesh proposed a general strategy for proving the Shafarevich conjecture for the fibres of a smooth projective family $f : X \to S$ defined over $\mathcal{O}_{K,N}$. To carry out their strategy, one needs to be able to decide whether the algebraic monodromy group $\mathbf{H}_{Z}$ of any positive-dimensional geometrically irreducible subvariety $Z \subset S_{\mathbb{C}}$ is "large enough", in the sense that a certain orbit of $\mathbf{H}_{Z}$ in a variety of Hodge flags has dimension bounded from below by a certain quantity. In this article we give an effective method for deciding this question. Combined with the effective methods of Lawrence-Venkatesh for understanding semisimplifications of global Galois representations using $p$-adic Hodge theory, this gives a fully effective strategy for solving Shafarevich-type problems for arbitrary families $f$.