This looks like a version of modular symbols to me.

I finished my PhD in 1986, and wrote it on a SUN 2 workstation in the Aiken Computation Lab using LaTeX. There was an HP LaserJet printer right there. Lots of progress between Deane in '83 and me in '86.

Speaking from the point of view of a dean, I rely on my evaluation of the credibility of the departmental committee and the department head. Do I believe that they have real standards? Can I see evidence that the department knows what it's doing? When the department reviews candidates, are they realistic about the strengths AND weaknesses of cases? Do they get letters from high-profile people and read those letters carefully? I am much more comfortable taking the advice of people who I trust than I am in any citation ranking system.

This might be helpful. Note the reference to Knuth. He discusses computing x^n mod p faster than repeated squaring by algorithms depending on n. stackoverflow.com/questions/101439/…

You're right, of course; I kind of forgot about the "algebraic geometry" part of the question.

Work of Tsuji on Explicit Reciprocity Laws and Bloch-Kato is relevant: Tsuji, Takeshi(J-TOKYOGM) Explicit reciprocity law and formal moduli for Lubin-Tate formal groups. (English summary) J. Reine Angew. Math. 569 (2004), 103–173.