We establish the analogue of the Friedlander-Mazur conjecture for Teh's reduced Lawson homology groups of real varieties, which says that the reduced Lawson homology of a real quasi-projective variety $X$ vanishes in homological degrees larger than the dimension of $X$ in all weights. As an application we obtain a vanishing of homotopy groups of the mod-2 topological groups of averaged cycles and a characterization in a range of indices of the motivic cohomology of a real variety as homotopy groups of the complex of averaged equidimensional cycles. We also establish an equivariant Poincare duality between equivariant Friedlander-Walker real morphic cohomology and dos Santos' real Lawson homology. We use this together with an equivariant extension of the mod-2 Beilinson-Lichtenbaum conjecture to compute some real Lawson homology groups in terms of Bredon cohomology.
In this paper we establish a precise comparison between vanishing cycles and the singularity category of Landau-Ginzburg models over a complete discrete valuation ring. By using noncommutative motives, we first construct a motivic $\ell$-adic realization functor for dg-categories. Our main result, then asserts that, given a Landau-Ginzburg model over a complete discrete valuation ring with potential induced by a uniformizer, the $\ell$-adic realization of its singularity category is given by the inertia-invariant part of vanishing cohomology. We also prove a functorial and $\infty$-categorical…
We show that the higher Chow groups with modulus of Binda-Kerz-Saito for a smooth quasi-projective scheme $X$ is a module over the Chow ring of $X$. From this, we deduce certain pull-backs, the projective bundle formula, and the blow-up formula for higher Chow groups with modulus. We prove vanishing of $0$-cycles of higher Chow groups with modulus on various affine varieties of dimension at least two. This shows in particular that the multivariate analogue of Bloch-Esnault--Rülling computations of additive higher Chow groups of 0-cycles vanishes.
We prove that the shifted vanishing cycles and nearby cycles commute with Verdier dualizing up to a {\bf natural} isomorphism, even when the coefficients are not in a field.
We give a complete description of the relationship between the vanishing cycles of a complex of sheaves along a function $f$ and Thom's $a_f$ condition.
This article is the first in a series of two in which we study the vanishing cycles of curves in toric surfaces. We give a list of possible obstructions to contract vanishing cycles within a given complete linear system. Using tropical means, we show that any non-separating simple closed curve is a vanishing cycle whenever none of the listed obstructions appears.
We develop a theory of tame vanishing cycles for schemes over $[\mathbb{A}^1_{S}/\mathbb{G}_{m,S}]$ in the context of étale sheaves. We show some desired properties of this formalism, among which: a compatibility with tame vanishing cycles over a (strctly) henselian trait, a compatibility with the theory of tame vanishing cycles over $\mathbb{A}^1_{S}$, a compatibility with tensor product and with duality. In the last section, we prove that monodromy-invariant vanishing cycles, introduced by the second named author, are the homotopy fixed points with respect to a canonical continuous action of…
If $\Adot$ is a bounded, constructible complex of sheaves on a complex analytic space $X$, and $f:X\to\C$ and $g:X\to\C$ are complex analytic functions, then the iterated vanishing cycles $ϕ_g[-1](ϕ_f[-1]\Adot)$ are important for a number of reasons. We give a formula for the stalk cohomology $H^*(ϕ_g[-1]ϕ_f[-1]\Adot)_x$ in terms of relative polar curves, algebra, and the normal Morse data and micro-support of $\Adot$.
Using iterated vanishing cycles and convolution, we prove a motivic version of a conjecture of Steenbrink concerning the spectrum of hypersurface singularities
We study the vanishing cycles on the Milnor fibre of a holomorphic map germ with special kind of non-isolated singularities which appear in symplectic geometry. We show, under assumptions given in the text, that the Lefschetz vanishing cycles freely generate the corresponding homology group of the Milnor fibre. We study two examples of applications: involutive systems in symplectic geometry (as characteristic varieties of $\hbar$-differential equations are of this type) and ajoint orbits in Lie algebras.
For a holomorphic function on a complex manifold, we show that the vanishing cohomology of lower degree at a point is determined by that for the points near it, using the perversity of the vanishing cycle complex. We calculate it explicitly in the case the hypersurface has simple normal crossings outside the point. We also give some applications to the monodromy.
We survey nearby and vanishing cycles for both perverse sheaves and D-modules under analytic setting. Following ideas of A. Beilinson, M. Kashiwara and M. Saito, we explain in detail the proof of the comparison theorem between them in the sense of Riemann-Hilbert correspondence.
We show that the motivic vanishing cycles introduced by J. Denef and F. Loeser give rise to a motivic measure on the Grothendieck ring of varieties over the affine line. We discuss the relation of this motivic measure to the motivic measure we constructed earlier using categories of matrix factorizations.
We give a theorem on the effective non-vanishing problem for algebraic surfaces in positive characteristic. For the Kawamata-Viehweg vanishing, the logarithmic Kollar vanishing and the logarithmic semipositivity, we give their counterexamples on ruled surfaces in positive characteristic.
In this short note, we simply collect some known results about representing algebraic cycles by various kind of "nice" (e.g. smooth, local complete intersection, products of local complete intersection) algebraic cycles, up to rational equivalence. We also add a few elementary and easy observations on these representation problems that we were not able to locate in the literature.
Given a smooth formal scheme over the ring of integers of a mixed-characteristic perfectoid field, we study its $p$-adic vanishing cycles via de Rham--Witt and $q$-de Rham complexes.
Given the germ of an analytic function on affine space with a smooth critical locus, we prove that the constancy of the stalk cohomology of the Milnor fiber in lowest degree off a codimension two subset of the critical locus implies that the vanishing cycles are concentrated in lowest degree and are constant.
In this paper we discuss an obstruction to the integral Hodge conjecture, which arises from certain behavior of vanishing cycles. This allows us to construct new counter-examples to the integral Hodge conjecture. One typical such counter-example is the product of a very general hypersurface of odd dimension and an Enriques surface. Our approach generalizes the degeneration argument of Benoist-Ottem.
We define higher categorical invariants (gerbes) of codimension two algebraic cycles and provide a categorical interpretation of the intersection of divisors on a smooth proper algebraic variety. This generalization of the classical relation between divisors and line bundles furnishes a new perspective on the Bloch-Quillen formula.
We extend the results from the previous paper by A. Frühbis-Krüger and the author [arXiv:1501.01915] to the vanishing topology of those singularities in the title. Studying the case of possibly non-isolated singularities in the Tjurina- transform, we reveal that in dimension 3 and 2 there always is exactly one special vanishing cycle in degree 2 closely related to the determinantal structure of the singularity.
We show that using an idea from a paper by Van de Ven one may obtain a simple proof of Zak's classification of smooth projective surfaces with zero vanishing cycles. This method of proof allows one to extend Zak's theorem to the case of finite characteristic.
In this short note we try to generalize the Clemens-Griffiths criterion of non-rationality for smooth cubic threefolds to the case of smooth cubic fourfolds.
We extend slightly the results of Evens-Mirković, and "compute" the characteristic cycles of Intersection Cohomology sheaves on the transversal slices in the double affine Grassmannian and on the hypertoric varieties. We propose a conjecture relating the hyperbolic stalks and the microlocalization at a torus-fixed point in a Poisson variety.
We give examples of Calabi-Yau threefolds containing Lagrangian spheres which are not vanishing cycles of nodal degenerations, answering a question of Donaldson in the negative.
We prove an extended Lefschetz principle for a large class of pencils of hypersurfaces having isolated singularities, possibly in the axis, and show that the module of vanishing cycles is generated by the images of certain variation maps.
We prove that the polar degree of an arbitrarily singular projective hypersurface can be decomposed as a sum of non-negative numbers which represent local vanishing cycles of two different types. This yields lower bounds for the polar degree of any singular projective hypersurface.
The geometric monodromy of a plane curve singularity is a quasi-finite diffeomorphism. In this paper we locate the reduction curves of the geometric monodromy and the quadratic vanishing cycles of the singularity. An application to the geometric monodromy group is given.
As is remarked by B. Totaro, R. Thomas essentially proved that the Hodge conjecture is inductively equivalent to the existence of a hyperplane section, called a generalized Thomas hyperplane section, such that the restriction to it of a given primitive Hodge class does not vanish. We study the relations between the vanishing cycles in the cohomology of a general fiber, and show that each relation between the vanishing cycles of type (0,0) with unipotent monodromy around a singular hyperplane section defines a primitive Hodge class such that this singular hyperplane section is a generalized Tho…
Let $X$ be a closed Riemann surface. When $X$ is embedded into a projective space, the first rational cohomology group can be concretely obtained from the monodromy in the family of its smooth hyperplane sections by C. Schnell's tube mapping. We generalize this result to the first integral homology group by relating the tube mapping with the topological Abel--Jacobi mapping. By making use of the mapping class group action, we prove that all tube classes constructed from the elementary vanishing cycles form a cofinite subgroup of the first integral homology group of $X$.
We show the compatibility between the moderate or nearby cycle functor for regular holonomic $\mathcal{D}$-modules, as defined by Beilinson, Kashiwara and Malgrange, and the Hermitian duality functor, as defined by Kashiwara.
This is the writeup of a talk given at the European Congress of Mathematics, Barcelona. It considers Picard-Lefschetz theory from the Floer cohomology viewpoint.
Let $X$ be a general complete intersection of a given multi-degree in a complex projective space. Suppose that the anti-canonical line bundle of $X$ is ample. Using the cylinder homomorphism associated with the family of complete intersections contained in $X$, we prove that the vanishing cycles in the middle homology group of $X$ are represented by topological cycles whose support is contained in a proper Zariski closed subset $T\subset X$ of certain codimension. In some cases, we can find such a Zariski closed subset $T$ with codimension equal to the upper bound obtained from the Hodge struc…
Given an ample line bundle on a toric surface, a question of Donaldson asks which simple closed curves can be vanishing cycles for nodal degenerations of smooth curves in the complete linear system. This paper provides a complete answer. This is accomplished by reformulating the problem in terms of the mapping class group-valued monodromy of the linear system, and giving a precise determination of this monodromy group.
The paper continues the discussion of symplectic aspects of Picard-Lefschetz theory begun in "Vanishing cycles and mutation" (this archive). There we explained how to associate to a suitable fibration over a two-dimensional disc a triangulated category, the "derived directed Fukaya category" which describes the structure of the vanishing cycles. The present second part serves two purposes. Firstly, it contains various kinds of algebro-geometric examples, including the "mirror manifold" of the projective plane. Secondly there is a (largely conjectural) discussion of more advanced topics, such a…
In this paper we prove an explicit formula which compares the dimensions of the spaces of vanishing cycles in a Galois cover of degree p between formal germ of curves over a complete discrete valuation ring of inequal characteristics (0,p). This formula can be easily generalised to the case of a Galois cover with group which is nilpotent or which has a normal p-Sylow subgroup. The results of this paper play a key role in [Sa-1] where is studied the semi-stable reduction of Galois covers of degree p above semi-stable curves over a complete discrete valuation ring of inequal characteristics (0,p…
This article is an overview of the vanishing cycles method in number theory over function fields. We first explain how this works in detail in a toy example, and then give three examples which are relevant to current research. The focus will be a general explanation of which sorts of problems this method can be applied to.
Suppose that the critical locus $Σ$ of a complex analytic function $f$ on affine space is, itself, a space with an isolated singular point at the origin $\0$, and that the Milnor number of $f$ restricted to normal slices of $Σ-\{\0\}$ is constant. Then, the general theory of perverse sheaves puts severe restrictions on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of $f$ at $\0$, and even more surprising restrictions on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of generic hyperplane slices.
In this article we prove a local Riemman-Hurwitz formula which compares the dimensions of the spaces of vanishing cycles in a finite Galois cover of type (p,p,...,p) between formal germs of p-adic curves and which generalises the formula proven by the first author in the case of Galois covers of degree p. We also investigate the problem of the existence of a torsor structure for a finite Galois cover of type (p,p,...,p) between p-adic schemes.
We formulate a notion of $E_0$ quantisation of $(-1)$-Poisson structures on derived Artin $N$-stacks, and construct a map from $E_0$ quantisations of $(-1)$-shifted symplectic structures to power series in de Rham cohomology. For a square root of the dualising line bundle, this gives an equivalence between even power series and self-dual quantisations. In particular, there is a canonical quantisation of any such square root, which localises to recover the perverse sheaf of vanishing cycles on derived DM stacks, thus giving a form of derived categorification of Donaldson--Thomas invariants.
We study the vanishing cycles of a one-parameter smoothing of a complex analytic space and show that the weight filtration on its perverse cohomology sheaf of the highest degree is quite close to the monodromy filtration so that its graded pieces have a modified Lefschetz decomposition. We describe its primitive part using the weight filtration on the perverse cohomology sheaves of the constant sheaves. As a corollary we show in the local complete intersection case that 1 is not an eigenvalue of the monodromy on the reduced Milnor cohomology at any points if and only if the total space and the…
We resume the study initiated in \cite{CL}. For a generic curve $C$ in an ample linear system $\vert \mathcal{L} \vert$ on a toric surface $X$, a vanishing cycle of $C$ is an isotopy class of simple closed curve that can be contracted to a point along a degeneration of $C$ to a nodal curve in $\vert \mathcal{L} \vert$. The obstructions that prevent a simple closed curve in $C$ from being a vanishing cycle are encoded by the adjoint line bundle $K_X \otimes \mathcal{L}$. In this paper, we consider the linear systems carrying the two simplest types of obstruction. Geometrically, these obstructio…
In the geometric situation of the simple Shimura varieties of Kottwitz studied in Harris and Taylor's book, we describe the monodromy filtration of the vanishing cycles complex and the spectral sequence associated to it. We prove in particular that this filtration coincides with the weight one up to shift. Thanks to the Berkovich-Fargues' theorem, we deduce the description of the local monodromy filtration of the Deligne-Carayol model. In application, we obtain the description of the local components of cohomological automorphic representations of certains unitary groups, a global Jacquet-Lang…
In this paper, we propose an ansatz for defining Gopakumar-Vafa invariants of Calabi-Yau threefolds, using perverse sheaves of vanishing cycles. Our proposal is a modification of a recent approach of Kiem-Li, which is itself based on earlier ideas of Hosono-Saito-Takahashi. We conjecture that these invariants are equivalent to other curve-counting theories such as Gromov-Witten theory and Pandharipande-Thomas theory. Our main theorem is that, for local surfaces, our invariants agree with PT invariants for irreducible one-cycles. We also give a counter-example to the Kiem-Li conjectures, where …
We construct an infinitesimal invariant for cycles in a family with cohomology class in the total space lying in a given level of the Leray filtration. This infinitesimal invariant detects cycles modulo algebraic equivalence in the fibers. We apply this construction to the Ikeda family, which gives optimal results for the Beauville decomposition of the 1-cycle of a very general plane curve in its Jacobian.
We give a purely local proof, in the depth 0 case, of the result by Harris-Taylor which asserts that the local Langlands correspondence for GL_n over a p-adic field K realizes itself inside the vanishing cycle cohomology of the deformation space of formal O_K-modules of height n. Our proof is given by establishing the direct geometric link with the Deligne-Lusztig theory for GL_n over the residue field.
