We compute the rational cohomology of the moduli space of non-singular non-hyperelliptic complex projective curves of genus 3 with an odd theta characteristic.
We review and extend the known constructions relating Kummer threefolds, Gopel systems, theta constants and their derivatives, and the GIT quotient for 7 points in P^2 to obtain an explicit expression for the Coble quartic. The Coble quartic was recently determined completely by Q.Ran, S.Sam, G.Schrader, and B.Sturmfels, who computed it completely explicitly, as a polynomial with 372060 monomials of bidegree (28,4) in theta constants of the second order and theta functions of the second order, respectively. Our expression is in terms of products of theta constants with characteristics correspo…
In a section of his 1876 treatise Theorie der Abel'schen Functionen vom Geschlecht 3 Weber proved a formula that expresses the bitangents of a non-singular plane quartic in terms of Riemann theta constants (Thetanullwerte). The present note is devoted to a modern presentation of Weber's formula. In the end a connection with the universal bitangent matrix is also displayed.
The primitive cohomology of the theta divisor of a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g$ is a Hodge structure of level $g-3$. The Hodge conjecture predicts that it is contained in the image, under the Abel-Jacobi map, of the cohomology of a family of curves in the theta divisor. In this paper we use the Prym map to show that this version of the Hodge conjecture is true for the theta divisor of a general abelian fivefold.
Let M(2;0,3) be the moduli space of rank-2 stable vector bundles with Chern classes c_1=0, c_2=3 on the Fano threefold X, the double solid of index two. We prove that the vector bundles obtained by Serre's construction from smooth elliptic quintic curves on X form an open part of an irreducible component M' of M(2;0,3) and that the Abel-Jacobi map F:M'-->J(X) into the intermediate Jacobian J(X) defined by the second Chern class is generically finite of degree 84 onto a translate of the theta divisor. We also prove that the family of elliptic quintics on a general X is irreducible and of dimens…
The primitive cohomology of the theta divisor of a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g$ is a Hodge structure of level $g-3$. The Hodge conjecture predicts that it is contained in the image, under the Abel-Jacobi map, of the cohomology of a family of curves in the theta divisor. We survey some of the results known about this primitive cohomology, prove a few general facts and mention some interesting open problems.
Our fundamental result is the construction of new subvarieties in the varieties of power sums for the Scorza quartic of any general pairs of trigonal curves and non-effective theta characteristics. This is a generalization of Mukai's description of smooth prime Fano threefolds of genus twelve as the varieties of power sums for plane quartics. Among other applications, we give an affirmative answer to the conjecture of Dolgachev and Kanev on the existence of the Scorza quartic for any general pairs of curves and non-effective theta characteristics.
In the paper "The universal Kummer threefold", Q. Ren, S. Sam, G. Schrader, and B. Sturmfels (arXiv:1208.1229), conjectured equations for the universal Kummer variety in genus 3 case. Though, most of these equations are obtained from the Fourier-Jacobi expansion of relations among theta constants in genus 4, the more prominent one, Coble's quartic was obtained differently. The aim of the current paper is to show that Coble's quartic can be obtained as Fourier-Jacobi expansion of a relation among theta-constants in genus 4. We get also one more relation that could be in the ideal described in "…
In the previous paper, we construct new subvarieties in the varieties of power sums for certain quartic hypersurfaces. In this paper, we show that these quartics coincide with the Scorza quartics of general pairs of trigonal curves and ineffective theta characteristics. Among other applications, we give an affirmative answer to the conjecture of Dolgachev and Kanev on the existence of the Scorza quartics for any general pairs of curves and ineffective theta characteristics. We also give descriptions of the moduli spaces of trigonal even spin curves. For curves of genus 4, we deepen this descri…
A log Calabi--Yau surface $(X,D)$ is given by a smooth projective surface $X$, together with an anti-canonical cycle of rational curves $D \subset X$. The homogeneous coordinate ring of the mirror to such a surface, or to the complement $X\setminus D$, is constructed in the work of Gross-Hacking-Keel, following previous work of Gross-Siebert, using wall structures, and it is generated by theta functions. In our work with Mark Gross we had provided a recipe to concretely compute these theta functions from a combinatorially constructed wall structure in arbitrary dimensions. In this paper, we fi…
The primal cohomology $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}$ of the theta divisor $Θ$ of a principally polarized abelian fivefold (ppav) is the direct sum of its invariant and anti-invariant parts $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{+1}$, resp. $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{-1}$ under the action of $-1$. For smooth $Θ$, these have dimension $6$ and $72$ respectively. We show that $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{+1}$ consists of Hodge classes and, for a very general ppav, $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{-1}$ is a simple Hodge structure of level $2$.
We prove that k-th singular cohomology group of the complement of the theta divisor in a hyperelliptic Jacobian is isomorphic to the k-th fundamental representation of the symplectic group Sp(2g,C). This is one of the conjectures in our previous paper.
In this paper we give a birational model for the theta divisor of the intermediate Jacobian of a generic cubic threefold $X$. We use the standard realization of $X$ as a conic bundle and a $4-$dimensional family of plane quartics which are totally tangent to the discriminant quintic curve of such a conic bundle structure. The additional data of an even theta characteristic on the curves in the family gives us a model for the theta divisor.
Effective reconstruction formulas of a curve from its theta hyperplanes are known classically in genus 2 (where the theta hyperplanes are Weierstrass points), and 3 (where, for a generic curve, the theta hyperplanes are bitangents to a plane quartic). However, for higher genera, no formula or algorithm are known. In this paper we give an explicit (and simple) algorithm for computing a generic genus 4 curve from it's theta hyperplanes.
We recall that a smooth ample surface $\mathcal{S}$ in a general $(1,2,2)$-polarized abelian threefold, which is the pullback of the Theta divisor of a smooth plane quartic curve $\mathcal{D}$, is a surface isogenous to the product $\mathcal{C} \times \mathcal{C}$, where $\mathcal{C}$ is a genus $9$ curve embedded in $\mathbb{P}^3$ as complete intersection of a smooth quadric and a smooth quartic. We show that the space of global holomorhic sections of the canonical bundle of this surface is generated by certain determinantal bihomogeneous polynomials of bidegree $(2,2)$ on $\mathbb{P}^3$, whi…
We prove a motivic version of the Lefschetz hyperplane theorem for a smooth ample divisor $Θ$ on an Abelian variety. We use this to construct a motive $P$ that realizes the primitive cohomology of $Θ$.
We show that a generic principally polarized abelian variety (ppav) is uniquely determined by its theta hyperplanes. These are the non-projectivized version of those studied by Caporaso and Sernesi (see math.AG/0204164), which in a sense are a generalization to ppavs of bitangents of plane quartics, and of hyperplanes tangent to a canonical curves of genus $g$ in $g-1$ points. More precisely, we show that, generically, the set of gradients of all odd theta functions at the point zero uniquely determines a ppav with level (4,8) structure. We also show that our map is an immersion of the moduli …
A theta surface in affine 3-space is the zero set of a Riemann theta function in genus 3. This includes surfaces arising from special plane quartics that are singular or reducible. Lie and Poincaré showed that theta surfaces are precisely the surfaces of double translation, i.e. obtained as the Minkowski sum of two space curves in two different ways. These curves are parametrized by abelian integrals, so they are usually not algebraic. This paper offers a new view on this classical topic through the lens of computation. We present practical tools for passing between quartic curves and their th…
Over a perfect field $k$ of characteristic $p > 0$, we construct a ``Witt vector cohomology with compact supports'' for separated $k$-schemes of finite type, extending (after tensorisation with $\mathbb{Q}$) the classical theory for proper $k$-schemes. We define a canonical morphism from rigid cohomology with compact supports to Witt vector cohomology with compact supports, and we prove that it provides an identification between the latter and the slope $< 1$ part of the former. Over a finite field, this allows one to compute congruences for the number of rational points in special examples. I…
We propose a generalization of the classical theta function to higher cohomology of the polarization line bundle on a family of complex tori with positive index. The constructed cocycles vary horizontally with respect to the (projective) flat connection on this family coming from a heat operator. They also possess modular properties similar to the classical ones.
We give a general formula relating self cup products in cohomology to connecting maps in nonabelian cohomology, and apply it to obtain a formula for the self cup product associated to the Weil pairing.
We study certain moduli spaces of stable vector bundles of rank two on cubic and quartic threefolds. In many cases under consideration, it turns out that the moduli space is complete and irreducible and a general member has vanishing intermediate cohomology. In one case, all except one component of the moduli space has such vector bundles.
Motivated by the computation of the BPS-invariants on a local Calabi-Yau threefold suggested by S. Katz, we compute the Chow ring and the cohomology ring of the moduli space of stable sheaves of Hilbert polynomial $4m+1$ on the projective plane. As a byproduct, we obtain the total Chern class and Euler characteristics of all line bundles, which provide a numerical data for the strange duality on the plane.
We study the geometry of some varieties of sums of powers related to the Klein quartic. This allows us to describe the birational geometry of certain moduli spaces of abelian surfaces. In particular we show that the moduli space $\mathcal{A}_2(1,7)^{-}_{sym}$ of $(1,7)$-polarized abelian surfaces with a symmetric theta structure and an odd theta characteristic is unirational by showing that it admits a dominant morphism from a unirational conic bundle.
Let C/K: F = 0 be a smooth plane quartic over a complete discrete valuation field K. In a previous paper the authors togetehr with Q. Liu give various characterizations of the reduction (i.e. non-hyperelliptic genus 3 curve, hyperelliptic genus 3 curve or bad) of the stable model of C: in terms of the existence of a special plane quartic model and in terms of the valuations of the Dixmier-Ohno invariants of C. The last one gives in particular an easy computable criterion for the reduction type. However, it does not produce a stable model, even in the case of good reduction. In this paper we gi…
We compute Hochschild cohomology of projective hypersurfaces starting from the Gerstenhaber-Schack complex of the (restricted) structure sheaf. We are particularly interested in the second cohomology group and its relation with deformations. We show that a projective hypersurface is smooth if and only if the classical HKR decomposition holds for this group. In general, the first Hodge component describing scheme deformations has an interesting inner structure corresponding to the various ways in which first order deformations can be realized: deforming local multiplications, deforming restrict…
We compute cohomology of the moduli space of genus three curves with level two structure and some related spaces. In particular, we determine the cohomology groups of the moduli space of plane quartics with level two structure as representations of the symplectic group on a six dimensional vector space over the field of two elements. We also make the analogous computations for some related spaces such as moduli spaces of genus three curves with a marked points and strata of the moduli space of Abelian differentials of genus three.
Let A be an indecomposable principally polarized abelian variety of dimension g . Third order theta functions embed A in a projective space P(V_3), while second order theta functions embed the Kummer variety K=A/<-1> in a projective space P(V_2). Coble observed that for g = 2 there is a unique cubic hypersurface in P(V_3) that is singular along A, and for g = 3 a unique quartic hypersurface in P(V_2) singular along K . We explain these facts by a simple analysis of the representations of the corresponding Heisenberg group.
We discuss Weber's formula which gives the quotient of two Thetanullwerte for a plane smooth quartic in terms of the bitangents. In particular, we show how it can easily be derived from the Riemann-Jacobi formula.
We consider moduli spaces of plane quartics marked with various structures such as Cayley octads, Aronhold heptads, Steiner complexes and Göpel subsets and determine their cohomology. This answers a series of questions of Jesse Wolfson. We also explore some arithmetic applications over finite fields.
Motivated by an application to LDPC (low density parity check) algebraic geometry codes described by Voloch and Zarzar, we describe a computational procedure for establishing an upper bound on the arithmetic or geometric Picard number of a smooth projective surface over a finite field, by computing the Frobenius action on p-adic cohomology to a small degree of p-adic accuracy. We have implemented this procedure in Magma; using this implementation, we exhibit several examples, such as smooth quartics over F_2 and F_3 with arithmetic Picard number 1, and a smooth quintic over F_2 with geometric …
If C is a curve of genus 4 without vanishing theta-nulls then there exists a unique (irreducible) Heisenberg-invariant quartic Q_C in |2Θ| = P^{15} such that Sing Q_C contains the image of SU_C(2), the moduli space of rank 2 vector bundles with trivial determinant. Moreover, in each eigen-P^7 of the Heisenberg action on |2Θ|, Q_C restricts to the classical Coble quartic of the corresponding Prym-Kummer variety. We compare Q_C with the hypersurface G_3 in |2Θ| of divisors containing a translate of C in J(C), and show that in the eigen-P^7s G_3 recovers Beauville--Debarre's quadrisecant planes o…
We make cohomological computations related to the moduli space of genus three curves with symplectic level two structure by means of counting points over finite fields. In particular, we determine the cohomology groups of the quartic locus as representations of the symmetric group on seven elements.
We study twists of the Burkhardt quartic threefold over non-algebraically closed base fields of characteristic different from 2,3,5. We show they all admit quartic models in projective four-space. We identify a Galois-cohomological obstruction that measures if a given twist is birational to a moduli space of abelian varieties. This obstruction has implications for the rational points on these varieties. As a result, we see that all possible 3-level structures can be realized by abelian surfaces, whereas Kummer 3-level structures that group-theoretically may be admissible, may not be realizable…
We show that a general plane curve of degree at least 4 is uniquely determined by the full set of its bitangent lines. This problem has an elementary solution for degree at least 5, and the paper is almost entirely devoted to curves of degree 4, where we generalize the result to nodal quartics. In other words, we show that a general curve of genus 3 can be recovered from its 28 odd theta-characteristics.
We prove that the moduli spaces of parabolic symplectic/orthogonal bundles on a smooth curve are globally F regular type. As a consequence, all higher cohomology of theta line bundle vanish. During the proof, we develop a method to estimate codimension, and consider the infinite grassmannians for parabolic $G$ bundles.
Let $C$ be a smooth curve in $\PP^2$ given by an equation F=0 of degree $d$. In this paper we consider elementary transformations of linear pfaffian representations of $C$. Elementary transformations can be interpreted as actions on a rank 2 vector bundle on $C$ with canonical determinant and no sections, which corresponds to the cokernel of a pfaffian representation. Every two pfaffian representations of $C$ can be bridged by a finite sequence of elementary transformations. Pfaffian representations and elementary transformations are constructed explicitly. For a smooth quartic, applications t…
Let $C$ be a curve of genus two. We denote by $SU_C(3)$ the moduli space of semi-stable vector bundles of rank 3 and trivial determinant over $C$, and by $J^d$ the variety of line bundles of degree $d$ on $C$. In particular, $J^1$ has a canonical theta divisor $Θ$. The space $SU_C(3)$ is a double cover of $P^8=|3Θ|$ branched along a sextic hypersurface, the Coble sextic. In the dual $\check{P}^8=|3Θ|^*$, where $J^1$ is embedded, there is a unique cubic hypersurface singular along $J^1$, the Coble cubic. We prove that these two hypersurfaces are dual, inducing a non-abelian Torelli result. More…
We study the geometry and cohomology of algebraic super curves, using a new contour integral for holomorphic differentials. For a class of super curves (``generic SKP curves'') we define a period matrix. We show that the odd part of the period matrix controls the cohomology of the dual curve. The Jacobian of a generic SKP curve is a smooth supermanifold; it is principally polarized, hence projective, if the even part of the period matrix is symmetric. In general symmetry is not guaranteed by the Riemann bilinear equations for our contour integration, so it remains open whether Jacobians are al…
In this paper we investigate the behavior of the sigma function over the family of cyclic trigonal curves $X_s$ defined by the equation $y^3 =x(x-s)(x-b_1)(x-b_2)$ in the affine $(x,y)$ plane, for $s\in D_\varepsilon:=\{s \in \mathbb{C} | |s|<\varepsilon\}$. We compare the sigma function over the punctured disc $D_\varepsilon^*:=D_\varepsilon\setminus\{0\}$ with the extension over $s=0$ that specializes to the sigma function of the normalization $X_{\hat{0}}$ of the singular curve $X_{s=0}$ by investigating explicitly the behavior of a basis of the first algebraic de Rham cohomology group and …
We establish a Lefschetz hyperplane theorem for the Berkovich analytifications of Jacobians of curves over an algebraically closed non-Archimedean field. Let $J$ be the Jacobian of a curve $X$, and let $W_d \subset J$ be the locus of effective divisor classes of degree $d$. We show that the pair $(J^{an},W_d^{an})$ is $d$-connected, and thus in particular the inclusion of the analytification of the theta divisor $Θ^{an}$ into $J^{an}$ satisfies a Lefschetz hyperplane theorem for $\mathbb{Z}$-cohomology groups and homotopy groups. A key ingredient in our proof is a generalization, over arbitrar…
We study the enumerative geometry of the moduli space R_g of Prym varieties of dimension g-1 (also known as the space of admissible double covers). Our main result is that the compactification of R_g is of general type as soon as g>13. We achieve this by computing the class of two types of cycles on R_g: one defined in terms of Koszul cohomology of Prym curves, the other defined in terms of Raynaud theta divisors associated to certain vector bundles on curves. We formulate a Prym-Green conjecture on syzygies of Prym-canonical curves. In the appendix we show that even though R_g has non-canonic…
A smooth plane curve is said to admit a symmetric determinantal representation if it can be defined by the determinant of a symmetric matrix with entries in linear forms in three variables. We study the local-global principle for the existence of symmetric determinantal representations of smooth plane curves over a global field of characteristic different from two. When the degree of the plane curve is less than or equal to three, we relate the problem of finding symmetric determinantal representations to more familiar Diophantine problems on the Severi-Brauer varieties and mod 2 Galois repres…