We determine set-theoretic defining equations for the variety of hypersurfaces of degree d in an N-dimensional complex vector space that have dual variety of dimension at most k. We apply these equations to the Mulmuley-Sohoni variety, the GL_{n^2} orbit closure of the determinant, showing it is an irreducible component of the variety of hypersurfaces of degree $n$ in C^{n^2} with dual of dimension at most 2n-2. We establish additional geometric properties of the Mulmuley-Sohoni variety and prove a quadratic lower bound for the determinental border-complexity of the permanent.
We prove a precise inversion of adjunction formula for the log pair associated to a non-degenerate hypersurface. As a corollary, the minimal log discrepancies of non-degenerate normal hypersurface singularities are bounded from above by dimension.
We establish Kyoji Saito's continuous limit distribution for the spectrum of Newton non-degenerate hypersurface singularities. Investigating Saito's notion of dominant value in the case of irreducible plane curve singularities, we find that the log canonical threshold is strictly bounded below by the doubled inverse of the Milnor number. We show that this bound is asymptotically sharp.
We introduce two generalizations of Newton-non-degenerate (Nnd) singularities of hypersurfaces. Roughly speaking, an isolated hypersurface singularity is called topologically Newton-non-degenerate (tNnd) if the local embedded topological singularity type can be restored from a collection of Newton diagrams (for some coordinate choices). A singularity that is not tNnd is called essentially Newton-degenerate. For plane curves we give an explicit characterization of tNnd singularities; for hypersurfaces we provide several examples. Next, we treat the question: whether Nnd or tNnd is a property of…
The monodromy conjecture is an umbrella term for several conjectured relationships between poles of zeta functions, monodromy eigenvalues and roots of Bernstein-Sato polynomials in arithmetic geometry and singularity theory. Even the weakest of these relations -- the Denef--Loeser conjecture on topological zeta functions -- is open for surface singularities. We prove it for a wide class of multidimensional singularities that are non-degenerate with respect to their Newton polyhedra, including all such singularities of functions of four variables. A crucial difference from the known case of thr…
Using the path lattice cohomology we provide a conceptual topological characterization of the geometric genus for certain complex normal surface singularities with rational homology sphere links, which is uniformly valid for all superisolated and Newton non--degenerate hypersurface singularities.
This paper has been withdrawn. Consider an isolated complex hypersurface singularity, f(x_1,..,x_n)=0. For Newton-non-degenerate singularities the local topology is completely determined by an associated polyhedral object, the Newton diagram. "Most" singularities are not Newton-non-degenerate, for any choice of local coordinates. An old question of Arnol'd asks whether for any hypersurface singularity there exists a stabilization, f(x_1,...,x_n)+z^2_1+...+z^2_r, that becomes Newton-non-degenerate after some change of coordinates. The answer is: "totally no". We give some simple obstructions an…
The main goal of this work is to prove that every entire curve in a generic hypersurface of degree greater than or equal to 593 in the complex projective space of dimension 4 is algebraically degenerated i.e contained in a proper subvariety.
The Milnor number, μ(X,0), and the singularity genus, p_g(X,0), are fundamental invariants of isolated hypersurface singularities (more generally, of local complete intersections). The long standing Durfee conjecture (and its generalization) predicted the inequality μ(X,0) \geq (n+1)!p_g(X,0), here n=dim(X,0). Recently we have constructed counterexamples, proposed a corrected bound and verified it for the homogeneous complete intersections. In the current paper we treat the case of germs with Newton-non-degenerate principal part when the Newton diagrams are "large enough", i.e. they are large …
We present a general construction of hypersurfaces with vanishing hessian, starting from any irreducible non-degenerate variety whose dual variety is a hypersurface and based on the so called Dual Cayley Trick. The geometrical properties of these hypersurfaces are different from the known series constructed until now. In particular, their dual varieties can have arbitrary codimension in the image of the associated polar map.
We give a criterion to test geometric properties such as Whitney equisingularity and Thom's $a_f$ condition for new families of (possibly non-isolated) hypersurface singularities that "behave well" with respect to their Newton diagrams. As an important corollary, we obtain that in such families all members have isomorphic Milnor fibrations.
We study the representation of a finite group acting on the cohomology of a non-degenerate, invariant hypersurface of a projective toric variety. We deduce an explicit description of the representation when the toric variety has at worst quotient singularities. As an application, we conjecture a representation-theoretic version of Batyrev and Borisov's mirror symmetry between pairs of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces, and prove it when the hypersurfaces are both smooth or have dimension at most 3. An interesting consequence is the existence of pairs of Calabi-Yau orbifolds whose Hodge diamonds are mir…
Let $X$ be a hypersurface of degree $d$ in $\Bbb P^n$ and $F_X$ be the scheme of $\Bbb P^r$'s contained in $X$. If $X$ is generic, then $F_X$ will have the expected dimension (or empty) and its class in the Chow ring of $G(r+1,n+1)$ is given by the top Chern class of the vector bundle $S^dU^*$, where $U$ is the universal subbundle on the Grassmannian $G(r+1,n+1)$. When we deform a generic $X$ into a degenerate $X_0$, the dimension of $F_X$ can jump. In this case, there is a subscheme $F_{lim}$ of $F_{X_0}$ with the expected dimension which consists of limiting $\Bbb P^r$'s in $X_0$ with respec…
Let M(d,n) be the moduli stack of hypersurfaces of degree d > n in the complex projective n-space, and let M(d,n;1) be the sub-stack, parameterizing hypersurfaces obtained as a d fold cyclic covering of the projective n-1 space, ramified over a hypersurface of degree d. Iterating this construction, one obtains M(d,n;r). We show that M(d,n;1) is rigid in M(d,n), although the Griffiths-Yukawa coupling degenerates for d<2n. On the other hand, for all d>n the sub-stack M(d,n;2) deforms. We calculate the exact length of the Griffiths-Yukawa coupling over M(d,n;r), and we construct a 4-dimensional f…
We give a definition of Newton non degeneracy independent of the system of generators defining the variety. This definition extends the notion of Newton non degeneracy to varieties that are not necessarily complete intersection. As in the previous definition of non-degeneracy for complete intersection varieties, it is shown that the varieties satisfying our definition can be resolved with a toric modification. Using tools of both toric and tropical geometry we describe the toric modification in terms of the Groebner fan of the ideal defining the variety. The first part of the paper is devoted …
Let $V_{n,d}$ be the variety of equations for hypersurfaces of degree $d$ in $\mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{C})$ with singularities not worse than simple nodes. We prove that the orbit map $G'=SL_{n+1}(\mathbb{C}) \to V_{n,d}$, $g\mapsto g\cdot s_0$, $s_0\in V_{n,d}$ is surjective on the rational cohomology if $n>1$, $d\geq 3$, and $(n,d)\neq (2,3)$. As a result, the Leray-Serre spectral sequence of the map from $V_{n,d}$ to the homotopy quotient $(V_{n,d})_{hG'}$ degenerates at $E_2$, and so does the Leray spectral sequence of the quotient map $V_{n,d}\to V_{n,d}/G'$ provided the geometric quotient $V…
In this note, we establish the following Second Main Theorem type estimate for every entire non-algebraically degenerate holomorphic curve $f\colon\mathbb{C}\rightarrow\mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{C})$, in present of a {\sl generic} hypersuface $D\subset\mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{C})$ of sufficiently high degree $d\geq 15(5n+1)n^n$: \[ T_f(r) \leq \,N_f^{[1]}(r,D) + O\big(\log T_f(r) + \log r \big)\parallel, \] where $T_f(r)$ and $N_f^{[1]}(r,D)$ stand for the order function and the $1$-truncated counting function in Nevanlinna theory. This inequality quantifies recent results on the logarithmic Green--Grif…
In this paper we apply for the first time a new method for multivariate equation solving which was developed in \cite{gh1}, \cite{gh2}, \cite{gh3} for complex root determination to the {\em real} case. Our main result concerns the problem of finding at least one representative point for each connected component of a real compact and smooth hypersurface. The basic algorithm of \cite{gh1}, \cite{gh2}, \cite{gh3} yields a new method for symbolically solving zero-dimensional polynomial equation systems over the complex numbers. One feature of central importance of this algorithm is the use of a pr…
We classify projective toric manifolds whose dual variety is not a hypersurface in the dual projective space. Under the standard dictionary between toric geometry and convex geometry, they correspond to certain convex Delzant integer polytopes, P, which we call defect polytopes. Using the geometrical classification we give a detailed description of defect polytopes and prove that they are characterized by the vanishing of a combinatorial invariant, denoted by c(P). We further prove that a related invariant, c*(P), is nonnegative, for any simple convex integral polytope.
