We use the "closed point sieve" to prove a variant of a Bertini theorem over finite fields. Specifically, given a smooth quasi-projective subscheme X of P^n of dimension m over F_q, and a closed subscheme Z in P^n such that Z intersect X is smooth of dimension l, we compute the fraction of homogeneous polynomials vanishing on Z that cut out a smooth subvariety of X. The fraction is positive if m>2l.
Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field. Fix integers $n$ and $b$ with $n\geq 3$ and $1\leq b\leq n-1.$ Let $T^d_k$ be the moduli space of hypersurfaces $[F]$ in $\mathbb{P}^n_k$ of degree $l$ whose singular locus contains a subscheme of dimension $b$ with Hilbert polynomial among the Hilbert polynomials of $b$-dimensional integral closed subschemes of $\mathbb{P}^n$ of degree $d$. We prove that when $l$ is sufficiently large and $2\leq d\leq \frac{l+1}{2},$ any irreducible component $Z$ of $T^d_k$ satisfies $Z=T^1_k$ or $\dim Z<\dim T^1_k.$
We prove an identity of Segre classes for zero-schemes of compatible sections of two vector bundles. Applications include bounds on the number of equations needed to cut out a scheme with the same Segre class as a given subscheme of (for example) a projective variety, and a `Segre-Bertini' theorem controlling the behavior of Segre classes of singularity subschemes of hypersurfaces under general hyperplane sections. These results interpolate between an observation of Samuel concerning multiplicities along components of a subscheme and facts concerning the integral closure of corresponding ideal…
The holomorphy conjecture predicts that the local Igusa zeta function associated to a hypersurface and a character is holomorphic on $\mathbb{C}$ whenever the order of the character does not divide the order of any eigenvalue of the local monodromy of the hypersurface. In this note we propose the holomorphy conjecture for arbitrary subschemes at the level of the topological zeta function and we prove this conjecture for subschemes defined by an ideal that is generated by a finite number of complex polynomials in two variables.
A Pfaff field on a projective space is a map from the sheaf of differential s-forms, for a certain s, to an invertible sheaf. The interesting ones are those arising from a Pfaff system, as they give rise to a distribution away from their singular locus. A subscheme of the projective space is said to be invariant under the Pfaff field, if the latter induces a Pfaff field on the subscheme. We give bounds for the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of invariant complete intersection subschemes (more generally, arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay subschemes) of dimension s, depending on how singular these sc…
Let X/S be a quasi-projective morphism over an affine base. We develop in this article a technique for proving the existence of closed subschemes H/S of X/S with various favorable properties. We offer several applications of this technique, including the existence of finite quasi-sections in certain projective morphisms, and the existence of hypersurfaces in X/S containing a given closed subscheme C, and intersecting properly a closed set F. Assume now that the base S is the spectrum of a ring R such that for any finite morphism Z -> S, Pic(Z) is a torsion group. This condition is satisfied if…
We study infinite intersections of open subschemes and the corresponding intersection of Hilbert schemes. If $\{U_i\}$ is the collection of open subschemes of a variety $X$ containing a fixed point $P$, then we show that the Hilbert functor of flat and finite families on the spectrum of the local ring of $P$ is given by the intersection of ${\Cal H}_i$, where ${\Cal H}_i$ is the Hilbert functor of flat and finite families on $U_i$. In particular we show that the Hilbert functor of flat and finite families on the spectrum of the local ring of $P$ is representable by a scheme.
Let f be a polynomial of degree n in ZZ[x_1,..,x_n], typically reducible but squarefree. From the hypersurface {f=0} one may construct a number of other subschemes {Y} by extracting prime components, taking intersections, taking unions, and iterating this procedure. We prove that if the number of solutions to f=0 in \FF_p^n is not a multiple of p, then all these intersections in Å^n_{\FF_p} just described are reduced. (If this holds for infinitely many p, then it holds over \QQ as well.) More specifically, there is a_Frobenius splitting_ on Å^n_{\FF_p} compatibly splitting all these subschemes…
Given a smooth subscheme of a projective space over a finite field, we compute the probability that its intersection with a fixed number of hypersurface sections of large degree is smooth of the expected dimension. This generalizes the case of a single hypersurface, due to Poonen. We use this result to give a probabilistic model for the number of rational points of such a complete intersection. A somewhat surprising corollary is that the number of rational points on a random smooth intersection of two surfaces in projective 3-space is strictly less than the number of points on the projective l…
Let $Z$ be a closed subscheme of a smooth complex projective complete intersection variety $Y\subseteq \Ps^N$, with $dim Y=2r+1\geq 3$. We describe the Néron-Severi group $NS_r(X)$ of a general smooth hypersurface $X\subset Y$ of sufficiently large degree containing $Z$.
We prove that a very general complex hypersurface of degree $n+1$ in $\mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ containing an $r$-plane with multiplicity $m$ is not stably rational for $n \ge 3$, $m, r > 0$ and $n \ge m+r$. We also investigate failure of stable rationality of a very general hypersurface of degree $n+1$ in $\mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ admitting several isolated ordinary double points.
For a subvariety of a smooth projective variety, consider the family of smooth hypersurfaces of sufficiently large degree containing it, and take the quotient of the middle cohomology of the hypersurfaces by the cohomology of the ambient variety and also by the cycle classes of the irreducible components of the subvariety. Using Deligne's semisimplicity theorem together with Steenbrink's theory for semistable degenerations, we give a simpler proof of the first author's theorem (with a better bound of the degree of hypersurfaces) that this monodromy representation is irreducible.
We consider the closed locus of $r$-tuples of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^r$ with positive dimensional intersection, and show in a large range of degrees that its largest component is the locus of $r$-tuples of hypersurfaces whose intersection contains a line. We then apply our methods to obtain new results on the largest components of the locus of hypersurfaces with positive dimensional singular loci and the locus of smooth hypersurfaces with a higher dimensional family of lines through a point than expected.
Let X be a smooth quasiprojective subscheme of P^n of dimension m >= 0 over F_q. Then there exist homogeneous polynomials f over F_q for which the intersection of X and the hypersurface f=0 is smooth. In fact, the set of such f has a positive density, equal to zeta_X(m+1)^{-1}, where zeta_X(s)=Z_X(q^{-s}) is the zeta function of X. An analogue for regular quasiprojective schemes over Z is proved, assuming the abc conjecture and another conjecture.
Let $Y$ be an $(m+1)$-dimensional irreducible smooth complex projective variety embedded in a projective space. Let $Z$ be a closed subscheme of $Y$, and $δ$ be a positive integer such that $\mathcal I_{Z,Y}(δ)$ is generated by global sections. Fix an integer $d\geq δ+1$, and assume the general divisor $X \in |H^0(Y,\ic_{Z,Y}(d))|$ is smooth. Denote by $H^m(X;\mathbb Q)_{\perp Z}^{\text{van}}$ the quotient of $H^m(X;\mathbb Q)$ by the cohomology of $Y$ and also by the cycle classes of the irreducible components of dimension $m$ of $Z$. In the present paper we prove that the monodromy represent…
We give classifications of linear orbits of pairs of square matrices with non-vanishing discriminant polynomials over a field in terms of certain coherent sheaves with additional data on closed subschemes of the projective line. Our results are valid in a uniform manner over arbitrary fields including those of characteristic two. This work is based on the previous work of the first author on theta characteristics on hypersurfaces. As an application, we give parametrizations of orbits of pairs of symmetric matrices under special linear groups with fixed discriminant polynomials generalizing som…
Let $Z$ be a closed subscheme of a smooth complex projective variety $Y\subseteq \Ps^N$, with $\dim\,Y=2r+1\geq 3$. We describe the intermediate Néron-Severi group (i.e. the image of the cycle map $A_r(X)\to H_{2r}(X;\mathbb{Z})$) of a general smooth hypersurface $X\subset Y$ of sufficiently large degree containing $Z$.
Generalizing a classical lemma of Castelnuovo, we characterize rational normal curves (resp. linearly normal elliptic curves) as curves $C\subset \PP^n$ such that the number of linearly independent hypersurfaces $Z\supset C$ of given degree~$m$ is maximal (resp. next to maximal).
In this paper we consider the Hilbert scheme $Hilb_{p(t)}^n$ parameterizing subschemes of $P^n$ with Hilbert polynomial $p(t)$, and we investigate its locus containing points corresponding to schemes with regularity lower than or equal to a fixed integer $r'$. This locus is an open subscheme of $Hilb_{p(t)}^n$ and, for every $s\geq r'$, we describe it as a locally closed subscheme of the Grasmannian $Gr_{p(s)}^{N(s)}$ given by a set of equations of degree $\leq \mathrm{deg}(p(t))+2$ and linear inequalities in the coordinates of the Plücker embedding.
We show the existence of a complex K3 surface $X$ which is not a Kummer surface and has a one-parameter family of Levi-flat hypersurfaces in which all the leaves are dense. We construct such $X$ by patching two open complex surfaces obtained as the complements of tubular neighborhoods of elliptic curves embedded in blow-ups of the projective planes at general nine points.
We study when a smooth variety $X$, embedded diagonally in its Cartesian square, is the zero scheme of a section of a vector bundle of rank $\dim(X)$ on $X\times X$. We call this the diagonal property (D). It was known that it holds for all flag manifolds ${\rm SL}_n/P$. We consider mainly the cases of proper smooth varieties, and the analogous problems for smooth manifolds (the topological case). Our main new observation in the case of proper varieties is a relation between (D) and cohomologically trivial line bundles on $X$, obtained by a variation of Serre's classic argument relating rank 2…
Classical Castelnuovo's Lemma shows that the number of linearly independent quadratic equations of a nondegenerate irreducible projective variety of codimension $c$ is at most ${{c+1} \choose {2}}$ and the equality is attained if and only if the variety is of minimal degree. Also a generalization of Castelnuovo's Lemma by G. Fano implies that the next case occurs if and only if the variety is a del Pezzo variety. For curve case, these results are extended to equations of arbitrary degree respectively by J. Harris and S. L'vovsky. This paper is intended to extend these results to arbitrary dime…
In this paper we consider the open complement U of a hypersurface Y=V(a) in an affine scheme X. We study the relations between the affineness of U, the intersection of Y with closed subschemes, the property that every closed surface in U is affine, the property that every analytic closed surface is Stein and the superheight of the defining ideal a.
Given a geometrically irreducible subscheme X in P^n over F_q of dimension at least 2, we prove that the fraction of degree d hypersurfaces H such that the intersection of H and X is geometrically irreducible tends to 1 as d tends to infinity. We also prove variants in which X is over an extension of F_q, and in which the immersion of X in P^n is replaced by a more general morphism.
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…
The Hilbert scheme $\mathbf{Hilb}_{p(t)}^{n}$ parametrizes closed subschemes and families of closed subschemes in the projective space $\mathbb{P}^n$ with a fixed Hilbert polynomial $p(t)$. It is classically realized as a closed subscheme of a Grassmannian or a product of Grassmannians. In this paper we consider schemes over a field $k$ of characteristic zero and we present a new proof of the existence of the Hilbert scheme as a subscheme of the Grassmannian $\mathbf{Gr}_{p(r)}^{N(r)}$, where $N(r)= h^0 (\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(r))$. Moreover, we exhibit explicit equations defining it in th…
In this paper we extend the well known theorem of Angelo Lopez concerning the Picard group of the general space projective surface containing a given smooth projective curve, to the intermediate Néron-Severi group of a general hypersurface in any smooth projective variety.
We present some families of cubic hypersurfaces in $\mathbb P^5 (\mathbb C)$ containing a plane whose associated quadric bundle does not have a rational section.
Let $\cMx$ be the moduli space of stable vector bundles of rank $n\geq 3$ and determinant $ξ$ over a connected Riemann surface $X$, with $n$ and $d(ξ)$ coprime. Let $D$ be a Calabi-Yau hypersurface of $\cMx$. Denote by $U_D$ the restriction of the universal bundle to $X\times D$. It is shown that the restriction $(U_D)_x$ to $x\times D$ is stable, for any $x\in X$. Furthermore, for a general curve the connected component of the moduli space of semistable sheaves over $D$, containing $(U_D)_x$, is isomorphic to $X$. It is also shown that $U_D$ is stable for any polarisation, and the connected c…
We classify all generalized del Pezzo surfaces (i.e., minimal desingularizations of singular del Pezzo surfaces containing only rational double points) whose universal torsors are open subsets of hypersurfaces in affine space. Equivalently, their Cox rings are polynomial rings with exactly one relation. For all 30 types with this property, we describe the Cox rings in detail. These explicit descriptions can be applied to study Manin's conjecture on the asymptotic behavior of the number of rational points of bounded height for singular del Pezzo surfaces, using the universal torsor method.
We characterize the smallest codimension components of the Hodge locus of smooth degree $d$ hypersurfaces of the projective space $\mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ of even dimension $n$, passing through the Fermat variety (with $d\neq 3,4,6$). They correspond to the locus of hypersurfaces containing a linear algebraic cycle of dimension $\frac{n}{2}$. Furthermore, we prove that among all the local Hodge loci associated to a non-linear cycle passing through Fermat, the ones associated to a complete intersection cycle of type $(1,1,\ldots,1,2)$ attain the minimal possible codimension of their Zariski tangent s…
I describe the monodromy of smooth hypersurfaces $X$ of high degree in a fixed smooth variety $Y$ containing a fixed subvariety $W$ of $Y$. The cohomology of $X$ in middle degree spanned by the pull-back of the cohomology of $Y$ and by the classes of the irreducible components of $W$ is monodromy invariant. I show that the monodromy representation on the orthogonal of those classes is irreducible. The proof is essentially topological. Difficulties arise from the fact that $W$ may have arbitrary singularities.
We give a lower bound for the size of a subset of $\mathbb F_q^n$ containing a rich k-plane in every direction, a k-plane Furstenberg set. The chief novelty of our method is that we use arguments on non-reduced subschemes and flat families to derive combinatorial facts about incidences between points and k-planes in space.
For a projective variety $Z$ and for any integer $p$, define the $p$-th Néron-Severi group $NS_p(Z)$ of $Z$ as the image of the cycle map $A_{p}(Z)\to H_{2p}(Z; \mathbb{C})$. Now let $X\subset \Ps^{2m+1}$ ($m\geq 1$) be a projective variety of dimension $2m-1$, with isolated singularities, complete intersection of a smooth hypersurface of degree $k$, with a hypersurface of degree $n>max\{k, 2m+1\}$, and let $F$ be a general hypersurface of degree $n$ containing $X$. We prove that the natural map $NS_m(X)\to NS_m(F)$ is surjective, and that if $dim NS_m(F)=1$ then $dim NS_m(X)=1$. In particular…
We consider smooth surfaces $S \subset \Pq$ containing a plane curve $P$ and prove some general result concerning the linear system $|H-P|$. We then look at regular surfaces lying on hypersurfaces of degree $s$ having a plane of multiplicity $(s-2)$. This implies that $S$ contains a plane curve. We prove that the degree of such surfaces is bounded and for $s=4$ we compute an actual bound.
In this paper we investigate the divisor $\mathcal C_{14}$ inside the moduli space of smooth cubic hypersurfaces in $\mathbb P^5$, whose generic element is a smooth cubic containing a smooth quartic scroll. Using the fact that all degenerations of quartic scrolls in $\mathbb P^5$ contained in a smooth cubic hypersurface are surfaces with one apparent double point, we conclude that every cubic hypersurface belonging to $\mathcal C_{14}$ is rational. As an application of our results and of the construction of some explicit examples contained in the Appendix, we also prove that the Pfaffian locus…
Let $k$ be a perfect field and let $X\subset {\mathbb P}^N$ be a hypersurface of degree $d$ defined over $k$ and containing a linear subspace $L$ defined over an algebraic closure $\overline{k}$ with $\mathrm{codim}_{{\mathbb P}^N}L=r$. We show that $X$ contains a linear subspace $L_0$ defined over $k$ with $\mathrm{codim}_{{\mathbb P}^N}L\le dr$. We conjecture that the intersection of all linear subspaces (over $\overline{k}$) of minimal codimension $r$ contained in $X$, has codimension bounded above only in terms of $r$ and $d$. We prove this when either $d\le 3$ or $r\le 2$.
In the paper we compute the virtual dimension (defined by the Hilbert polynomial) of a space of hypersurfaces of given degree containing $s$ codimension 2 general linear subspaces in $\mathbb{P}^n$. We use Veneroni maps to find a family of unexpected hypersurfaces (in the style of B. Harbourne, J. Migliore, U. Nagel, Z. Teitler) and rigorously prove and extend examples presented in the paper by B. Harbourne, J. Migliore and H. Tutaj-Gasińska.
In this article we use a theorem of Carlson and Griffiths and compute periods of linear algebraic cycles inside the Fermat variety of even dimension $n$ and degree $d$. As an application, for examples of $n$ and $d$ we prove that the locus of hypersurfaces containing two linear cycles whose intersection is of low dimension, is a reduced component of the Hodge locus in the underlying parameter space. We also check the same statement for hypersurfaces containing a complete intersection algebraic cycle. Our result confirms the Hodge conjecture for Hodge cycles obtained by the monodromy of the hom…
We use hypersurfaces containing unexpected linear spaces to construct interesting vector bundles on complete intersection surfaces in projective space. We discover examples of moduli spaces of rank 2 stable bundles on surfaces of Picard rank one with arbitrarily many connected components.
We work over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. Ellingsrud-Peskine proved that smooth surfaces in P^4 are subject to strong limitations. Their whole argument is derived from the fact that the sectional genus of surfaces of degree d lying on a hypersurface of degree s varies in an interval of length \frac{d(s-1)^2}{2s}. The aim of the present paper is to show that for smooth codimension two subvarieties of P^n, n\geq 5, one can get a similar result with an interval whose length depends only on s. The main point is Lemma 1.1 whose proof is a direct application of the posi…
Let W be a projective variety of dimension n+1, L a free line bundle on W, X in $H^0(L^d)$ a hypersurface of degree d which is generic among those given by sums of monomials from $L$, and let $f : Y \to X$ be a generically finite map from a smooth m-fold Y. We suppose that f is r-filling, i.e. upon deforming X in $H^0(L^d)$, f deforms in a family such that the corresponding deformations of $Y^r$ dominate $W^r$. Under these hypotheses we give a lower bound for the dimension of a certain linear system on the Cartesian product $Y^r$ having certain vanishing order on a diagonal locus as well as on…
We compute the divisor class group of the general hypersurface Y of a complex projective normal variety X of dimension at least four containing a fixed base locus Z. We deduce that completions of normal local complete intersection domains of finite type over the complex numbers of dimension $\ge 4$ are completions of UFDs of finite type over the complex numbers.
