In \cite{DJL07} it was shown that if $\scra$ is an affine hyperplane arrangement in $\C^n$, then at most one of the $L^2$--Betti numbers $b_i^{(2)}(\C^n\sm \scra,\id)$ is non--zero. In this note we prove an analogous statement for complements of complex affine hyperurfaces in general position at infinity. Furthermore, we recast and extend to this higher-dimensional setting results of \cite{FLM,LM06} about $L^2$--Betti numbers of plane curve complements.
We use stratified Morse theory for a manifold with corners to give a new bound for the sum of the Betti numbers of a hypersurface in R^n_> defined by a polynomial with n+l+1 terms.
We show that, in general, there exist non-vanishing triple Massey products in the cohomology with finite field coefficients of a complex hypersurface complement. In contrast, the Massey products, triple and higher, in the rational cohomology of such a space are all known to vanish.
Under the generic situation, the cohomology with the coefficients in the local system on complements of hypersurfaces vanishes except in the highest dimension. Our problem is of when the local system cohomology does not vanish. In the case of arrangements of hyperplanes, many examples were founded. In this paper, we shall generalize their examples to hypersurfaces. We obtain that hypersurfaces given by some linear system have non-vanishing local system cohomologies.
Let $\mathrm{R}$ be a real closed field. We prove that the number of semi-algebraically connected components of a real hypersurface in $\mathrm{R}^n$ defined by a multi-affine polynomial of degree $d$ is bounded by $2^{d-1}$. This bound is sharp and is independent of $n$ (as opposed to the classical bound of $d(2d -1)^{n-1}$ on the Betti numbers of hypersurfaces defined by arbitrary polynomials of degree $d$ in $\mathrm{R}^n$ due to Petrovski{\uı} and Ole{\uı}nik, Thom and Milnor). Moreover, we show there exists $c > 1$, such that given a sequence $(B_n)_{n >0}$ where $B_n$ is a closed ball in…
We describe a new relation between the topology of hypersurface complements, Milnor fibers and degree of gradient mappings. The main tools are polar curves and the affine Lefschetz theory developped by H. Hamm and A. Némethi. In the special case of the hyperplane arrangements, we strengthen some results due to Orlik and Terao (see Math. Ann. 301(1995)) and obtain an independant proof for the minimality of hyperplane arrangements (see Randell math.AT/0011101 for another proof of this result).
Let $V$ be a degree $d$, reduced hypersurface in $\mathbb{CP}^{n+1}$, $n \geq 1$, and fix a generic hyperplane, $H$. Denote by $\mathcal{U}$ the (affine) hypersurface complement, $\mathbb{CP}^{n+1}- V \cup H$, and let $\mathcal{U}^c$ be the infinite cyclic covering of $\mathcal{U}$ corresponding to the kernel of the linking number homomorphism. Using intersection homology theory, we give a new construction of the Alexander modules $H_i(\mathcal{U}^c;\mathbb{Q})$ of the hypersurface complement and show that, if $i \leq n$, these are torsion over the ring of rational Laurent polynomials. We also…
We start with a discussion on Alexander invariants, and then prove some general results concerning the divisibility of the Alexander polynomials and the supports of the Alexander modules, via Artin's vanishing theorem for perverse sheaves. We conclude with explicit computations of twisted cohomology following an idea already exploited in the hyperplane arrangement case, which combines the degeneration of the Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence to the purity of some cohomology groups.
Toric origami manifolds are characterized by origami templates, which are combinatorial models built by gluing polytopes together along facets. In this paper, we examine the topology of orientable toric oigami manifolds with coorientable folding hypersurface. We determine the fundamental group. In our previous paper [HP], we studied the ordinary and equivariant cohomology rings of simply connected toric origami manifolds. We conclude this paper by computing some Betti numbers in the non-simply connected case.
We describe a new relation between the topology of hypersurface complements, Milnor fibers and degree of gradient mappings. In particular we show that any projective hypersurface has affine parts which are bouquets of spheres. The main tools are the polar curves and the affine Lefschetz theory developped by H. Hamm, D.T. Lê and A. Némethi. In the special case of the hyperplane arrangements, we strengthen some results due to Orlik and Terao (see Math. Ann. 301(1995)) and obtain the minimality of hyperplane arrangements (see Randell math.AT/0011101 for another proof of this result). This is then…
We study the twisted Novikov homology of the complement of a complex hypersurface in general position at infinity. We give a self-contained topological proof of the vanishing (except possibly in the middle degree) of the twisted Novikov homology groups associated to positive cohomology classes of degree one defined on the complement.
We show that quasi-projective Bestvina-Brady groups are fundamental groups of complements to hyperplane arrangements. Furthermore we relate other normal subgroups of right-angled Artin groups to complements to arrangements of hypersurfaces. We thus obtain examples of hypersurface complements whose fundamental groups satisfy various finiteness properties.
We give divisibility results for the (global) characteristic varieties of hypersurface complements expressed in terms of the local characteristic varieties at points along one of the irreducible components of the hypersurface. As an application, we recast old and obtain new finiteness and divisibility results for the classical (infinite cyclic) Alexander modules of complex hypersurface complements. Moreover, for the special case of hyperplane arrangements, we translate our divisibility results for characteristic varieties in terms of the corresponding resonance varieties.
We compute the l^2-Betti numbers of the complement of a finite collection of affine hyperplanes in complex space. At most one of the l^2-Betti numbers is non-zero.
We define and study twisted Alexander-type invariants of complex hypersurface complements. We investigate torsion properties for the twisted Alexander modules and extend classical local-to-global divisibility results to the twisted setting. In the process, we also study the splitting fields containing the roots of the corresponding twisted Alexander polynomials.
The main result is a general approximation theorem for normalised Betti numbers for Farber sequences of lattices in totally disconnected groups. Further, we contribute some computations and complements to the general theory of $L^2$-Betti numbers of totally disconnected groups.
Let $f:\CN \rightarrow \C $ be a polynomial map, which is transversal at infinity. Using Sabbah's specialization complex, we give a new description of the Alexander modules of the hypersurface complement $\CN\setminus f^{-1}(0)$, and obtain a general divisibility result for the associated Alexander polynomials. As a byproduct, we prove a conjecture of Maxim on the decomposition of the Cappell-Shaneson peripheral complex of the hypersurface. Moreover, as an application, we use nearby cycles to recover the mixed Hodge structure on the torsion Alexander modules, as defined by Dimca and Libgober. …
We consider smooth, complex quasi-projective varieties $U$ which admit a compactification with a boundary which is an arrangement of smooth algebraic hypersurfaces. If the hypersurfaces intersect locally like hyperplanes, and the relative interiors of the hypersurfaces are Stein manifolds, we prove that the cohomology of certain local systems on $U$ vanishes. As an application, we show that complements of linear, toric, and elliptic arrangements are both duality and abelian duality spaces.
Let $f:\CN \rightarrow \C $ be a polynomial, which is transversal (or regular) at infinity. Let $\U=\CN\setminus f^{-1}(0)$ be the corresponding affine hypersurface complement. By using the peripheral complex associated to $f$, we give several estimates for the (infinite cyclic) Alexander polynomials of $\U$ induced by $f$, and we describe the error terms for such estimates. The obtained polynomial identities can be further refined by using the Reidemeister torsion, generalizing a similar formula proved by Cogolludo and Florens in the case of plane curves. We also show that the above-mentioned…
We develop a model for the cohomology of the complement of a hypersurface arrangement inside a smooth projective complex variety. This generalizes the case of normal crossing divisors, discovered by P. Deligne in the context of the mixed Hodge theory of smooth complex varieties. Our model is a global version of the Orlik-Solomon algebra, which computes the cohomology of the complement of a union of hyperplanes in an affine space. The main tool is the complex of logarithmic forms along a hypersurface arrangement, and its weight filtration. Connections with wonderful compactifications and the co…
Through the study of Morse theory on the associated Milnor fiber, we show that complex hyperplane arrangement complements are minimal. That is, the complement of a complex hyperplane arrangement has the homotopy type of a CW complex in which the number of p-cells equals the p-th betti number.
The regular \Z^r-covers of a finite cell complex X are parameterized by the Grassmannian of r-planes in H^1(X,\Q). Moving about this variety, and recording when the Betti numbers b_1,..., b_i of the corresponding covers are finite carves out certain subsets Ω^i_r(X) of the Grassmannian. We present here a method, essentially going back to Dwyer and Fried, for computing these sets in terms of the jump loci for homology with coefficients in rank 1 local systems on X. Using the exponential tangent cones to these jump loci, we show that each Ω-invariant is contained in the complement of a union of …
We will provide bounds on both the Betti numbers and the torsion part of the homology of hyperbolic orbifolds. These bounds are linear in the volume and are a direct consequence of an efficient simplicial model of the thick part, which we will construct as well. The homology statements complement previous work of Bader, Gelander and Sauer (torsion homology of manifolds), Samet (Betti numbers of orbifolds) and a classical theorem of Gromov (Betti numbers of manifolds). For arithmetic, non-compact hyperbolic orbifolds -- i.e. in the case of arithmetic, non-uniform lattices in $\operatorname{Isom…
We prove that the mod $2$ Betti numbers of double coverings of a complex hyperplane arrangement complement are combinatorially determined. The proof is based on a relation between the mod $2$ Aomoto complex and the transfer long exact sequence. Applying the above result to the icosidodecahedral arrangement ($16$ planes in the three dimensional space related to the icosidodecahedron), we conclude that the first homology of the Milnor fiber has non-trivial $2$-torsion.
We prove that the height of any algebraic computation tree for deciding membership in a semialgebraic set is bounded from below (up to a multiplicative constant) by the logarithm of m-th Betti number (with respect to singular homology) of the set, divided by m+1. This result complements the well known lower bound by Yao for locally closed semialgebraic sets in terms of the total Borel-Moore Betti number. We also prove that the height is bounded from below by the logarithm of m-th Betti number of a projection of the set onto a coordinate subspace, divided by (m+1)^2. We illustrate these general…
This note is mostly an expository survey, centered on the topology of complements of hyperplane arrangements, their Milnor fibrations, and their boundary structures. An important tool in this study is provided by the degree 1 resonance and characteristic varieties of the complement, and their tight relationship with orbifold fibrations and multinets on the underlying matroid. In favorable situations, this approach leads to a combinatorial formula for the first Betti number of the Milnor fiber and the algebraic monodromy. We also produce a pair of arrangements for which the respective Milnor fi…
This study presents a numerical analysis of the topology of a set of cosmologically interesting three-dimensional Gaussian random fields in terms of their Betti numbers $β_0$, $β_1$ and $β_2$. We show that Betti numbers entail a considerably richer characterization of the topology of the primordial density field. Of particular interest is that Betti numbers specify which topological features - islands, cavities or tunnels - define its spatial structure. A principal characteristic of Gaussian fields is that the three Betti numbers dominate the topology at different density ranges. At extreme de…
