The relation space of a hyperplane arrangement is the vector space of all linear dependencies among the defining forms of the hyperplanes in the arrangement. In this paper, we study the relationship between the relation space and the Orlik--Terao ideal of an arrangement. In particular, we characterize spanning sets of the relation space in terms of the Orlik--Terao ideal. This result generalizes a characterization of 2-formal arrangements due to Schenck and Tohǎneanu \cite[Theorem 2.3]{ST}. We also study the minimal prime ideals of subideals of the Orlik--Terao ideal associated to subsets of the relation space. Finally, we give examples to show that for a 2-formal arrangement, the codimension of the Orlik--Terao ideal is not necessarily equal to that of its subideal generated by the quadratic elements.
The Orlik-Solomon algebra is the cohomology ring of the complement of a hyperplane arrangement A in C^n; it is the quotient of an exterior algebra E(V) on |A| generators. Orlik and Terao introduced a commutative analog S(V)/I of the Orlik-Solomon algebra to answer a question of Aomoto and showed the Hilbert series depends only on the intersection lattice L(A). Motivated by topological considerations, Falk and Randell introduced the property of 2-formality; we study the relation between 2-formality and the Orlik-Terao algebra. Our main result is a necessary and sufficient condition for 2-formal…
Let A be a collection of n linear hyperplanes in k^l, where k is an algebraically closed field. The Orlik-Terao algebra of A is the subalgebra R(A) of the rational functions generated by reciprocals of linear forms vanishing on hyperplanes of A. It determines an irreducible subvariety of projective space. We show that a flat X of A is modular if and only if R(A) is a split extension of the Orlik-Terao algebra of the subarrangement A_X. This provides another refinement of Stanley's modular factorization theorem and a new characterization of modularity, similar in spirit to the modular fibration…
It is proved that the broken circuit complex of an ordered matroid is Gorenstein if and only if it is a complete intersection. Several characterizations for a matroid that admits such an order are then given, with particular interest in the $h$-vector of broken circuit complexes of the matroid. As an application, we prove that the Orlik--Terao algebra of a hyperplane arrangement is Gorenstein if and only if it is a complete intersection. Interestingly, our result shows that the complete intersection property (and hence the Gorensteinness as well) of the Orlik--Terao algebra can be determined f…
We introduce a new algebra associated with a hyperplane arrangement $\mathcal{A}$, called the Solomon-Terao algebra $\mbox{ST}(\mathcal{A},η)$, where $η$ is a homogeneous polynomial. It is shown by Solomon and Terao that $\mbox{ST}(\mathcal{A},η)$ is Artinian when $η$ is generic. This algebra can be considered as a generalization of coinvariant algebras in the setting of hyperplane arrangements. The class of Solomon-Terao algebras contains cohomology rings of regular nilpotent Hessenberg varieties. We show that $\mbox{ST}(\mathcal{A},η)$ is a complete intersection if and only if $\mathcal{A}$ …
We study Stanley-Reisner ideals of broken circuits complexes and characterize those ones admitting a linear resolution or being complete intersections. These results will then be used to characterize arrangements whose Orlik-Terao ideal has the same properties. As an application, we improve a result of Wilf on upper bounds for the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial of a maximal planar graph. We also show that for an ordered matroid with disjoint minimal broken circuits, the supersolvability of the matroid is equivalent to the Koszulness of its Orlik-Solomon algebra.
It is shown that the Orlik-Terao algebra is graded isomorphic to the special fiber of the ideal $I$ generated by the $(n-1)$-fold products of the members of a central arrangement of size $n$. This momentum is carried over to the Rees algebra (blowup) of $I$ and it is shown that this algebra is of fiber-type and Cohen-Macaulay. It follows by a result of Simis-Vasconcelos that the special fiber of $I$ is Cohen-Macaulay, thus giving another proof of a result of Proudfoot-Speyer about the Cohen-Macauleyness of the Orlik-Terao algebra.
Hyperplane Arrangements of rank $3$ admitting an unbalanced Ziegler restriction are known to fulfill Terao's conjecture. This long-standing conjecture asks whether the freeness of an arrangement is determined by its combinatorics. In this note, we prove that arrangements that admit a locally heavy flag satisfy Terao's conjecture which is a generalization of the statement above to arbitrary dimension. To this end, we extend results characterizing the freeness of multiarrangements with a heavy hyperplane to those satisfying the weaker notion of a locally heavy hyperplane. As a corollary, we give…
Suppose that W is a finite, unitary, reflection group acting on the complex vector space V. Let A = A(W) be the associated hyperplane arrangement of W. Terao has shown that each such reflection arrangement A is free. Let L(A) be the intersection lattice of A. For a subspace X in L(A) we have the restricted arrangement A^X in X by means of restricting hyperplanes from A to X. In 1992, Orlik and Terao conjectured that each such restriction is again free. In this note we settle the outstanding cases confirming the conjecture.
Only few categories of free arrangements are known in which Terao's conjecture holds. One of such categories consists of $3$-arrangements with unbalanced Ziegler restrictions. In this paper, we generalize this result to arbitrary dimensional arrangements in terms of flags by introducing unbalanced multiarrangements. For that purpose, we generalize several freeness criterions for simple arrangements, including Yoshinaga's freeness criterion, to unbalanced multiarrangements.
Kamiya, Takemura, and Terao initiated the theory of the characteristic quasi-polynomial of an integral arrangement, which is a function counting the elements in the complement of the arrangement modulo positive integers. They gave a period of the characteristic quasi-polynomial, called the LCM-period, and showed that the first constituent of the characteristic quasi-polynomial coincides with the characteristic polynomial of the corresponding hyperplane arrangement. Recently, Liu, Tran, and Yoshinaga showed that the last constituent of the characteristic quasi-polynomial coincides with the char…
Holm studied modules of higher order differential operators (generalising derivations) on generic (central) hyperplane arrangements. We use his results to determine the Hilbert series of these modules. We also give a conjecture about the Poincar{é}-Betti series; these are known for the module of derivations through the work of Yuzvinsky and of Rose and Terao.
We consider the triple $(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{A}',\mathcal{A}^H)$ of hyperplane arrangements and the division of their characteristic polynomials. We show that the freeness of $\mathcal{A}^H$ and the division of $χ(\mathcal{A};t)$ by $χ(\mathcal{A}^H;t)$ confirm the freeness of $\mathcal{A}$. The key ingredient of this "division theorem" on freeness is the fact that, if $χ(\mathcal{A}^H;t)$ divides $χ(\mathcal{A};t)$, then the same holds for the localization at the codimension three flat in $H$. This implies the local-freeness of $\mathcal{A}$ in codimension three along $H$. Based on these res…
Associated to the cohomology ring A of the complement X(A) of a hyperplane arrangement A in complex m-space are the resonance varieties R^k(A). The most studied of these is R^1(A), which is the union of the tangent cones at the origin to the characteristic varieties of the fundamental group of X. R^1(A) may be described in terms of Fitting ideals, or as the locus where a certain Ext module is supported. Both these descriptions give obvious algorithms for computation. In this note, we show that interpreting R^1(A) as the locus of decomposable two-tensors in the Orlik-Solomon ideal leads to a de…
In 2002, Terao showed that every reflection multi-arrangement of a real reflection group with constant multiplicity is free by providing a basis of the module of derivations. We first generalize Terao's result to multi-arrangements stemming from well-generated unitary reflection groups, where the multiplicity of a hyperplane depends on the order of its stabilizer. Here the exponents depend on the exponents of the dual reflection representation. We then extend our results further to all imprimitive irreducible unitary reflection groups. In this case the exponents turn out to depend on the expon…
Associated to an arrangement of projective hyperplanes A is the module D(A), which consists of derivations tangent to A. We study D(A) when A is a configuration of lines in the projective plane. In this setting, we relate the deletion/restriction construction used in the study of hyperplane arrangements to elementary modifications of bundles. This allows us to obtain bounds on the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of D(A). We also give simple combinatorial conditions for the associated bundle to be stable, and describe its jump lines. These regularity bounds and stability considerations impose co…
A net in $\mathbb{P}^2$ is a configuration of lines $\mathcal A$ and points $X$ satisfying certain incidence properties. Nets appear in a variety of settings, ranging from quasigroups to combinatorial design to classification of Kac-Moody algebras to cohomology jump loci of hyperplane arrangements. For a matroid $M$ and rank $r$, we associate a monomial ideal (a monomial variant of the Orlik-Solomon ideal) to the set of flats of $M$ of rank $\le r$. In the context of line arrangements in $\mathbb{P}^2$, applying Alexander duality to the resulting ideal yields insight into the combinatorial str…
Several papers have been written studying unexpected hypersurfaces. We say a finite set of points Z admits unexpected hypersurfaces if a general union of fat linear subspaces imposes less that the expected number of conditions on the ideal of Z. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a very unexpected hypersurface. This is a stronger condition which takes into account an explanation for some hypersurfaces previously considered unexpected. We then develop a duality theory to relate the study of very unexpected hypersurfaces to the derivations of dual hyperplane arrangements. This allows us …
A root ideal arrangement $A_I$ is the set of reflecting hyperplanes corresponding to the roots in an order ideal $I$ of the root poset on the positive roots of a finite crystallographic root system. A characterisation of supersolvable root ideal arrangements is obtained. Namely, $A_I$ is supersolvable if and only if $I$ is chain peelable, meaning that it is possible to reach the empty poset from $I$ by in each step removing a maximal chain which is also an order filter. In particular, supersolvability is preserved under taking subideals. We identify the minimal ideals that correspond to non-su…
We introduce the use of liaison addition to the study of hyperplane arrangements. For an arrangement, $\mathcal A$, of hyperplanes in $\mathbb P^n$, $\mathcal A$ is free if $R/J$ is Cohen-Macaulay, where $J$ is the Jacobian ideal of $\mathcal A$. Terao's conjecture says that freeness of $\mathcal A$ is determined by the combinatorics of the intersection lattice of $\mathcal A$. We study the Cohen-Macaulayness of three other ideals, all unmixed, that are closely related to $\mathcal A$. Let $\overline J = \mathfrak q_1 \cap \dots \cap \mathfrak q_s$ be the intersection of height two primary com…
