A plane curve on a the projective space over a field of characteristic zero is free if its associated sheaf T of tangent vector fields tangent is a free module. Relatively few free curves are known. Here we prove that a divisor consisting of a union of curves of a pencil of plane projective curves with the same degree and with a smooth base locus is a free divisor if and only this union contains all the singular members of the pencil and its Jacobian ideal is locally a complete intersection.
In the moduli space $\mathcal{R}_g$ of double étale covers of curves of a fixed genus $g$, the locus of covers of curves with a semicanonical pencil decomposes as the union of two divisors $\mathcal{T}^e_g$ and $\mathcal{T}^o_g$. Adapting arguments of Teixidor for the divisor of curves having a semicanonical pencil, we prove that both divisors are irreducible and compute their divisor classes in the Deligne-Mumford compactification $\overline{\mathcal{R}}_g$.
In this work we deal with dicritical divisors, curvettes and polynomials. These objects have been one of the main research interests of S.S. Abhyankar during his last years. In this work we provide some elementary proofs of some S.S. Abhyankar and I. Luengo results for dicriticals in the framework of formal power series. Based on these ideas we give a constructive way to find the atypical fibres of a special pencil and give bounds for its number, which are sharper than the existing ones. Finally, we answer a question of J. Gwoździewicz finding polynomials that reach his bound.
Let X be a smooth projective variety defined over an algebraically closed field, and let Y in X be a reduced and irreducible ample divisor in X. We give a numerical sufficient condition for a base point free pencil on $Y$ to be the restriction of a base point free pencil on $X$. This result is then extended to families of pencils and to morphisms to arbitrary smooth curves. Serrano had already studied this problem in the case n=2 and 3, and Reider had then attacked it in the case $n=2$ using vector bundle methods based on Bogomolov's instability theorem on a surface (char(k)=0). The argument g…
We classify all the irrational pencils over the surfaces of general type with p=q=2. This classification adds a new evidence to a Catanese conjecture which states that if S has p=q=2 but no irrational pencils then it is the double cover of a P.P. Abelian variety branched on a reduced divisor linearly equivalent to twice a theta divisor.
Inside the projectivized $k$-th Hodge bundle, we construct a collection of divisors obtained by imposing vanishing at a Brill-Noether special point. We compute the classes of the closures of such divisors in two ways, using incidence geometry and restrictions to various families, including pencils of curves on K3 surfaces and pencils of Du Val curves. We also show the extremality and rigidity of the closure of the incidence divisor consisting of smooth pointed curves together with a canonical or 2-canonical divisor passing through the marked point.
We construct some infinite series of free and nearly free curves using pencils of conics with a base locus of cardinality at most two. These curves have an interesting topology, e.g. a high degree Alexander polynomial that can be explicitly determined, a Milnor fiber homotopy equivalent to a bouquet of circles, or an irreducible translated component in the characteristic variety of their complement. Monodromy eigenspaces in the first cohomology group of the corresponding Milnor fibers are also described in terms of explicit differential forms.
We give a geometric approach to the relation between the irreducible components of the characteristic varieties of local systems on a plane curve arrangement complement and the associated pencils of plane curves discovered recently by M. Falk and S. Yuzvinsky in the case of line arrangements, see mathAG/0603166. In this case, this geometric point of view was already hinted to by A. Libgober and S. Yuzvinsky. Our study yields new geometric insight on the translated components of the characteristic varieties, relating them to the multiplicities of curves in the associated pencil, in close analog…
Let $X$ be a smooth projective surface such that linear and numerical equivalence of divisors on $X$ coincide and let $σ\subseteq |D|$ be a linear pencil on $X$ with integral general fibers. A fiber of $σ$ will be called special if either it is not integral or it has non-generic multiplicity at some of the base points (including the infinitely near ones) of the pencil. In this note we provide an algorithm to compute the integral components of the special fibers of $σ$.
We prove that for a generic Lefschetz pencil of plane curves of degree $d\geq 3$ there exists a curve $H$ (called the Hesse curve of the pencil) of degree $6(d-1)$ and genus $3(4d^2-13d+8)+1$, and such that: $(i)$ $H$ has $d^2$ singular points of multiplicity three at the base points of the pencil and $3(d-1)^2$ ordinary nodes at the singular points of the degenerate members of the pencil; $(ii)$ for each member of the pencil the intersection of $H$ with this fibre consists of the inflection points of this member and the base points of the pencil.
Let X be a smooth curve of genus g. When pi>=3g and d>=pi-2g+1 we show the existence of a double covering gamma:C-->X where C a smooth curve of genus pi with a base-point-free pencil of degree d which is not the pull-back of a pencil on X.
We consider relatively minimal fibrations of curves of genus two on rational surfaces whose Picard numbers are not maximal. By birational morphisms, such fibred surfaces are interpreted as pencils of plane curves. We show that only four are canonical, among a variety of possible models. For each canonical pencil, we give an example with trivial Mordell-Weil group.
We give a description of the relative Hilbert scheme of lines in the Dwork pencil of quintic threefolds. We describe the corresponding relative Hilbert scheme associated to the mirror family of quintic threefolds.
We prove that the bicanonical map of a surfaces of general S type with p_g=q=0 is non birational if there exists a pencil on S whose general member is an hyperelliptic curve of genus 3.
We study the pencils of minimal degree on the smooth curves lying on a K3 surface X which carries a fixed-point free involution. Generically, the gonality of these curves is totally governed by the genus 1 fibrations of X
Green's conjecture is proved for smooth curves C lying on a rational surface S with an anticanonical pencil, under some mild hypotheses on the line bundle L defined by C. Constancy of Clifford dimension, Clifford index and gonality of curves in the linear system |L| is also obtained.
A degeneration of curves gives rise to an interesting relation between linear systems on curves and on graphs. In this paper, we consider the case of linear pencils and as an application, we obtain some results on pencils on real curves.
We consider coverings of real algebraic curves to real rational algebraic curves. We show the existence of such coverings having prescribed topological degree on the real locus. From those existence results we prove some results on Brill-Noether Theory for pencils on real curves. For coverings having topological degree 0 we introduce the covering number k and we prove the existence of coverings of degree 4 with prescribed covering number.
We give two examples of plane curve arrangements of pencil type which are very close to line arrangements, though the action of the monodromy operator on the first cohomology group of the Milnor Fiber has eigenvalues of order 5 and 6, showing that surprising situations can occur for larger classes of curve arrangements than for line arrangements. Our computations rely on the algorithm given by A. Dimca and G. Sticlaru which detects the non trivial monodromy eigenspaces of free curves.
In the previous paper by Pereira and the author, it was proved that any pencil of plane curves of degree greater than one with irreducible generic fiber can have at most five completely reducible fibers although no examples with five such fibers were ever found. Recently Janis Stipins has proved that if any two fibers of a pencil intersect transversally then it cannot have five completely reducible fibers. In this paper we generalize the Stipins result to arbitrary pencils. We also include into consideration more general special fibers that are the unions of lines and non-reduced curves. These…
Analogously as in classical algebraic geometry, linear pencils of tropical plane curves are parameterized by tropical lines in a coefficient space. A special example of such a linear pencil is the set of tropical plane curves with an n-element support set through a general configuration of n points in the tropical plane. In [RGST], it is proved that these linear pencils are compatible with their support set. In this article, we give a characterization of points lying in the fixed locus of a tropical linear pencil and show that each compatible linear pencil comes from a general configuration.
Let $X$ be a smooth algebraic curve. Suppose that there exists a triple covering $f : X \to Y$ where $Y$ is a smooth algebraic curve. In this paper, we investigate the existence of morphisms from $X$ to the projective line $\mathbf{P}^1$ which do not factor through the covering $f$. For this purpose, we generalize the classical results of Maroni concerning base-point-free pencils on trigonal curves to the case of triple covers of arbitrary smooth irrational curves.
A real algebraic plane curve $A$ is said to be dividing if its real part $\mathbb{R}A$ disconnects its complex part $\mathbb{C}A$. A pencil of curves is totally real with respect to $A$ if it has only real intersections with $\mathbb{C}A$. If there exists such a pencil, then $A$ is dividing, this is the case for the $M$-curves. Can conversely any dividing curve be endowed with a totally real pencil? We study here the case of $M-2$-sextics having 2 or 6 empty exterior ovals. Such sextics are always dividing. We prove that they may actually be endowed with a totally real pencil of cubics.
The paper studies a relation between fundamental group of the complement to a plane singular curve and the orbifold pencils containing it. The main tool is the use of Albanese varieties of cyclic covers ramified along such curves. Our results give sufficient conditions for a plane singular curve to belong to an orbifold pencil, i.e. a pencil of plane curves with multiple fibers inducing a map onto an orbifold curve whose orbifold fundamental group is non trivial. We construct an example of a cyclic cover of the projective plane which is an abelian surface isomorphic to the Jacobian of a curve …
The present work is a user's guide to the results of a previous paper by the second and third authors, where a description of the space of characters of a quasi-projective variety was given in terms of global quotient orbifold pencils. Below we consider the case of plane curve complements and hyperplane arrangements. In particular, an infinite family of curves exhibiting characters of any torsion and depth~3 will be discussed. Also, in the context of line arrangements, it will be shown how geometric tools, such as the existence of orbifold pencils, can replace the group theoretical computation…
This is a survey of the classical geometry of the Hesse configuration of 12 lines in the projective plane related to inflection points of a plane cubic curve. We also study two K3 surfaces with Picard number 20 which arise naturally in connection with the configuration.
In this paper, the problem of bounding the number of reducible curves in a pencil of algebraic plane curves is addressed. Unlike most of the previous related works, each reducible curve of the pencil is here counted with its appropriate multiplicity. It is proved that this number of reducible curves, counted with multiplicity, is bounded by d^2-1 where d is the degree of the pencil. Then, a sharper bound is given by taking into account the Newton's polygon of the pencil.
We show that the strata $ \mathcal{M}_{11,6}(k) \subset \mathcal{M}_{11} $ of $ 6-$gonal curves of genus $ 11 $, equipped with $k$ mutually independent and type I pencils of degree six, have a unirational irreducible component for $5\leq k\leq 9$. The unirational families arise from degree $ 9 $ plane curves with $ 4 $ ordinary triple and $ 5 $ ordinary double points that dominate an irreducible component of expected dimension. We will further show that the family of degree $ 8 $ plane curves with $ 10 $ ordinary double points covers an irreducible component of excess dimension in $ \mathcal{M…
We use vector-bundle techniques in order to compute $\dim W^1_d(C)$ where $C$ is general and smooth in a linear system on an unnodal Enriques surface. We furthermore find new examples of smooth curves on Enriques surfaces with an infinite number of $g^1_{\gon(C)}$'s.
For cubic pencils we define the notion of an involution curve. This is a curve which intersects each curve of the pencil in exactly one non-base point of the pencil. Involution curves can be used to construct integrable maps of the plane which leave invariant a cubic pencil.
This short note provides a quick introduction to relative canonical resolutions of curves on rational normal scrolls. We present our Macaulay2-package which computes the relative canonical resolution associated to a curve and a pencil of divisors. Most of our experimental data can be found on a dedicated webpage. We end with a list of conjectural shapes of relative canonical resolutions. In particular, for curves of genus $g=n\cdot k +1$ and pencils of degree $k$ for $n\ge 1$, we conjecture that the syzygy divisors on the Hurwitz space $\mathscr{H}_{g,k}$ constructed by Deopurkar and Patel all…
The sextic plane curves that are invariant under the standard action of the icosahedral group on the projective plane make up a pencil of genus ten curves (spanned by a sum of six lines and a three times a conic). This pencil was first considered in a note by R.~M.~Winger in 1925 and is nowadays named after him. We gave this a modern treatment and proved among other things that it contains essentially every smooth genus ten curve with icosahedral symmetry. We here consider the monodromy group and the period map naturally defined by the icosahedral symmetry. We showed that this monodromy group …
A separating ($M-2$)-curve is a smooth geometrically irreducible real projective curve $X$ such that $X(\mathbb{R})$ has $g-1$ connected components and $X(\mathbb{C})\setminus X(\mathbb{R})$ is disconnected. Let $T_g$ be a Teichmüller space of separating ($M-2$)-curves of genus $g$. We consider two partitions of $T_g$, one by means of a concept of special type, the other one by means of the separating gonality. We show that those two partitions are very closely related to each other. As an application we obtain the existence of real curves having isolated real linear systems $g^1_{g-1}$ for al…
We study smoothing of pencils of curves on surfaces with normal crossings. As a consequence we show that the canonical divisor of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ is not pseudo-effective in some range, implying that $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{12,6},\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{12,7},\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{13,4}$ and $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{14,3}$ are uniruled. We provide upper bounds for the Kodaira dimension of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{12,8}$ and $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{16}$. We also show that the moduli of $(4g+5)$-pointed hyperelliptic curves $\mathcal{H}_{g,4g+5}$ is uniruled. Together with a re…
Let $C$ be a smooth curve with gonality $k\ge 6$ and genus $g\ge 2k^2+5k-6$. We prove that $W^1_d({C})$ has the expected dimension and that the general element of any irreducible component of $W^1_d({C})$ is primitive if either $g-k+4\le d\le g-2$ or $d=g-k+3$ and either $k$ is odd or $C$ is not a double covering of a curve of gonality $k/2$ and genus $k-3$. Even in the latter case we prove the existence of a complete and primitive $g^1_{g-k+3}$.
Let S be a smooth, projective surface of Picard rank 1 and very ample generator embedding S into P^n. Let C be a smooth curve in O(m) for m \geq 5. We prove that any base-point free, complete g^r_d on C for r\in\{1,2\} and d small enough is cut out by a hyperplane section restricted to a multisecant (n-r-1)-plane.
The present paper describes a relation between the quotient of the fundamental group of a smooth quasi-projective variety by its second commutator and the existence of maps to orbifold curves. It extends previously studied cases when the target was a smooth curve. In the case when the quasi-projective variety is a complement to a plane algebraic curve this provides new relations between the fundamental group, the equation of the curve, and the existence of polynomial solutions to certain equations generalizing Pell's equation. These relations are formulated in terms of the depth which is an in…
We are concerned with the behavior of the polynomial maps $F=(P,Q)$ of $\mathbb{C}^2$ with finite fibres and satisfying the condition that all of the curves $aP+bQ=0$, $(a:b)\in \mathbb{P}^1$, are irreducible rational curves. The obtained result shows that such polynomial maps $F$ is invertible if $(0,0)$ is a regular value of $F$ or if the Jacobian condition holds.
In this work we study the connection between the existence of finite dihedral covers of the projective plane ramified along an algebraic curve C, infinite dihedral covers, and pencils of curves containing C.
The sextic plane curves that are invariant under the standard action of the icosahedral group on the projective plane make up a pencil of genus ten curves (spanned by a sum of six lines and a three times a conic). This pencil was first considered in a note by R.~M.~Winger in 1925 and is nowadays named after him. The second author recently gave this a modern treatment and proved among other things that it contains essentially every smooth genus ten curve with icosahedral symmetry. We here show that the Jacobian of such a curve contains the tensor product of an elliptic curve with a certain inte…
We show that a line arrangement in the complex projective plane supports a nontrivial resonance variety if and only if it is the underlying arrangement of a "multinet," a multi-arrangement with a partition into three or more equinumerous classes which have equal multiplicities at each inter-class intersection point, and satisfy a connectivity condition. We also prove that this combinatorial structure is equivalent to the existence of a pencil of plane curves, also satisfying a connectivity condition, whose singular fibers include at least three products of lines, which comprise the arrangement…
We present an explicit parametrization of the families of lines of the Dwork pencil of quintic threefolds. This gives rise to isomorphic curves which parametrize the lines. These curves are 125:1 covers of certain genus six curves. These genus six curves are first presented as curves in P^1*P^1 that have three nodes. It is natural to blow up P^1*P^1 in the three points corresponding to the nodes in order to produce smooth curves. The result of blowing up P^1*P^1 in three points is the quintic del Pezzo surface dP_5, whose automorphism group is the permutation group S_5, which is also a symmetr…
In this part of the series, we shall investigate Deligne-Mumford semistable reductions from the point of view of numerical invariants. As an application, we obtain two numerical criterions for a base change to be stabilizing, and for a fibration to be isotrivial. We also obtain a canonical class inequality for any fibration. Some other applications are presented. Most of the results of this paper have arithmetical analogues. This paper will appear in Math. Z.
We consider the general problem of enumerating branched covers of the projective line from a fixed general curve subject to ramification conditions at possibly moving points. Our main computations are in genus 1; the theory of limit linear series allows one to reduce to this case. We first obtain a simple formula for a weighted count of pencils on a fixed elliptic curve E, where base-points are allowed. We then deduce, using an inclusion-exclusion procedure, formulas for the numbers of maps E->P^1 with moving ramification conditions. A striking consequence is the invariance of these counts und…
Let $f(x,y)=0$ and $l(x,y)=0$ be respectively a singular and a regular analytic curve defined in the neighborhood of the origin of the complex plane. We study the family of analytic curves $f(x,y)-tl(x,y)^M=0$, where $t$ is a complex parameter. For all but a finite number of parameters the curves of this family have the same embedded topological type. The exceptional parameters are called special values. We show that the number of nonzero special values does not exceed the number of components of the curve $f(x,y)=0$ counted without multiplicities. Then we apply this result to estimate the num…
For a non-singular real algebraic projective curve, topological restrictions on a closed motion of a simple real divisor in its linear equivalence class are found.
