The Oort conjecture (now a theorem of Obus-Wewers and Pop) states that if k is an algebraically closed field of characteristic p, then any cyclic branched cover of smooth projective k-curves lifts to characteristic zero. This is equivalent to the local Oort conjecture, which states that all cyclic extensions of k[[t]] lift to characteristic zero. We generalize the local Oort conjecture to the case of Galois extensions with cyclic p-Sylow subgroups, reduce the conjecture to a pure characteristic p statement, and prove it in several cases. In particular, we show that D_9 is a so-called local Oort group.
We give a proof of the André-Oort conjecture for $\mathcal{A}_g$ - the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties. In particular, we show that a recently proven `averaged' version of the Colmez conjecture yields lower bounds for Galois orbits of CM points. The André-Oort conjecture then follows from previous work of Pila and the author.
Using the theory of polarised flag type quotients, we determine mass formulae for all principally polarised supersingular abelian threefolds defined over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p$. We combine these results with computations of the automorphism groups to study Oort's conjecture; we prove that every generic three-dimensional principally polarised supersingular abelian variety over $k$ of characteristic $\neq 2$ has automorphism group $\{ \pm 1 \}$.
We prove in this paper the Ax-Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem for all mixed Shimura varieties and discuss the lower bounds for Galois orbits of special points of mixed Shimura varieties. In particular we reprove a result of Silverberg in a different approach. Then combining these results we prove the André-Oort conjecture for any mixed Shimura variety whose pure part is a subvariety of A_6^n.
Let $Z=X_1\times...\times X_n$ be a product of Drinfeld modular curves. We characterize those algebraic subvarieties $X \subset Z$ containing a Zariski-dense set of CM points, i.e. points corresponding to $n$-tuples of Drinfeld modules with complex multiplication (and suitable level structure). This is a characteristic $p$ analogue of a special case of the André-Oort conjecture. We follow closely the approach used by Bas Edixhoven in characteristic zero, see math.NT/0302138. Note that in this paper we assume that the characteristic $p$ is odd, and we only treat the case of Drinfeld $F_q[T]$-mo…
We show that the Coleman-Oort conjecture can be reduced to three particular cases. As an application we extend a result of Lu and Zuo, to the effect that for g at least 8 the Coleman-Oort conjecture is true on the hyperelliptic locus.
We prove the conjecture of Oort that a compact subvariety of the moduli space of principally polarized Abelian varieties of genus g has codimension strictly greater than g, for g > 2, in characteristic zero
We prove that a Shimura curve in the Siegel modular variety is not generically contained in the open Torelli locus as long as the rank of unitary part in its canonical Higgs bundle satisfies a numerical upper bound. As an application we show that the Coleman-Oort conjecture holds for Shimura curves associated to partial corestriction upon a suitable choice of parameters, which generalizes a construction due to Mumford.
I give a simplified proof of one of the main results in the recent preprint arXiv:1311.5858 by X. Luo and K. Zuo. Furthermore, I discuss the relation with the Coleman-Oort conjecture on special curves in the Torelli locus.
Oort has conjectured that there do not exist Shimura curves contained generically in the Torelli locus of genus-$g$ curves when $g$ is large enough. In this paper we prove the Oort conjecture for Shimura curves of Mumford type and Shimura curves parameterizing principally polarized $g$-dimensional abelian varieties isogenous to $g$-fold self-products of elliptic curves for $g>11$. We also prove that there do not exist Shimura curves contained generically in the Torelli locus of hyperelliptic curves of genus $g>7$. As a consequence, we obtain a finiteness result regarding smooth genus-$g$ curve…
In the moduli space of degree d polynomials, the special subvarieties are those cut out by critical orbit relations, and then the special points are the post-critically finite polynomials. It was conjectured that in the moduli space of degree d polynomials, the subvarieties containing a Zariski-dense set of special points are exactly these special subvarieties. In this article, we prove the first non-trivial case for this conjecture: the case of cubic polynomials.
In this paper we investigate the problem of lifting of Galois covers between algebraic curves from characteristic p>0 to characteristic 0. We prove a refined version of the main result of Garuti concerning this problem in [Ga]. We formulate a refined version of the Oort conjecture on liftings of cyclic Galois covers between curves. We introduce the notion of fake liftings of cyclic Galois covers between curves, their existence would contradict the Oort conjecture, and we study the geometry of their semi-stable models. Finally, we introduce and investigate on some examples the smoothening proce…
We establish the equidistribution with respect to the bifurcation measure of post-critically finite maps in any one-dimensional algebraic family of unicritical polynomials. Using this equidistribution result, together with a combinatorial analysis of certain algebraic correspondences on the complement of the Mandelbrot set $M_2$ (or generalized Mandelbrot set $M_d$ for degree $d>2$), we classify all complex plane curves $C$ with Zariski-dense subsets of points $(a,b)\in C$, such that both $z^d+a$ and $z^d+b$ are simultaneously post-critically finite for a fixed degree $d\geq 2$. Our result is …
We prove a $p$-adic analogue of the André-Oort conjecture for subvarieties of the universal abelian varieties containing a dense set of special points. Let $g$ and $n$ be integers with $n \geq 3$ and $p$ a prime number not dividing $n$. Let $R$ be a finite extension of $W[{\mathbb F}_p^{\mathrm alg}]$, the ring of Witt vectors of the algebraic closure of the field of $p$ elements. The moduli space $\cA = \cA_{g,1,n}$ of $g$-dimensional principally polarized abelian varieties with full level $n$-structure as well as the universal abelian variety $π:\cX \to \cA$ over $\cA$ may be defined over $R…
The Coleman-Oort conjecture says that for large $g$ there are no positive-dimensional Shimura subvarieties of $\mathsf{A}_g$ generically contained in the Jacobian locus. Counterexamples are known for $g\leq 7$. They can all be constructed using families of Galois coverings of curves satisfying a numerical condition. These families are already classified in cases where: a) the Galois group is cyclic, b) it is abelian and the family is 1-dimensional, and c) $g\leq 9$. By means of carefully designed computations and theoretical arguments excluding a large number of cases we are able to prove that…
Let $\mathbb{V}$ be a polarized variation of integral Hodge structure on a smooth complex quasi-projective variety $S$. In this paper, we show that the union of the non-factor special subvarieties for $(S, \mathbb{V})$, which are of Shimura type with dominant period maps, is a finite union of special subvarieties of $S$. This generalizes previous results of Clozel and Ullmo arXiv:math/0404131, Ullmo \cite{Ullmo07} on the distribution of the non-factor (in particular, strongly) special subvarieties in a Shimura variety to the non-classical setting and also answers positively the geometric part …
Let k be an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic p. We consider which finite groups G have the property that every faithful action of G on a connected smooth projective curve over k lifts to characteristic zero. Oort conjectured that cyclic groups have this property. We show that if a cyclic-by-p group G has this property, then G must be either cyclic or dihedral, with the exception of A_4 in characteristic 2. This proves one direction of a strong form of the Oort Conjecture.
In this paper we study the Oort conjecture on Shimura subvarieties contained generically in the Torelli locus in the Siegel modular variety $\mathcal{A}_g$. Using the poly-stability of Higgs bundles on curves and the slope inequality of Xiao on fibred surfaces, we show that a Shimura curve $C$ is not contained generically in the Torelli locus if its canonical Higgs bundles contains a unitary Higgs subbundle of rank at least $(4g+2)/5$. From this we prove that a Shimura subvariety of $\mathbf{SU}(n,1)$-type is not contained generically in the Torelli locus when a numerical inequality holds, whi…
We study the Oort groups for a prime p, i.e. finite groups G such that every G-Galois branched cover of smooth curves over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p lifts to a G-cover of curves in characteristic 0. We prove that all Oort groups lie in a particular class of finite groups that we characterize, with equality of classes under a conjecture about local liftings. We prove this equality unconditionally if the order of G is not divisible by 2p^2. We also treat the local lifting problem and relate it to the global problem.
The local Oort conjecture states that, if G is cyclic and k is an algebraically closed field of characteristic p, then all G-extensions of k[[t]] should lift to characteristic zero. We prove a critical case of this conjecture. In particular, we show that the conjecture is always true when v_p(|G|) \leq 3, and is true for arbitrarily highly p-divisible cyclic groups G when a certain condition on the higher ramification filtration is satisfied.
We present a heuristic argument based on Honda-Tate theory against many conjectures in `unlikely intersections' over the algebraic closure of a finite field; notably, we conjecture that every abelian variety of dimension 4 is isogenous to a Jacobian. Using methods of additive combinatorics, we are able to give a negative answer to a related question of Chai and Oort where the ambient Shimura Variety is a power of the modular curve.
In this paper we study the Coleman-Oort conjecture for superelliptic curves, i.e., curves defined by affine equations $y^n=F(x)$ with $F$ a separable polynomial. We prove that up to isomorphism there are at most finitely many superelliptic curves of fixed genus $g\geq 8$ with CM Jacobians. The proof relies on the geometric structures of Shimura subvarieties in Siegel modular varieties and the stability properties of Higgs bundles associated to fibred surfaces.
We formulate a generalization of Vojta's conjecture in terms of log pairs and variants of multiplier ideals. In this generalization, a variety is allowed to have singularities. It turns out that the generalized conjecture for a log pair is equivalent to the original conjecture applied to a log resolution of the pair. A special case of the generalized conjecture can be interpreted as representing a general phenomenon that there tend to exist more rational points near singular points than near smooth points. The same phenomenon is also observed in relation between greatest common divisors of int…
We give a framework to produce constructible functions from natural functors between categories, without need of a morphism of moduli spaces to model the functor. We show using the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence that any natural (derived) functor on constructible sheaves on smooth complex algebraic varieties can be used to construct a special kind of constructible sets, called absolute sets, generalizing a notion introduced by Simpson in presence of moduli. We conjecture that the absolute sets of local systems satisfy a "special varieties package", among which is an analog of the Manin-Mumford…
The goal of this paper is to give a simple proof of Deligne's conjecture (proven by Fujiwara) and to generalize it to the situation appearing in our joint project with David Kazhdan on the global Langlands correspondence over function fields. Our proof holds in the realm of ordinary algebraic geometry and does not use rigid geometry.
Stretching the parameters of a Littlewood-Richardson coefficient of value 2 by a factor of n results in a coefficient of value n+1. We give a geometric proof of a generalization for representations of quivers.
We prove a theorem which implies a quantum (multiplicative) analogue of the Horn conjecture, and also of the saturation conjecture. We obtain transversality statements for quantum schubert calculus in any characteristic and also determine the smallest power of q in an arbitrary (small quantum) product of Schubert varieties in a Grassmannian.
Combining recent results on noetherianity of twisted commutative algebras by Draisma and the resolution of Stillman's conjecture by Ananyan-Hochster, we prove a broad generalization of Stillman's conjecture. Our theorem yields an array of boundedness results in commutative algebra that only depend on the degrees of the generators of an ideal, and not the number of variables in the ambient polynomial ring.
We relate the n! conjecture (by Garsia and Haiman) to the geometry of principal nilpotent pairs, and state a conjecture generalizing the n! conjecture to arbitrary semisimple algebraic groups. We also show, using Borel's fixed point theorem, how to reduce the n! conjecture to staircase partitions. Finally we study the interplay between characteristic p and the n! conjecture for box partitions.
Let G be a complex connected reductive group. The PRV conjecture, which was proved independently by S. Kumar and O. Mathieu in 1989, gives explicit irreducible submodules of the tensor product of two irreducible G-modules. This paper has three aims. First, we simplify the proof of the PRV conjecture, then we generalize it to other branching problems. Finally, we find other irreducible components of the tensor product of two irreducible G-modules that appear for "the same reason" as the PRV ones.
Let $G\subset\hat{G}$ be two complex connected reductive groups. We deals with the hard problem of finding sub-$G$-modules of a given irreducible $\hat{G}$-module. In the case where $G$ is diagonally embedded in $\hat{G}=G\times G$, S. Kumar and O. Mathieu found some of them, proving the PRV conjecture. Recently, the authors generalized the PRV conjecture on the one hand to the case where $\hat{G}/G$ is spherical of minimal rank, and on the other hand giving more sub-$G$-modules in the classical case $G\subset G\times G$. In this paper, these two recent generalizations are combined in a same m…
Let $G$ be a group and let $k$ be a field. Kaplansky's direct finiteness conjecture states that every one-sided unit of the group ring $k[G]$ must be a two-sided unit. In this paper, we establish a geometric direct finiteness theorem for endomorphisms of symbolic algebraic varieties. Whenever $G$ is a sofic group or more generally a surjunctive group, our result implies a generalization of Kaplansky's direct finiteness conjecture for the near ring $R(k, G)$ which is $k[X_g\colon g \in G]$ as a group and which contains naturally $k[G]$ as the subring of homogeneous polynomials of degree one. We…
