The birational classification of varieties inevitably leads to the study of singularities. The types of singularities that occur in this context have been studied by Mori, Kollár, Reid, and others, beginning in the 1980s with the introduction of the minimal model program. Normal singularities that are terminal, canonical, log terminal, and log canonical, and their non-normal counterparts, are typically studied using a resolution of singularities (or a semiresolution) and finding numerical conditions that relate the canonical class of the variety to that of its resolution. In order to do this, it has been assumed that a variety $X$ has a $\mathbb{Q}$-Cartier canonical class: some multiple $mK_X$ of the canonical class is Cartier. In particular, this divisor can be pulled back under a resolution $f: Y \rightarrow X$ by pulling back its local sections. Then one has a relation $K_Y \sim \frac{1}{m}f^*(mK_X) + \sum a_iE_i$. It is then the coefficients of the exceptional divisors $E_i$ that determine the type of singularities that belong to $X$. It might be asked whether this $\mathbb{Q}$-Cartier hypothesis is necessary in studying singularities in birational classification. In \cite{dFH09}, de Fernex and Hacon construct a boundary divisor $Δ$ for arbitrary normal varieties, the resulting divisor $K_X + Δ$ being $\mathbb{Q}$-Cartier even though $K_X$ itself is not. This they call (for reasons that will be made clear) an $m$-compatible boundary for $X$, and they proceed to show that the singularities defined in terms of the pair $(X, Δ)$ are none other than the singularities just described, when $K_X$ happens to be $\mathbb{Q}$-Cartier. In the present paper, we extend the results of \cite{dFH09} still further, to include demi-normal varieties without a $\mathbb{Q}$-Cartier canonical class.
We prove semi-rationalification and semi-log-canonicalization for Gorenstein demi-normal surfaces. That is, given a Gorenstein demi-normal surface X with semi-rational (respectively, semi-log canonical) singularities in an open set U with complement a finite set of points, there is a proper birational morphism f : Y --> X such that f is an isomorphism over U and Y has only semi-rational (respectively, semi-log canonical) singularities. We proceed by passing to the normalization and then gluing along the conductor in an appropriate rationalification or log-canonicalization of the normalization …
Our primary result is that a demi-normal quasi-projective variety can be embedded in a demi-normal projective variety. Recall that a demi-normal variety $X$ is a variety with properties $S_2$, $G_1$, and seminormality. Equivalently, $X$ has Serre's $S_2$ property and there is an open subvariety $U$ with complement of codimension at least 2 in $X$, such that the only singularities of $U$ are (analytically) double normal crossings. The term demi-normal was coined by Kollár in \cite{Kol13}. As a consequence of this embedding theorem, we prove a semi-smooth Grauert-Riemenschneider vanishing theore…
In characteristic $p=2$, we compute the singularities of Kummer varieties arising from products of elliptic curves. This result is generalized to Kummer varieties associated to ordinary abelian varieties.
We give a short proof that essentially all questions concerning singularities of Richardson varieties reduce to corresponding questions about Schubert varieties. Consequently, we quickly deduce some new and previously known results.
We list combinatorial criteria of some singularities, which appear in the Minimal Model Program or in the study of (singular) Fano varieties, for spherical varieties. Most of the results of this paper are already known or are quite easy corollary of known results. We collect these results, we precise some proofs and add few results to get a coherent and complete survey.
Firstly, we see that the bases of the miniversal deformations of isolated $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein toric singularities are quite restricted. In particular, we classify the analytic germs of embedding dimension $\leq 2$ which are the bases of the miniversal deformations of isolated $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein toric singularities. Secondly, we show that the deformation spaces of isolated Gorenstein toric $3$-fold singularities appear, in a weak sense, as singularities of the K-moduli stack of K-semistable Fano varieties of every dimension $\geq 3$. As a consequence, we prove that the number of local …
This paper studies the singularities of affine Schubert varieties in the affine Grassmannian (of type $\mathrm{A}^{(1)}_\ell$). For two classes of affine Schubert varieties, we determine the singular loci; and for one class, we also determine explicitly the tangent spaces at singular points. For a general affine Schubert variety, we give partial results on the singular locus.
We generalize the well-known numerical criterion for projective spaces by Cho, Miyaoka and Shepherd-Barron to varieties with at worst quotient singularities. Let $X$ be a normal projective variety of dimension $n \geq 3$ with at most quotient singularities. Our result asserts that if $C \cdot (-K_X) \geq n+1$ for every curve $C \subset X$, then $X \cong \PP^n$.
Restriction varieties in the orthogonal Grassmannian are subvarieties of $OG(k, n)$ defined by rank conditions given by a flag that is not necessarily isotropic with respect to the relevant symmetric bilinear form. In particular, Schubert varieties of Type B and D are examples of restriction varieties. In this paper, we introduce a resolution of singularities for restriction varieties in $OG(k, n)$, and give a description of their singular locus by studying components of the exceptional locus of the resolution.
Richardson varieties play an important role in intersection theory and in the geometric interpretation of the Littlewood-Richardson Rule for flag varieties. We discuss three natural generalizations of Richardson varieties which we call projection varieties, intersection varieties, and rank varieties. In many ways, these varieties are more fundamental than Richardson varieties and are more easily amenable to inductive geometric constructions. In this paper, we study the singularities of each type of generalization. Like Richardson varieties, projection varieties are normal with rational singula…
It is known by results of Kollár, Ein, Lazarsfeld, Hacon and Debarre that divisors representing principal and other low degree polarizations on abelian varieties have mild singularities. In this note we extend such results to polarizations of degree $<g$ on simple $g$-dimensional abelian varieties, settling a conjecture of Debarre and Hacon.
We study the singularities of the secant variety $Σ(X,L)$ associated to a smooth variety $X$ embedded by a sufficiently positive adjoint bundle $L$. We show that $Σ(X,L)$ is always Du Bois singular. Examples of secant varieties with worse singularities when $L$ has weak positivity are provided. We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for $Σ(X, L)$ to have rational singularities.
We discuss Hironaka's theorem on resolution of singularities in charactetistic 0 as well as more recent progress, both on simplifying and improving Hironaka's method of proof and on new results and directions on families of varieties, leading to joint work on toroidal orbifolds with Michael Temkin and Jarosław Włodarczyk.
We describe the generic singularity of a Schubert variety of type A on each irreducible component of its singular locus. This singularity is given either by a cone of rank one matrices, or a quadratic cone.
Building on previous work of Kollar, Ein, Lazarsfeld, and Hacon, we show that ample divisors of low degree on an abelian variety have mild singularities in case the abelian variety is simple or the degree of the polarization is two.
This paper gives the all possible global indices of log Calabi-Yau 3-folds with standard coefficients on the boundaries and having lc, non-klt singularities. This follows easily from the discussion in the paper: The indices of log canonical singularities by Fujino (AG/9909035).
By the fundamental work of Griffiths one knows that, under suitable assumption, homological and algebraic equivalence do not coincide for a general hypersurface section of a smooth projective variety $Y$. In the present paper we prove the same result in case $Y$ has isolated singularities.
In this paper we give a lower bound for the codimension of the Andreotti-Mayer loci in the moduli space of principally polarized complex abelian varieties. We also present a conjecture on this codimension.
We study logarithmic jet schemes of a log scheme and generalize a theorem of M. Mustata from the case of ordinary jet schemes to the logarithmic case. If X is a normal local complete intersection log variety, then X has canonical singularities if and only if the log jet schemes of X are irreducible.
In this paper we study the singularities of the invariant metric of the Poincaré bundle over a family of abelian varieties and their duals over a base of arbitrary dimension. As an application of this study we prove the effectiveness of the height jump divisors for families of pointed abelian varieties. The effectiveness of the height jump divisor was conjectured by Hain in the more general case of variations of polarized Hodge structures of weight $-1$.
Let $X$ be a smooth complete Fano variety over $\mathbb{C}$. We show that the Cox ring $\bigoplus_{L\in\text{Pic}(X)}H^0(X,\mathcal{O}_X(L))$ is Gorenstein with canonical singularities.
It is a conjecture of Kollár that a variety $X$ with rational singularities in some open subvariety $U$ has a rationalification; that is, a proper, birational morphism $f: Y \rightarrow X$ such that $Y$ has rational singularities, and which is an isomorphism over $U$. Whether this is true is already unknown in the case of a (normal) threefold with rational singularities along a curve $C$ except at a single point $p \in C$. There is an analogous conjecture for demi-normal varieties $X$, where we must insist that $Y$ has only semi-rational singularities. Our main result is that if a stronger ver…
Let $X$ be a cubic fourfold that has only simple singularities and does not contain a plane. We prove that the Fano variety of lines on $X$ has the same analytic type of singularity as the Hilbert scheme of two points on a surface with only ADE-singularities. This is shown as a corollary to the characterization of a singularity that is obtained as a $K3^{[2]}$-type contraction and has a unique symplectic resolution.
In recent years, the equations defining secant varieties and their syzygies have attracted considerable attention. The purpose of the present paper is to conduct a thorough study on secant varieties of curves by settling several conjectures and revealing interaction between singularities and syzygies. The main results assert that if the degree of the embedding line bundle of a nonsingular curve of genus $g$ is greater than $2g+2k+p$ for nonnegative integers $k$ and $p$, then the $k$-th secant variety of the curve has normal Du Bois singularities, is arithmetically Cohen--Macaulay, and satisfie…
We study codimension two determinantal varieties with isolated singularities. These singularities admit a unique smoothing, thus we can define their Milnor number as the middle Betti number of their generic fiber. For surfaces in C^4, we obtain a Lê-Greuel formula expressing the Milnor number of the surface in terms of the second polar multiplicity and the Milnor number of a generic section. We also relate the Milnor number with Ebeling and Gusein-Zade index of the 1- form given by the differential of a generic linear projection defined on the surface. To illustrate the results, in the last se…
The stringy E-function for normal irreducible complex varieties with at worst log terminal singularities was introduced by Batyrev. It is defined by data from a log resolution. If the variety is projective and Gorenstein and the stringy E-function is a polynomial, Batyrev also defined the stringy Hodge numbers as a generalization of the Hodge numbers of nonsingular projective varieties, and conjectured that they are nonnegative. We compute explicit formulae for the contribution of an A-D-E singularity to the stringy E-function in arbitrary dimension. With these results we can say when the stri…
Let $X$ be a Gorenstein canonical Fano variety of coindex $4$ and dimension $n$ with $H$ fundamental divisor. Assume $h^0(X, H) \geq n -2$. We prove that a general element of the linear system $|mH|$ has at worst canonical singularities for any integer $m \geq 1$. When $X$ has terminal singularities and $n \geq 5$, we show that a general element of $|mH|$ has at worst terminal singularities for any integer $m \geq 1$. When $n=4$, we give an example of Gorenstein terminal Fano fourfold $X$ such that a general element of $|H|$ does not have terminal singularities.
Let $X,Y$ be algebraic varieties defined over $\Bbb R$. Assume $Y$ is smooth and $X$ is Gorenstein. Suppose $φ:X\to Y$ is a flat $\Bbb R$-morphism such that all the fibers have rational singularities. We show that the pushforward of any smooth, compactly supported measure on $X$ has a continuous density with respect to any smooth measure with non-vanishing density on $Y$. This extends a result of Aizenbud and Avni from the $p$-adic case to the archimedean case.
We give an alternative proof of a recent result by Pasquier stating that for a generalized flag variety $X=G/P$ and an effective $\mathbb{Q}$-divisor $D$ stable with respect to a Borel subgroup the pair $(X,D)$ is Kawamata log terminal if and only if $\lfloor D\rfloor=0$.
This paper obtains criteria for a Fano variety X with normal crossing singularities defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, to be smoothable. The difference with the original version is that the theory of logarithmic structures and deformations is used in order to prove that X is smoothable by a smooth variety, if and only if T^1(X)=O_D, where D is the singular locus of X.
We give a self-contained presentation of the basic results on jet schemes of singular varieties. Applications are given to invariants of singularities, such as minimal log discrepancies. We simplify our older approach to Inversion of adjunction for locally complete intersection varieties, and we prove a more general result for arbitrary Q-Gorenstein varieties embeded in nonsingular varieties (this statement has been proved independently also by Kawakita) .
In 2002, Alexeev provided a modular interpretation for the toroidal compactification of $A_g$ for the 2nd Voronoi fan. In this paper we show that pairs $(X,Θ)$ in the boundary of this moduli space are semi-log canonical, the analog of log canonical in the non-normal setting. This extends the result of Koll${á}$r stating that principally polarized abelian pairs $(X,Θ)$ are log canonical.
We classify all $n$-dimensional reduced Cohen-Macaulay modular quotient variety $\mathbb{A}_\mathbb{F}^n/C_{2p}$ and study their singularities, where $p$ is a prime number and $C_{2p}$ denotes the cyclic group of order $2p$. In particular, we present an example that demonstrates that the problem proposed by Yasuda \cite[Problem 6.6]{Yas2015} has a negative answer if the condition that "$G$ is a small subgroup" was dropped.
The main goal of this paper is to show that the notions of Weil and Cartier $\mathbb{Q}$-divisors coincide for $V$-manifolds and give a procedure to express a rational Weil divisor as a rational Cartier divisor. The theory is illustrated on weighted projective spaces and weighted blow-ups.
We give a version in characteristic $p>0$ of Mumford's theorem characterizing a smooth complex germ of surface $(X,x)$ by the triviality of the topological fundamental group of $U=X\setminus \{x\}$. This note relies on discussions the authors had during the Christmas break 2009/10 in Ivry. They have been written down by Hélène in the night when Eckart died, as a despaired sign of love.
A T-variety is an algebraic variety X with an effective regular action of an algebraic torus T. Altmann and Hausen gave a combinatorial description of an affine T-variety X by means of polyhedral divisors. In this paper we compute the higher direct images of the structure sheaf of a desingularization of X in terms of this combinatorial data. As a consequence, we give a criterion as to when a T-variety has rational singularities. We also provide a partial criterion for a T-variety to be Cohen-Macaulay. As an application we characterize in this terms quasihomogeneous elliptic singularities of su…
In this paper, we discuss a generalization of log canonical singularities in the non-$\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein setting. We prove that if a normal complex projective variety has a non-invertible polarized endomorphism, then it has log canonical singularities in our sense. As a corollary, we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Broustet and Höring.
We prove that the anti-canonical divisors of weak Fano 3-folds with log canonical singularities are semiample. Moreover, we consider semiampleness of the anti-log canonical divisor of any weak log Fano pair with log canonical singularities. We show semiampleness dose not hold in general by constructing several examples. Based on those examples, we propose sufficient conditions which seem to be the best possible and we prove semiampleness under such conditions. In particular we derive semiampleness of the anti-canonical divisors of log canonical weak Fano 4-folds whose lc centers are at most 1-…
Linearly projecting smooth projective varieties provides a method of obtaining hypersurfaces birational to the original varieties. We show that in low dimension, the resulting hypersurfaces only have Du Bois singularities. Moreover, we conclude that these Du Bois singularities are in fact semi log canonical. However, we demonstrate the existence of counterexamples in high dimension -- the generic linear projection of certain varieties of dimension 30 or higher is neither semi log canonical nor Du Bois.
We consider pairs (X,A), where X is a variety with klt singularities and A is a formal product of ideals on X with exponents in a fixed set that satisfies the Descending Chain Condition. We also assume that X has (formally) bounded singularities, in the sense that it is, formally locally, a subvariety in a fixed affine space defined by equations of bounded degree. We prove in this context a conjecture of Shokurov, predicting that the set of log canonical thresholds for such pairs satisfies the Ascending Chain Condition.
This paper studies several notions of sheaves of differential forms that are better behaved on singular varieties than Kähler differentials. Our main focus lies on varieties that are defined over fields of positive characteristic. We identify two promising notions: the sheafification with respect to the cdh-topology, and right Kan extension from the subcategory of smooth varieties to the category of all varieties. Our main results are that both are cdh-sheaves and agree with Kähler differentials on smooth varieties. They agree on all varieties under weak resolution of singularities. A number o…
We prove that, defined with respect to versal flags, the product of two relative Bott-Samelson varieties over the flag bundle is a resolution of singularities of a relative Richardson variety. This result generalizes Brion's resolution of singularities of Richardson varieties to the relative setting. It reflects the phenomenon that the local geometry of a relative Richardson variety is completely governed by the two intersecting relative Schubert varieties, studied by Chan-Pflueger. We also prove an analogous theorem in the case of relative Grassmannian Richardson varieties, thereby furnishing…
We find generators for the ideals of secant varieties of Segre varieties in several the cases including the Garcia-Stillmann-Ssturmfels conjecture for four factors and prove results about their singularities.
We study log canonical thresholds (also called global log canonical threshold or $α$-invariant) of $\mathbb{R}$-linear systems. We prove existence of positive lower bounds in different settings, in particular, proving a conjecture of Ambro. We then show that the Borisov-Alexeev-Borisov conjecture holds, that is, given a natural number $d$ and a positive real number $ε$, the set of Fano varieties of dimension $d$ with $ε$-log canonical singularities forms a bounded family. This implies that birational automorphism groups of rationally connected varieties are Jordan which in particular answers a…
We study Kawamata log terminal singularities of full rank, i.e., $n$-dimensional klt singularities containing a large finite abelian group of rank $n$ in its regional fundamental group. The main result of this article is that klt singularities of full rank degenerate to cones over log crepant equivalent toric quotient varieties. To establish the main theorem, we reduce the proof to the study of Fano type varieties with large finite automorphisms of full rank. We prove that such Fano type varieties are log crepant equivalent toric. Furthermore, any such Fano variety of dimension $n$ contains an…
The aim of this paper is to study the singularities of certain moduli spaces of sheaves on K3 surfaces by means of Nakajima quiver varieties. The singularities in question arise from the choice of a non--generic polarization, with respect to which we consider stability, and admit natural symplectic resolutions corresponding to choices of general polarizations. For sheaves that are pure of dimension one, we show that these moduli spaces are, locally around a singular point, isomorphic to a quiver variety and that, via this isomorphism, the natural symplectic resolutions correspond to variations…
