In this paper we compute the distributions of various markings on smooth cubic surfaces defined over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, for example the distribution of pairs of points, `tritangents' or `double sixes'. We also compute the (rational) cohomology of certain associated bundles and covers over complex numbers.
In the present paper, we will show that three apparently disjoint objects: Galois representations arising from twenty-seven lines on a cubic surface (number theory and arithmetic algebraic geometry), Picard modular forms (automorphic forms), rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds and their arithmetic (Diophantine geometry) are intimately related to Hessian polyhedra and their invariants. We construct a Galois representation whose image is a proper subgroup of $W(E_6)$, the Weyl group of the exceptional Lie algebra $E_6$. We give a conjecture about the identification of two different kinds of $L$-function…
It has long been known that to a complex cubic surface or threefold one can canonically associate a principally polarized abelian variety. We give a construction which works for cubics over an arithmetic base. This answers, away from the prime 2, an old question of Deligne and a recent question of Kudla and Rapoport. We further classify the Mumford-Tate groups of the abelian varieties which arise, and give additional arithmetic applications.
We study dynamical systems induced by birational automorphisms on smooth cubic surfaces defined over a number field $K$. In particular we are interested in the product of non-commuting birational Geiser involutions of the cubic surface. We present results describing the sets of $K$ and $\bar{K}$-periodic points of the system, and give a necessary and sufficient condition for a dynamical local-global property called strong residual periodicity. Finally, we give a dynamical result relating to the Mordell--Weil problem on cubic surfaces.
Rank 2 indecomposable arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay bundles E on a nonsingular cubic surface X in P^3 are classified, by means of the possible forms taken by the minimal graded free resolution of E over P^3. The admissible values of the Chern classes of E are listed and the vanishing locus of a general section of E is studied. Properties of E such as (semi) stability and simplicity are investigated; the number of relevant families is computed together with their dimension.
We give an arithmetic count of the lines on a smooth cubic surface over an arbitrary field $k$, generalizing the counts that over $\mathbb{C}$ there are $27$ lines, and over $\mathbb{R}$ the number of hyperbolic lines minus the number of elliptic lines is $3$. In general, the lines are defined over a field extension $L$ and have an associated arithmetic type $α$ in $L^*/(L^*)^2$. There is an equality in the Grothendieck-Witt group $\operatorname{GW}(k)$ of $k$ $$\sum_{\text{lines}} \operatorname{Tr}_{L/k} \langle α\rangle = 15 \cdot \langle 1 \rangle + 12 \cdot \langle -1 \rangle, $$ where $\o…
We establish Manin's conjecture for a cubic surface split over Q and whose singularity type is 2A_2+A_1. For this, we make use of a deep result about the equidistribution of the values of a certain restricted divisor function in three variables in arithmetic progressions. This result is due to Friedlander and Iwaniec (and was later improved by Heath-Brown) and draws on the work of Deligne.
We study the arithmetic of complete intersections in projective space over number fields. Our main results include arithmetic Torelli theorems and versions of the Shafarevich conjecture, as proved for curves and abelian varieties by Faltings. For example, we prove an analogue of the Shafarevich conjecture for cubic and quartic threefolds and intersections of two quadrics.
In this expository note we discuss some arithmetic aspects of the mirror symmetry for plane cubic curves. We also explain how the Picard-Fuchs equation can be used to reveal part of these arithmetic properties. The application of Picard-Fuchs equations in studying the genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants of more general Calabi-Yau varieties and the Weil-Petersson geometry on their moduli spaces will also be discussed.
The moduli space of stable real cubic surfaces is the quotient of real hyperbolic four-space by a discrete, nonarithmetic group. The volume of the moduli space is 37π^2/1080 in the metric of constant curvature -1. Each of the five connected components of the moduli space can be described as the quotient of real hyperbolic four-space by a specific arithmetic group. We compute the volumes of these components.
The moduli space of cubic surfaces in complex projective space is known to be isomorphic to the quotient of the complex 4-ball by a certain arithmetic group. We apply Borcherds' techniques to construct automorphic forms for this group and show that these provide an embedding of the moduli space in 9-dimensional projective space. We also show that our automorphic forms directly encode the geometry of cubic surfaces, by showing that each of Cayley's invariants (certain cross-ratios) is simply a quotient of two of our automorphic forms.
Generalizing a recent construction of Yang and Yu, we study to what extent one can intersect Hassett's Noether-Lefschetz divisors $\mathcal{C}_d$ in the moduli space of cubic fourfolds $\mathcal{C}$. In particular, we exhibit arithmetic conditions on 20 indexes $d_1,\dots, d_{20}$ that assure that the divisors $\mathcal{C}_{d_1},\dots,\mathcal{C}_{d_{20}}$ all intersect one another. This allows us to produce examples of rational cubic fourfolds with an associated K3 surface with rank 20 Néron-Severi group, i.e. a singular K3 surface.
A special cubic fourfold is a smooth hypersurface of degree three and dimension four that contains a surface not homologous to a complete intersection. Special cubic fourfolds give rise to a countable family of Noether-Lefschetz divisors C_d in the moduli space C of smooth cubic fourfolds. These divisors are irreducible 19-dimensional varieties birational to certain orthogonal modular varieties. We use the "low-weight cusp form trick" of Gritsenko, Hulek, and Sankaran to obtain information about the Kodaira dimension of C_d. For example, if d = 6n + 2, then we show that C_d is of general type …
In this paper we show that the moduli space of nodal cubic surfaces is isomorphic to a quotient of a 4-dimensional complex ball by an arithmetic subgroup of the unitary group. This complex ball uniformization uses the periods of certain K3 surfaces which are naturally associated to cubic surfaces. A similar uniformization is given for the covers of the moduli space corresponding to geometric markings of the Picard group or to the choice of a line on the surface. We also give a detailed description of the boundary components corresponding to singular surfaces.
Recall that the moduli space of smooth (that is, stable) cubic curves is isomorphic to the quotient of the upper half plane by the group of fractional linear transformations with integer coefficients. We establish a similar result for stable cubic surfaces: the moduli space is biholomorphic to a quotient of the compex 4-ball by an explict arithmetic group generated by complex reflections. This identification gives interesting structural information on the moduli space and allows one to locate the points in complex hyperbolic 4-space corresponding to cubic surfaces with symmetry, e.g., the Ferm…
We consider a family of abelian surfaces over $\mathbb{Q}$ arising as Prym varieties of double covers of genus-$1$ curves by genus-$3$ curves. These abelian surfaces carry a polarization of type $(1,2)$ and we show that the average size of the Selmer group of this polarization equals $3$. Moreover we show that the average size of the $2$-Selmer group of the abelian surfaces in the same family is bounded above by $5$. This implies an upper bound on the average rank of these Prym varieties, and gives evidence for the heuristics of Poonen and Rains for a family of abelian varieties which are not …
We contribute to the arithmetic/topology dictionary by relating asymptotic point counts and arithmetic statistics over finite fields to homological stability and representation stability over $\Cb$ in the example of configuration spaces of $n$ points in smooth varieties. To do this, we import the method of homological stability from the realm of topology into the theory of étale cohomology; in particular we give the first examples of stability of étale cohomology groups as Galois representations where the Galois actions are not already explicitly known. We then establish subexponential bounds …
This is a sequel to the paper [Cas]. Here, we extend the methods of Farb-Wolfson using the theory of FI_G-modules to obtain stability of equivariant Galois representations of the etale cohomology of orbit configuration spaces. We establish subexponential bounds on the growth of unstable cohomology, and then use the Grothendieck-Lefschetz trace formula to obtain results on arithmetic statistics for orbit configuration spaces over finite fields. In particular, we show that the average value, across polynomials over F_q, of certain Gauss sums over their roots, stabilizes as the degree goes to inf…
Let F be the cubic field of discriminant -23 and O its ring of integers. Let Gamma be the arithmetic group GL_2 (O), and for any ideal n subset O let Gamma_0 (n) be the congruence subgroup of level n. In a previous paper, two of us (PG and DY) computed the cohomology of various Gamma_0 (n), along with the action of the Hecke operators. The goal of that paper was to test the modularity of elliptic curves over F. In the present paper, we complement and extend this prior work in two ways. First, we tabulate more elliptic curves than were found in our prior work by using various heuristics ("old a…
The moduli stack $\mathcal A_2$ of principally polarized abelian surfaces comes equipped with the universal abelian surface $π: \mathcal X_2 \to \mathcal A_2$. The fiber of $π$ over a point corresponding to an abelian surface $A$ in $\mathcal A_2$ is $A$ itself. We determine the $\ell$-adic cohomology of $\mathcal X_2$ as a Galois representation. Similarly, we consider the bundles $\mathcal X_2^n \to \mathcal A_2$ and $\mathcal X_2^{\operatorname{Sym}(n)} \to \mathcal A_2$ for all $n \geq 1$, where the fiber over a point corresponding to an abelian surface $A$ is $A^n$ and $\operatorname{Sym}^…
We construct the moduli space of cubic surfaces which do not admit a Sylvester form as an arithmetic quotient, and determine the graded ring of modular forms of even weights.
We continue the study of a general class of spaces of 0-cycles on a manifold defined and begun by Farb-Wolfson-Wood. Using work of Gadish on linear subspace arrangements, we obtain representation stability for the cohomology of the ordered version of these spaces. We establish subexponential bounds on the growth of unstable cohomology, and the Grothendieck-Lefschetz trace formula then allows us to translate these topological stability phenomena to stabilization of statistics for spaces of 0-cycles over finite fields. In particular, we show that the average value of certain arithmetic quantitie…
Let M_0^R be the moduli space of smooth real cubic surfaces. We show that each of its components admits a real hyperbolic structure. More precisely, one can remove some lower-dimensional geodesic subspaces from a real hyperbolic space H^4 and form the quotient by an arithmetic group to obtain an orbifold isomorphic to a component of the moduli space. There are five components. For each we describe the corresponding lattices in PO(4,1). We also derive several new and several old results on the topology of M_0^R. Let M_s^R be the moduli space of real cubic surfaces that are stable in the sense o…
An arithmetic method of proving the irrationality of smooth projective 3-folds is described, using reduction modulo $p$. It is illustrated by an application to a cubic threefold, for which the hypothesis that its intermediate Jacobian is isomorphic to the Jacobian of a curve is contradicted by reducing modulo 3 and counting points over appropriate extensions of $\mathbb F_3$. As a spin-off, it is shown that the 5-dimensional Prym varieties arising as intermediate Jacobians of certain cubic 3-folds have the maximal number of points over $\mathbb F_q$ which attains Perret's and Weil's upper boun…
This article focuses on the study of toric algebraic statistical models which correspond to toric Del Pezzo surfaces with Du Val singularities. A closed-form for the Maximum Likelihood Estimate of algebraic statistical models which correspond to cubic and quartic toric Del Pezzo surfaces with Du Val singular points is given. Also, we calculate the ML degrees of some toric Del Pezzo surfaces of degree less than or equal to six, which equals the degree of the surface in all the case but one, namely the quintic with two points of type $\mathbb{A}_1$.