We provide a criterion for a coherent sheaf to be an Ulrich sheaf in terms of a certain bilinear form on its global sections. When working over the real numbers we call it a positive Ulrich sheaf if this bilinear form is symmetric or hermitian and positive definite. In that case our result provides a common theoretical framework for several results in real algebraic geometry concerning the existence of algebraic certificates for certain geometric properties. For instance, it implies Hilbert's theorem on nonnegative ternary quartics, via the geometry of del Pezzo surfaces, and the solution of the Lax conjecture on plane hyperbolic curves due to Helton and Vinnikov.
In this paper we define and study real fibered morphisms. Such morphisms arise in the study of real hyperbolic hypersurfaces in projective space and other hyperbolic varieties. We show that real fibered morphisms are intimately connected to Ulrich sheaves admitting positive definite symmetric bilinear forms.
An Ulrich sheaf on an embedded projective variety is a normalized arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay sheaf with the maximum possible number of independent sections. Ulrich sheaves are important in the theory of Chow forms, Boij-Soderberg theory, generalized Clifford algebras, and for an approach to Lech's conjecture in commutative algebra. In this note, we give a reduction of the construction of Ulrich sheaves on a projective variety X to the construction of an Ulrich sheaf for a finite map of curves, which is in turn equivalent to a higher-rank Brill-Noether problem for any of a certain class of c…
An Ulrich sheaf on an n-dimensional projective variety X, embedded in a projective space, is a normalized ACM sheaf which has the maximum possible number of global sections. Using a construction based on the representation theory of Roby-Clifford algebras, we prove that every normal ACM variety admits a reflexive sheaf whose restriction to a general 1-dimensional linear section is Ulrich; we call such sheaves delta-Ulrich. In the case n=2, where delta-Ulrich sheaves satisfy the property that their direct image under a general finite linear projection is a semistable instanton bundle, we show t…
Inspired by Beauville's recent construction of Ulrich sheaves on abelian surfaces, we pose the question of whether a torsion-free sheaf on a polarized smooth projective variety with Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity 1 is a GV (generic vanishing) sheaf, and present evidence that this question is governed by the positivity of cycles on generalized Brill-Noether loci. We prove that it has an affirmative answer for natural polarizations on many well-known irregular surfaces, as well as some polarizations on ruled threefolds over a curve.
A $h$-instanton sheaf on a closed subscheme $X$ of some projective space endowed with an ample and globally generated line bundle $\mathcal{O}_X(h)$ is a coherent sheaf whose cohomology table has a certain prescribed shape. In this paper we deal with $h$-instanton sheaves relating them to Ulrich sheaves. Moreover, we study $h$-instanton sheaves on smooth curves and surfaces, cyclic $n$-folds, Fano $3$-folds and scrolls over arbitrary smooth curves. We also deal with a family of monads associated to $h$-instanton bundles on varieties satisfying some mild extra technical conditions.
This work is entirely devoted to construct huge families of indecomposable arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay (resp. Ulrich) sheaves E of arbitrary high rank on a general standard (resp. linear) determinantal scheme X\subset \PP^n of codimension c \ge 1, n-c \ge 1 and defined by the maximal minors of a t \times (t+c-1) homogeneous matrix A. The sheaves E are constructed as iterated extensions of sheaves of lower rank. As applications: (1) we prove that any general standard determinantal scheme X\subset \PP^n is of wild representation type provided the degrees of the entries of the matrix A satisfy …
The goal of this paper is to start a study of aCM and Ulrich sheaves on non-integral projective varieties. We show that any aCM vector bundle of rank two on the double plane is a direct sum of line bundles. As a by-product, any aCM vector bundle of rank two on a sufficiently high dimensional quadric hypersurface also splits. We consider aCM and Ulrich vector bundles on a multiple hyperplanes and prove the existence of such bundles that do not split, if the multiple hyperplane is linearly embedded into a sufficiently high dimensional projective space. Then we restrict our attention to the doubl…
We give a new proof of the Mordell-Lang conjecture in positive characteristic, in the situation where the variety under scrutiny is a smooth subvariety of an abelian variety. Our proof is based on the theory of semistable sheaves in positive characteristic, in particular on Langer's theorem that the Harder-Narasimhan filtration of sheaves becomes strongly semistable after a finite number of iterations of Frobenius pull-backs. The interest of this proof is that it provides simple effective bounds (depending on the degree of the canonical line bundle) for the degree of the isotrivial finite cove…
We prove Bogomolov's inequality for semistable sheaves on product type varieties in arbitrary characteristic. This gives the first examples of varieties with positive Kodaira dimension in positive characteristic on which Bogomolov's inequality holds for semistable sheaves of any rank. The key ingredient in the proof is a high rank generalization of the slope inequality established by Xiao and Cornalba-Harris. This Bogomolov's inequality is applied to study the positivity of linear systems and semistable sheaves and construct Bridgeland stability conditions on product type surfaces in positive …
Consider a smooth projective family of canonically polarized complex manifolds over a smooth quasi-projective complex base U, and suppose the family is non-isotrivial. If Y is a smooth compactification of U, such that D := Y U is a simple normal crossing divisor, then we can consider the sheaf of differentials with logarithmic poles along D. Viehweg and Zuo have shown that for some number m>0, the m-th symmetric power of this sheaf admits many sections. More precisely, the m-th symmetric power contains an invertible sheaf whose Kodaira-Iitaka dimension is at least the variation of the family. …
The goal of this paper is to motivate a boundedness conjecture on nearby slopes of $\ell$-adic sheaves in positive characteristic, and to prove it for smooth curves. For a constructible $\ell$-adic sheaf, we prove the finiteness of the set of nearby slopes associated to a given morphism. For the constant sheaf, we prove the vanishing of nearby slopes in case of generalized semi-stable reduction.
Given a smooth projective variety over a perfect field of positive characteristic, we prove that the higher cohomologies vanish for the tensor product of the Witt canonical sheaf and the Teichmuller lift of an ample invertible sheaf. We also give a generalisation of this vanishing theorem to one of Kawamata-Viehweg type.
This paper continues our study of the sheaf associated to Kähler differentials in the cdh-topology and its cousins, in positive characteristic, without assuming resolution of singularities. The picture for the sheaves themselves is now fairly complete. We give a calculation $\mathcal{O}_{cdh}(X) \cong \mathcal{O}(X^{sn})$ in terms of the seminormalisation. We observe that the category of representable cdh-sheaves is equivalent to the category of seminormal varieties. We conclude by proposing some possible connections to Berkovich spaces, and $F$-singularities in the last section. The tools dev…
Let X be a noetherian scheme defined over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic p, and G be a finite group, of order divisible by p, acting on X. We introduce a refinement of the equivariant K-theory of X to take into account the information related to modular representation theory. As an application, in the 1-dimensional case, we generalize a modular Riemann-Roch theorem given by S.Nakajima, extending the link between Galois modules and wild ramification.
This paper is an introduction to the use of perverse sheaves with positive characteristic coefficients in modular representation theory. In the first part, we survey results relating singularities in finite and affine Schubert varieties and nilpotent cones to modular representations of reductive groups and their Weyl groups. The second part is a brief introduction to the theory of perverse sheaves with an emphasis on the case of positive characteristic and integral coefficients. In the final part, we provide some explicit examples of stalks of intersection cohomology complexes with integral or…
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…
On a Weierstraß elliptic surface $X$, we define a `limit' of Bridgeland stability conditions, denoted $Z^l$-stability, by varying the polarisation in the definition of Bridgeland stability along a curve in the ample cone of $X$. We show that a slope stable torsion-free sheaf of positive (twisted) degree or a slope stable locally free sheaf is taken by a Fourier-Mukai transform on $D^b(X)$ to a $Z^l$-stable object, while a $Z^l$-semistable object of nonzero fiber degree can be modified so that its inverse Fourier-Mukai transform is a slope semistable torsion-free sheaf.
We show that the cohomology table of any coherent sheaf on projective space is a convergent--but possibly infinite--sum of positive real multiples of the cohomology tables of what we call supernatural sheaves.
Let $X$ be a smooth variety over an algebraically closed field $k$ of positive characteristic, ${\rm D}_X$ the sheaf of PD-differential operators, and ${\bar D}_X$ its central reduction, the sheaf of small differential operators. In this paper we show that if $X$ is a line-hyperplane incidence variety (a partial flag variety of type $(1,n,n+1)$) or a quadric of arbitrary dimension (in this case the characteristic is supposed to be odd) then ${\rm H}^{i}(X,{\bar D}_X)=0$ for $i>0$. Using this vanishing result and the derived localization theorem for crystalline differential operators (\cite{BMR…
We compute the Donaldson-Thomas invariants for two types of Calabi-Yau 3-folds. These invariants are associated to the moduli spaces of rank-2 Gieseker semistable sheaves. None of the sheaves are locally free, and their double duals are locally free stable sheaves investigated earlier by Donaldson and Thomas, Li and Qin respectively. We show that these Gieseker moduli spaces are isomorphic to some Quot-schemes. We prove a formula for Behrend's functions when torus actions present with positive dimensional fixed point sets, and use it to obtain the generating series of the relevant Donaldson-Th…
This article is based on lectures given by the authors in 2005 and 2006. Our first goal is to present an introduction to the orbit method with an emphasis on the character theory of finite nilpotent groups. The second goal (motivated by a recent work of G. Lusztig) is to explain several nontrivial aspects of character theory for finite groups of the form $G(F_{q^n})$, where $G$ is a unipotent algebraic group over a finite field $F_q$. In particular, we introduce the notion of a character sheaf for a unipotent group, and provide a toy model for the representation-theoretic notion of an L-packet…
Given two positive definite forms f, g in R[x_0,...,x_n], we prove that fg^N is a sum of squares of forms for all sufficiently large N >= 0. We generalize this result to projective R-varieties X as follows. Suppose that X is reduced without one-dimensional irreducible components, and X(R) is Zariski dense in X. Given everywhere positive global sections f of L^{\otimes2} and g of M^{\otimes2}, where L, M are invertible sheaves on X and M is ample, fg^N is a sum of squares of sections of L\otimes M^{\otimes N} for all large N >= 0. In fact we prove a much more general version with semi-algebraic…
We investigate the behaviour of tilting sheaves under pushforward by a finite Galois morphism. We determine conditions under which such a pushforward of a tilting sheaf is a tilting sheaf. We then produce some examples of Severi Brauer flag varieties and arithmetic toric varieties in which our method produces a tilting sheaf, adding to the list of positive results in the literature. We also produce some counterexamples to show that such a pushfoward need not be a tilting sheaf.
We explore the relation between the positive dimensional irreducible components of the characteristic varieties of rank one local systems on a smooth surface and the associated (rational or irrational) pencils. Our study, which may viewed as a continuation of D. Arapura's work, yields new geometric insight into the translated components relating them to the multiplicities of curves in the associated pencil, in a close analogy to the compact situation treated by A. Beauville. The new point of view is the key role played by the constructible sheaves naturally arising from local systems.
Motivated by S-duality modularity conjectures in string theory, we study the Donaldson-Thomas type invariants of pure 2-dimensional sheaves inside a nonsingular threefold X in three different situations: (1). X is a K3 fibration over a curve. We study the Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the 2 dimensional Gieseker stable sheaves in X supported on the fibers. Analogous to the Gromov-Witten theory formula established in the work of Maulik-Pandharipande, we express these invariants in terms of the Euler characteristic of the Hilbert scheme of points on the K3 surface and the Noether-Lefschetz numbe…
Let $M\stackrelπ\arrow X$ be a principal elliptic fibration over a Kaehler base $X$. We assume that the Kaehler form on $X$ is lifted to an exact form on $M$ (such fibrations are called positive). Examples of these are regular Vaisman manifolds (in particular, the regular Hopf manifolds) and Calabi-Eckmann manifolds. Assume that $\dim M > 2$. Using the Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence, we prove that all stable bundles on $M$ are flat on the fibers of the elliptic fibration. This is used to show that all stable vector bundles on $M$ take form $L\otimes π^* B_0$, where $B_0$ is a stable bundle o…
Let $(M,I,J,K)$ be a hyperkaehler manifold, $\dim_\R M =4n$. We study positive, Dolbeault-closed $(2p,0)$-forms on $(M,I)$. These forms are quaternionic analogues of the positive $(p,p)$-forms. We construct an injective homomorphism mapping Dolbeault-closed $(2p,0)$-forms to closed $(n+p,n+p)$-forms, and positive $(2p,0)$-forms to positive $(n+p,n+p)$-forms. This construction is used to prove a hyperkaehler version of the classical Skoda-El Mir theorem, which says that a trivial extension of a closed, positive current over a pluripolar set is again closed. We also prove the hyperkaehler versio…
