We report on the problem of the existence of complex and real algebraic curves in the plane with prescribed singularities up to analytic and topological equivalence. The question is whether, for a given positive integer $d$ and a finite number of given analytic or topological singularity types, there exist a plane (irreducible) curve of degree $d$ having singular points of the given type as its only singularities. The set of all such curves is a quasi-projective variety, which we call an equisingular family (ESF). We describe, in terms of numerical invariants of the curves and their singularities, the state of the art concerning necessary and sufficient conditions for the non-emptiness and $T$-smoothness (i.e., smooth of expected dimension) of the corresponding ESF. The considered singularities can be arbitrary, but we spend special attention to plane curves with nodes and cusps, the most studied case, where still no complete answer is known in general. An important result is, however, that the necessary and the sufficient conditions show the same asymptotics for $T$-smooth equisingular families if the degree goes to infinity.
Let $d,m_1,...,m_r$ be ($r+1$) positive integers, and $P_1,...,P_r$ be $r$ general points in the projective plane ; let $m$ be a positive integer. We prove that there exists a bound $d_0(m)$ such that : If $m_i < m$ ($0<i<r+1$), and $d > d_0(m)$ then the linear system $L$ of plane curves of degree $d$ having a multiplicity at least $m_i$ at each point $P_i$ has the expected dimension ; moreover, if $L$ is not empty, there exists an irreducible plane curve of degree $d$, smooth away from the $r$ points $P_i$, and having an ordinary singularity of the prescribed multiplicity $m_i$ at each point …
The purpose of this paper is to prove the a priori estimates for constant scalar curvature Kaehler metrics with conic singularities along normal crossing divisors. The zero order estimates are proved by a reformulated version of Alexandrov's maximum principle. The higher order estimates follow from Chen-Cheng's frame work, equipped with new techniques to handle the singularities. Finally, we extend these estimates to the twisted equations.
Consider the moduli space of pairs (C,w) where C is a smooth compact complex curve of a given genus and w is a holomorphic 1-form on C with a given list of multiplicities of zeroes. We describe connected components of this space. This classification is important in the study of dynamics of interval exchange transformations and billiards in rational polygons, and in the study of geometry of translation surfaces.
Given a real algebraic variety $X$ of dimension $n$, a very ample divisor $D$ on $X$ and a smooth closed hypersurface $Σ$ of $\mathbf{R}^n$, we construct real algebraic hypersurfaces in the linear system $|mD|$ whose real locus contains many connected components diffeomorphic to $Σ$. As a consequence, we show the existence of real algebraic hypersurfaces in the linear system $|mD|$ whose Betti numbers grow by the maximal order, as $m$ goes to infinity. As another application, we recover a result by D. Gayet on the existence of many disjoint lagrangians with prescribed topology in any smooth co…
Throughout this paper we study the existence of irreducible curves C on smooth projective surfaces S with singular points of prescribed topological types S_1,...,S_r. There are necessary conditions for the existence of the type \sum_{i=1}^r μ(S_i) < aC^2+bC.K+c+1 for some fixed divisor K on S and suitable coefficients a, b and c, and the main sufficient condition that we find is of the same type, saying it is asymptotically optimal. Even for the case where S is the projective plane, ten years ago general results of this quality have not been known. An important ingredient for the proof is a va…
We prove that there exists a>0 such that for any integer d>2 and any topological types S_1,...,S_n of plane curve singularities, satisfying $μ(S_1)+...+μ(S_n) \leq ad^2$, there exists a reduced irreducible plane curve of degree d with exactly n singular points of types S_1,...,S_n, respectively. This estimate is optimal with respect to the exponent of d. In particular, we prove that for any topological type S there exists an irreducible polynomial of degree $d \leq 14\sqrt{μ(S)}$ having a singular point of type S.
In this paper, the notion of local algebraic fundamental groups of normal complex analytic singularities are generalized to certain profinite groups called $D$-local algebraic fundamental groups which turns out to be useful even for the study of usual local algebraic fundamental groups and the Lefshetz type theorem for $D$-local algebraic fundamental groups is proved under certain conditions. The theorem yields, for example, the finiteness of the local algebraic fundamental groups of a certain class of four dimensional singularities and will be useful for the classification of three dimensiona…
We study the topology of some simple infinite dimensional singularities arising from spaces of \emph{algebraic formal loops}. We prove that in some simple cases the natural analogue of nearby cycles cohomology for a function on the loop space vanishes, and show further that a suitably renormalized version of the above cohomology produces a simple (non-zero) result.
The singularities of theta divisors have played an important role in the study of algebraic varieties. This paper surveys some of the recent progress in this subject, using as motivation some well known results, especially those for Jacobians.
The local invariants of a meromorphic Abelian differential on a Riemann surface of genus $g$ are the orders of zeros and poles, and the residues at the poles. The main result of this paper is that with few exceptions, every pattern of orders and residues can be obtain by an Abelian differential. These exceptions are two families in genus zero when the orders of the poles are either all simple or all nonsimple. Moreover, we even show that the pattern can be realized in each connected component of strata. Finally we give consequences of these results in algebraic and flat geometry. The main ingr…
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.
From the degree zero part of logarithmic vector fields along an algebraic hypersurface singularity we indentify the maximal multihomogeneity of a defining equation in form of a maximal algebraic torus in the embedded automorphism group. We show that all such maximal tori are conjugate and in one-to-one correspondence to maxmimal tori in the degree zero jet of the embedded automorphism group. The result is motivated by Kyoji Saito's characterization of quasihomogeneity for isolated hypersurface singularities and extends its formal version and a result of Hauser and Mueller.
We give formulas for the degrees of the spaces of foliations in P2 with a dicritical singularity of prescribed order. Blowing up such singularity induces, generically, a foliation with all but finitely many leaves transversal to the exceptional line; we also find the degree of the locus defined by imposing a leaf of total contact with the exceptional line.
The objective of this paper is to discuss invariants of singularities of algebraic schemes over fields of positive characteristic, and to show how they yield the simplification of singularities. We focus here on invariants which arise in an inductive manner, namely by successive elimination of variables. When applied to hypersurface singularities they lead us to a refinement of the notion of multiplicity. The main theorem proves that, under some numerical conditions expressed by these invariants, singularities can be simplified by blowups at centers prescribed by this refinement.
Thom (residual) polynomials in characteristic classes are used in the analysis of geometry of functional spaces. They serve as a tool in description of classes Poincaré dual to subvarieties of functions of prescribed types. We give explicit universal expressions for residual polynomials in spaces of functions on complex curves having isolated singularities and multisingularities, in terms of few characteristic classes. These expressions lead to a partial explicit description of a stratification of Hurwitz spaces.
In this article, we study the jumping numbers of an ideal in the local ring at rational singularity on a complex algebraic surface. By understanding the contributions of reduced divisors on a fixed resolution, we are able to present an algorithm for finding of the jumping numbers of the ideal. This shows, in particular, how to compute the jumping numbers of a plane curve from the numerical data of its minimal resolution. In addition, the jumping numbers of the maximal ideal at the singular point in a Du Val or toric surface singularity are computed, and applications to the smooth case are expl…
The Green-Griffiths-Lang conjecture says that for every complex projective algebraic variety $X$ of general type there exists a proper algebraic subvariety of $X$ containing all nonconstant entire holomorphic curves $f:\mathbb{C} \to X$. We construct a compactification of the invariant jet differentials bundle over complex manifolds motivated by an algebraic model of Morin singularities and we develop an iterated residue formula using equivariant localisation for tautological integrals over it. We show that the polynomial GGL conjecture for a generic projective hypersurface of degree $\mathrm{…
There is presented a method for computing the algebraic number of cross-cap singularities for mapping from m dimensional compact manifold with boundary M into R^(2m-1), m is odd. As an application, the intersection number of an immersion g from (m-1)-dimensional sphere to R^(2m-2) is described as the algebraic number of cross-caps of a mapping naturally associated with g.
In the present paper MAPLE subroutines computing Milnor and Tyurina numbers of an isolated algebraic hypersurface singularity are presented and described in detail. They represents examples, and perhaps the first ones, of a MAPLE implementation of local monomial ordering. As an application, the last section is devoted to writing down equations of algebraic stratifications of Kuranishi spaces of simple Arnol'd singularities: they geometrically represents, by means of inclusions of algebraic subsets, the partial ordering on classes of simple singularities induced by the adjacency relation.
This is the first of a series of papers studying real algebraic threefolds using the minimal model program. The main results are outlined in Part II. The present part I. contains the necessary preliminary work concerning terminal singularities. First I give standard forms for 3-dimensional terminal singularities over arbitrary fields. This is then used to develop a fairly complete topological classification over the reals.
In the paper "Algebraic classification of rational CR structures on topological 5-sphere with transversal holomorphic S^1-action in C^4" (Yau and Yu, Math. Nachrichten 246-247(2002), 207-233), we give algebraic classification of rational CR structures on the topological 5-sphere with transversal holomorphic S^1-action in C^4. Here, algebraic classification of compact strongly pseudoconvex CR manifolds X means classification up to algebraic equivalence, i.e. roughly up to isomorphism of the normalization of the complex analytic variety V which has X as boundary. The problem is intimately relate…
We produce examples of complex algebraic surfaces with isolated singularities such that these singularities are not metrically conic, i.e. the germs of the surfaces near singular points are not bi-Lipschitz equivalent, with respect to the inner metric, to cones. The technique used to prove the nonexistence of the metric conic structure is related to a development of Metric Homology. The class of the examples is rather large and it includes some surfaces of Brieskorn.
In this paper we study a notion of volume for Cartier divisors on arbitrary blow-ups of normal complex algebraic varieties of dimension greater than one, with a distinguished point. We apply this to study a volume for normal isolated singularities, generalizing work on surfaces done by Wahl. We also compare this volume of isolated singularities to a different generalization due to Boucksom, de Fernex and Favre.
In the 1970s O. Zariski introduced a general theory of equisingularity for algebroid and algebraic hypersurfaces over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. His theory builds up on understanding the dimensionality type of hypersurface singularities, notion defined recursively by considering the discriminants loci of successive "generic" corank 1 projections. The theory of singularities of dimensionality type 1, that is the ones appearing generically in codimension 1, was developed by Zariski in his foundational papers on equisingular families of plane curve singularities. In thi…
Let $C$ be a generic complex plane plane curve with a given Newton polygon $P$. We compute the number of its inflection points and bitangents (equivalently, the number of singularities of the projectively dual curve $C^\vee$). We also prove that $C^\vee$ has no singularities other than nodes and cusps for large enough polygons $P$.
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…
We compute the $δ$-invariant of a curve singularity parameterized by generic sparse polynomials. We apply this to describe topological types of generic singularities of sparse resultants and ``algebraic knot diagrams'' (i.e. generic algebraic spatial curve projections). Our approach is based on some new results on zero loci of Schur polynomials, on transversality properties of maps defined by sparse polynomials, and on a new refinement of the notion of tropicalization of a curve (ultratropicalization), which may be of independent interest.
Let (X, ω) be an affine symplectic variety. Assume that X has a C^*-action with positive weights and ωis homogeneous with respect to the C^*-action. We prove that the algebraic fundamental group of the smooth locus X_{reg} is finite. This is a collorary to a more general theorem: If an affine variety X has a C^*action with positive weights and the log pair (X, 0) has klt singularities, then the algebraic fundamental group of X_{reg} is finite.
We survey some recent progress in the study of algebraic varieties X with log terminal singularities, especially, the uni-ruledness of the smooth locus X^0 of X, the fundamental group of X^0 and the automorphisms group on (smooth or singular) X when dim X = 2. The full automorphism groups of a few interesting types of K3 surfaces are described, mainly by Keum-Kondo. We conjecture that when X is Q-Fano then X^0 has a finite fundamental group, which had been proved if either dim X < 3 or the Fano index is bigger than dim X - 2. We also conjecture that when X is a log Enriques (e.g. a normal K3 o…
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 will describe a combinatorial game that models the problem of resolution of singularities of algebraic varieties over a field of characteristic zero. By giving a winning strategy for this game, we give another proof of the existence of resolution.
We show that the zero locus of a normal function on a smooth complex algebraic variety S is algebraic provided that the normal function extends to a admissible normal function on a smooth compactification of S with torsion singularity. This result generalizes our previous result for admissible normal functions on curves [arxiv:math/0604345 [math.AG]]. It has also been obtained by M. Saito using a different method in a recent preprint [arXiv:0803.2771v2].
We give an overview of invariants of algebraic singularities over perfect fields. We then show how they lead to a synthetic proof of embedded resolution of singularities of 2-dimensional schemes.
The decomposition of a two dimensional complex germ with non-isolated singularity into semi-algebraic sets is given. This decomposition consists of four classes: Riemannian cones defined over a Seifert fibered manifold, a topological cone over thickened tori endowed with Cheeger-Nagase metric, a topological cone over mapping torus endowed with Hsiang-Pati metric and a topological cone over the tubular neighbourhoods of the link's singularities. In this decomposition there exist semi-algebraic sets that are metrically conical over the manifolds constituting the link. The germ is reconstituted u…
A generalised Thurston-Bennequin invariant for a Q-singularity of a real algebraic variety is defined as a linking form on the homologies of the real link of the singularity. The main goal of this paper is to present a method to calculate the linking form in terms of the very good resolution graph of a real normal unibranch surface singularity. For such singularities, the value of the linking form is the Thurston-Bennequin number of the real link of the singularity. As a special case of unibranch surface singularities, the behaviour of the linking form is investigated on the Brieskorn double p…
We construct a moduli scheme for semistable pre-$\D$-modules with prescribed singularities and numerical data on a smooth projective variety. These pre-$\D$-modules are to be viewed as regular holonomic $\D$-modules with `level structure'. We also construct a moduli scheme for perverse sheaves on the variety with prescribed singularities and other numerical data, and represent the de Rham functor (which gives the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence) by an analytic morphism between the two moduli schemes.
Let $Y$ be a generic link of a subvariety $X$ of a nonsingular variety $A$. We give a description of the Grauert-Riemenschneider canonical sheaf of $Y$ in terms of the multiplier ideal sheaves associated to $X$ and use it to study the singularities of $Y$. As the first application, we give a criterion when $Y$ has rational singularities and show that log canonical threshold increases and log canonical pairs are preserved in generic linkage. As another application we give a quick and simple liaison method to generalize the results of de Fernex-Ein and Chardin-Ulrich on the Castelnuovo-Mumford r…
In this short note, by combining the work of Amiot-Iyama-Reiten and Thanhoffer de Volcsey-Van den Bergh on Cohen-Macaulay modules with the previous work of the author on orbit categories, we compute the (nonconnective) algebraic K-theory with coefficients of cyclic quotient singularities.
Reconstructing real algebraic maps locally like moment-maps with prescribed images and compositions with the canonical projections to the $1$-dimensional real affine space
In our preprint: "Algebraic surfaces with log-terminal singularities and nef anticanonical class and reflection groups in Lobachevsky spaces", Preprint Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik, Bonn, (1989) MPI/89-28 (Russian), we had extended the diagram method to algebraic surfaces with nef anticanonical class (before, it was applied to Del Pezzo surfaces). The main problem here is that Mori polyhedron may not be finite polyhedral in this case. In the §4 of this preprint we had shown that this method does work for algebraic surfaces with nef anticanonical class and log terminal singularities. Rece…
There exists a well established differential topological theory of singularities of ordinary differential equations. It has mainly studied scalar equations of low order. We propose an extension of the key concepts to arbitrary systems of ordinary or partial differential equations. Furthermore, we show how a combination of this geometric theory with (differential) algebraic tools allows us to make parts of the theory algorithmic. Our three main results are firstly a proof that even in the case of partial differential equations regular points are generic. Secondly, we present an algorithm for th…
Let $X$ be an algebraic variety with Gorenstein singularities. We define the notion of a wonderful resolution of singularities of $X$ by analogy with the theory of wonderful compactifications of semi-simple linear algebraic groups. We prove that if $X$ has rational singularities and has a wonderful resolution of singularities, then $X$ admits a categorical crepant resolution of singularities. As an immediate corollary, we get that all determinantal varieties defined by the minors of a generic square/symmetric/skew-symmetric matrix admit categorical crepant resolution of singularities. We also …
We establish a new fundamental class of varieties in nonnoetherian algebraic geometry related to the central geometry of dimer algebras. Specifically, given an affine algebraic variety $X$ and a finite collection of non-intersecting positive dimensional algebraic sets $Y_i \subset X$, we construct a nonnoetherian coordinate ring whose variety coincides with $X$ except that each $Y_i$ is identified as a distinct positive dimensional closed point. We then show that the noncommutative blowup of such a singularity is a noncommutative desingularization, in a suitable geometric sense.
The Arnold inequalities characterizing the topology of non-singular plane real algebraic curves and the generalization of these inequalities for nodal curves by Viro are extended in this paper for the curves whose singularities have non-degenerated Milnor form. This involves an invariant of such real singularities, the real linking form, which is calculated.
We study local, global and local-to-global properties of threefolds with certain singularities. We prove criteria for these threefolds to be rational homology manifolds and conditions for threefolds to satisfy rational Poincaré duality. We relate the topological Euler characteristic of elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds with $\mathbb Q$-factorial terminal singularities to dimensions of Lie algebras and certain representations, Milnor and Tyurina numbers and other birational invariants of an elliptic fibration. We give an interpretation in terms of complex deformations. We state a conjecture on the…
Thom polynomials measure how global topology forces singularities. The power of Thom polynomials predestine them to be a useful tool not only in differential topology, but also in algebraic geometry (enumerative geometry, moduli spaces) and algebraic combinatorics. The main obstacle of their widespread application is that only a few, sporadic Thom polynomials have been known explicitly. In this paper we develop a general method for calculating Thom polynomials of contact singularities. Along the way, relations with the equivariant geometry of (punctual, local) Hilbert schemes, and with iterate…
In this writing we shall address certain beautiful inter-relations between the construction of 4-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and resolution of algebraic singularities, from the perspective of String Theory. We review in some detail the requisite background in both the mathematics, such as orbifolds, symplectic quotients and quiver representations, as well as the physics, such as gauged linear sigma models, geometrical engineering, Hanany-Witten setups and D-brane probes. We investigate aspects of world-volume gauge dynamics using D-brane resolutions of various Calabi-Yau singular…
