We express the Lefschetz number of iterates of the monodromy of a function on a smooth complex algebraic variety in terms of the Euler characteristic of a space of truncated arcs.
The monodromy action in the homology (generally with twisted coefficients) of complements of stratified complex analytic varieties depending on parameters is studied. For a wide class of local degenerations of such families (stratified Morse singularities) local monodromy and variation operators are reduced to similar operators acting in the transversal slices of corresponding strata. In particular, these results imply a main part of F. Pham's generalized Picard--Lefschetz formulae.
We study the topology of the space of affine hyperplanes $L \subset \CC^n$ which are in general position with respect to a given generic quadratic hypersurface $A$, and calculate the monodromy action of the fundamental group of this space on the relative homology groups $H_*(\CC^n, A \cup L)$ associated with such hyperplanes.
Let $f$ and $g$ be reduced homogeneous polynomials in separate sets of variables. We establish a simple formula that relates the eigenspace decomposition of the monodromy operator on the Milnor fiber cohomology of $fg$ to that of $f$ and $g$ separately. We use a relation between local systems and Milnor fiber cohomology that has been established by D. Cohen and A. Suciu.
We give a new proof - not using resolution of singularities - of a formula of Denef and the second author expressing the Lefschetz number of iterates of the monodromy of a function on a smooth complex algebraic variety in terms of the Euler characteristic of a space of truncated arcs. Our proof uses l-adic cohomology of non-archimedean spaces, motivic integration and the Lefschetz fixed point formula for finite order automorphisms. We also consider a generalization due to Nicaise and Sebag and at the end of the paper we discuss connections with the motivic Serre invariant and the motivic Milno…
We elaborate notions of integration over the space of arcs factorized by the natural $C^*$-action and over the space of non-parametrized arcs (branches). There are offered two motivic versions of the zeta function of the classical monodromy transformation of a germ of an analytic function on a smooth space. We indicate a direct formula which connects the naive motivic zeta function of J. Denef and F. Loeser with the classical monodromy zeta function.
We give a survey on some aspects of the topological investigation of isolated singularities of complex hypersurfaces by means of Picard-Lefschetz theory. We focus on the concept of distinguished bases of vanishing cycles and the concept of monodromy.
A conjecture of Kato says that the monodromy operator on the cohomology of a semi-stable degeneration of projective varieties is represented by an algebraic cycle on the special fiber of a normal crossing model of the fiber product degeneration. We prove this conjecture in the simple case of a semi-stable degeneration arising from a Lefschetz fibration.
Kodaira's classification of singular fibers in elliptic fibrations and its translation into the language of monodromies and Lefschetz fibrations has been a boon to the study of 4-manifolds. In this article, we begin the work of translating between singular fibers of genus 2 families of algebraic curves and the positive Dehn twist factorizations of Lefschetz fibrations for a certain subset of the singularities described by Namikawa and Ueno in the 70s. We look at four families of hypersurface singularities in $\mathbb{C}^3$. Each hypersurface comes equipped with a fibration by genus 2 algebraic…
Let $(X,x)$ be an isolated complete intersection singularity and let $f : (X,x) \to (\CC,0)$ be the germ of an analytic function with an isolated singularity at $x$. An important topological invariant in this situation is the Picard-Lefschetz monodromy operator associated to $f$. We give a survey on what is known about this operator. In particular, we review methods of computation of the monodromy and its eigenvalues (zeta function), results on the Jordan normal form of it, definition and properties of the spectrum, and the relation between the monodromy and the topology of the singularity.
Earlier the authors offered an equivariant version of the classical monodromy zeta function of a G-invariant function germ with a finite group G as a power series with the coefficients from the Burnside ring of the group G tensored by the field of rational numbers. One of the main ingredients of the definition was the definition of the equivariant Lefschetz number of a G-equivariant transformation given by W.Lück and J.Rosenberg. Here we offer another approach to a definition of the equivariant Lefschetz number of a transformation and describe the corresponding notions of the equivariant zeta …
Every compact symplectic 4-manifold can be realized as a branched cover of the complex projective plane branched along a symplectic curve with cusp and node singularities; the covering map is induced by a triple of sections of a "very ample" line bundle. In this paper, we give an explicit formula describing the behavior of the braid monodromy invariants of the branch curve upon degree doubling of the linear system (from a very ample bundle $L^k$ to $L^{2k}$). As a consequence, we derive a similar degree doubling formula for the mapping class group monodromy of Donaldson's symplectic Lefschetz …
We offer an equivariant version of the classical monodromy zeta function of a singularity as a series with coefficients from the Grothendieck ring of finite G-sets tensored by the field of rational numbers. Main two ingredients of the definition are equivariant Lefschetz numbers and the lambda-structure on the Grothendieck ring of finite G-sets. We give an A'Campo type formula for the equivariant zeta function.
This paper is a survey of the authors' recent results on "abc-surfaces" and the monodromy of their natural Lefschetz fibrations and projections to P^1 x P^1, see (arXiv:0910.2142). The results being surveyed explore various fundamental questions about complex deformation vs. symplectomorphism vs. diffeomorphism from the perspective of one explicit family of examples; the paper also contains some remarks which were not in earlier papers.
The main objective of this article is to study the topology of the fibers of a generic rational function of the type $F^p/G^q$ in the projective space of dimension two. We will prove that the action of the monodromy group on a single Lefschetz vanishing cycle $δ$ generates the first homology group of a generic fiber of $F^p/G^q$. In particular, we will prove that for any two Lefschetz vanishing cycles $δ_0$ and $δ_1$ in a regular compact fiber of $F^p/G^q$, there exists a monodromy $h$ such that $h(δ_0)=\pm δ_1$.
We show that a family of isolated complete intersection singularities (ICIS) with constant total Milnor number has no coalescence of singularities. This extends a well known result of Gabrielov, Lazzeri and Lê for hypersurfaces. We use A'Campo's theorem to see that the Lefschetz number of the generic monodromy of the ICIS is zero when the ICIS is singular. We give a pair applications for families of functions on ICIS which extend also some known results for functions on a smooth variety.
Let $Y$ be a smooth complex projective variety of dimension $N+1$, $L$ an invertible sufficiently ample sheaf, $X\in |L|$ a smooth hypersurface and $λ\in F^kH^N(X,C)$ a vanishing cohomology class, where $F^{*}$ is the Hodge filtration and $k\in\{1,...,[N/2]\}$. Assume that $L$ is sufficiently ample and that the codimension in $|L|$ of the Hodge variety associated to $λ$ (locally defined as the locus where the image of $λ$ by flat transport over $|L|$ remains in $F^k$) is sufficiently small. I show that this forces $N$ to be even and $k=[N/2]$, and that the class $λ$ is a linear combination wit…
We study the vanishing cycle complex $φ_fA_X$ for a holomorphic function $f$ on a reduced complex analytic space $X$ with $A$ a Dedekind domain (for instance, a localization of the ring of integers of a cyclotomic field, where the monodromy eigenvalue decomposition may hold after a localization of $A$). Assuming the perversity of the shifted constant sheaf $A_X[d_X]$, we show that the lowest possibly-non-zero vanishing cohomology at $0\in X$ can be calculated by the restriction of $φ_fA_X$ to an appropriate nearby curve in the singular locus $Y$ of $f$, which is given by intersecting $Y$ with …