The geometric monodromy of a plane curve singularity is a quasi-finite diffeomorphism. In this paper we locate the reduction curves of the geometric monodromy and the quadratic vanishing cycles of the singularity. An application to the geometric monodromy group is given.
For isolated complex hypersurface singularities with real defining equation we show the existence of a monodromy vector field such that complex conjugation intertwines the local monodromy diffeomorphism with its inverse. In particular, it follows that the geometric monodromy is the composition of the involution induced by complex conjugation and another involution. This topological property holds for all isolated complex plane curve singularities. Using real morsifications, we compute the action of complex conjugation and of the other involution on the Milnor fiber of real plane curve singular…
Given an ample line bundle on a toric surface, a question of Donaldson asks which simple closed curves can be vanishing cycles for nodal degenerations of smooth curves in the complete linear system. This paper provides a complete answer. This is accomplished by reformulating the problem in terms of the mapping class group-valued monodromy of the linear system, and giving a precise determination of this monodromy group.
A boundary singularity is a singularity of a function on a manifold with boundary. The simple and unimodal boundary singularities were classified by V. I. Arnold and V. I. Matov. The McKay correspondence can be generalized to the simple boundary singularities. We consider the monodromy of the simple, parabolic, and exceptional unimodal boundary singularities. We show that the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy is related to the Poincaré series of the coordinate algebra of the ambient singularity.
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.
We introduce braid monodromy for the discriminant hypersurface in versal unfoldings of hypersurface singularities. Our objective is then to compute this invariant for singularities of Brieskorn Pham type: First we consider the unfolding by linear monomials in some detail and relate it to the versal unfolding. Next we present the A_n case in our framework. The two main chapters then provide the result in case of two variables and the inductive step to all higher dimensions. We finish with a presentation of the fundamental group of the discriminant complement.
This paper is a sequel to [He7]. There a notion of marking of isolated hypersurface singularities was defined, and a moduli space $M_μ^{mar}$ for marked singularities in one $μ$-homotopy class of isolated hypersurface singularities was established. One can consider it as a global $μ$-constant stratum or as a Teichmüller space for singularities. It comes together with a $μ$-constant monodromy group $G^{mar}\subset G_Z$. Here $G_Z$ is the group of automorphisms of a Milnor lattice which respect the Seifert form. It was conjectured that $M_μ^{mar}$ is connected. This is equivalent to $G^{mar}= G_…
mu-constant families of holomorphic function germs with isolated singularities are considered from a global perspective. First, a monodromy group from all families which contain a fixed singularity is studied. It consists of automorphisms of the Milnor lattice which respect not only the intersection form, but also the Seifert form and the monodromy. We conjecture that it contains all such automorphisms, modulo {id,-id}. Second, marked singularities are defined and global moduli spaces for right equivalence classes of them are established. The conjecture on the group would imply that these modu…
We study the topology of polynomial functions by deforming them generically. We explain how the non-conservation of the total ``quantity'' of singularity in the neighbourhood of infinity is related to the variation of topology in certain families of boundary singularities along the hyperplane at infinity.
The middle homology of the Milnor fiber of a quasihomogeneous polynomial with an isolated singularity is a ${\mathbb Z}$-lattice and comes equipped with an automorphism of finite order, the integral monodromy. Orlik (1972) made a precise conjecture, which would determine this monodromy in terms of the weights of the polynomial. Here we prove this conjecture for the cycle type singularities. A paper of Cooper (1982) with the same aim contained two mistakes. Still it is very useful. We build on it and correct the mistakes. We give additional algebraic and combinatorial results.
The monodromy conjecture is an umbrella term for several conjectured relationships between poles of zeta functions, monodromy eigenvalues and roots of Bernstein-Sato polynomials in arithmetic geometry and singularity theory. Even the weakest of these relations -- the Denef--Loeser conjecture on topological zeta functions -- is open for surface singularities. We prove it for a wide class of multidimensional singularities that are non-degenerate with respect to their Newton polyhedra, including all such singularities of functions of four variables. A crucial difference from the known case of thr…
In the geometric situation of the simple Shimura varieties of Kottwitz studied in Harris and Taylor's book, we describe the monodromy filtration of the vanishing cycles complex and the spectral sequence associated to it. We prove in particular that this filtration coincides with the weight one up to shift. Thanks to the Berkovich-Fargues' theorem, we deduce the description of the local monodromy filtration of the Deligne-Carayol model. In application, we obtain the description of the local components of cohomological automorphic representations of certains unitary groups, a global Jacquet-Lang…
The integral monodromy on the Milnor lattice of an isolated quasihomogeneous singularity is subject of an almost untouched conjecture of Orlik from 1972. We prove this conjecture for all iterated Thom-Sebastiani sums of chain type singularities and cycle type singularities. The main part of the paper is purely algebraic. It provides tools for dealing with sums and tensor products of ${\mathbb Z}$-lattices with automorphisms of finite order and with cyclic generators. The calculations are involved. They use fine properties of unit roots, cyclotomic polynomials, their resultants and discriminant…
We generalize the Moishezon Teicher algorithm that was suggested for the computation of the braid monodromy of an almost real curve. The new algorithm suits a larger family of curves, and enables the computation of braid monodromy not only of caspidal curves, but of general algebraic curves, with some non simple singularities. Moreover, it works also when in the fiber the curve admits any number of imaginary points. We also provide two examples of how to use the generalized algorithm.
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…
This paper is a sequel to [He11] and [GH17]. In [He11] a notion of marking of isolated hypersurface singularities was defined, and a moduli space $M_μ^{mar}$ for marked singularities in one $μ$-homotopy class of isolated hypersurface singularities was established. It is an analogue of a Teichmüller space. It comes together with a $μ$-constant monodromy group $G^{mar}\subset G_{\mathbb{Z}}$. Here $G_{\mathbb{Z}}$ is the group of automorphisms of a Milnor lattice which respect the Seifert form. It was conjectured that $M_μ^{mar}$ is connected. This is equivalent to $G^{mar}= G_{\mathbb{Z}}$. Als…
Let f be an isolated plane curve singularity with Milnor fiber of genus at least 5. For all such f, we give (a) an intrinsic description of the geometric monodromy group that does not invoke the notion of the versal deformation space, and (b) an easy criterion to decide if a given simple closed curve in the Milnor fiber is a vanishing cycle or not. With the lone exception of singularities of type $A_n$ and $D_n$, we find that both are determined completely by a canonical framing of the Milnor fiber induced by the Hamiltonian vector field associated to f. As a corollary we answer a question of …
In 2011 Lemahieu and Van Proeyen proved the Monodromy Conjecture for the local topological zeta function of a non-degenerated surface singularity. We start from their work and obtain the same result for Igusa's p-adic and the motivic zeta function. In the p-adic case, this is, for a polynomial f in Z[x,y,z] satisfying f(0,0,0)=0 and non-degenerated with respect to its Newton polyhedron, we show that every pole of the local p-adic zeta function of f induces an eigenvalue of the local monodromy of f at some point of the complex zero locus of f close to the origin. Essentially the entire paper is…
We compute the monodromy of the Hitchin fibration for the moduli space of $L$-twisted $SL(n,\mathbb{C})$ and $GL(n,\mathbb{C})$-Higgs bundles for any $n$, on a compact Riemann surface of genus $g>1$. We require the line bundle $L$ to either be the canonical bundle or satisfy $deg(L) > 2g-2$. The monodromy group is generated by Picard-Lefschetz transformations associated to vanishing cycles of singular spectral curves. We construct such vanishing cycles explicitly and use this to show that the $SL(n,\mathbb{C})$ monodromy group is a {\em skew-symmetric vanishing lattice} in the sense of Janssen…
A problem list in singularity theory. Most of these problems are related with the algorithmic enumeration of possible topological types of non-discriminant Morsifications of real function singularities, and/or with the Picard--Lefschetz theory.
We give sufficient conditions, on data including the monodromy representation, the Stokes matrices and the Poincare ranks at prescribed singularities, to solve the generalized Riemann-Hilbert problem with irregular singularities. We recover in particular the irreducibility condition on the monodromy given by Bolibrukh and Kostov in the classical case. We apply the above criteria to solve the inverse problem in differential Galois theory with a better control of the singularities.
We give a topological model for a polynomial map from $\C^n$ to $\C$ in the neighborhood of a fiber with isolated singularities. This is motivated out of the ``unfolding of links'' described earlier by the first author and Lee Rudolph. The topological model gives a useful encoding of the local and global monodromy for the map. The new ingredients --- the topology of the singularities at infinity of an irregular fiber, as encoded by the Milnor fibers at infinity and the monodromy maps on these Milnor fibers --- are recoverable for n=2 in full from the link at infinity of the irregular fiber. Th…
Let K be a complete discrete valuation field of mixed characteristic (0,p) with algebraically closed residue field, and let f: Y --> P^1 be a three-point G-cover defined over K, where G has a cyclic p-Sylow subgroup P. We examine the stable model of f, in particular, the minimal extension K^{st}/K such that the stable model is defined over K^{st}. Our main result is that, if g(Y) \geq 2, the ramification indices of f are prime to p, and |P| = p^n, then the p-Sylow subgroup of Gal(K^{st}/K) has exponent dividing p^{n-1}. This extends work of Raynaud in the case that |P| = p.
We show that the monodromy operator at infinity plus the decomposition of the homology given by the vanishing cycles completely determine the homology monodromy representation of any complex polynomial.
In this article, we consider the singularity of an arbitrary homogeneous polynomial with complex coefficients $f(x_0,\dots,x_n)$ at the origin of $\mathbb C^{n+1}$, via the study of the monodromy characteristic polynomials $Δ_l(t)$, and the relation between the monodromy zeta function and the Hodge spectrum of the singularity. We go further with $Δ_1(t)$ in the case $n=2$. This work is based on knowledge of multiplier ideals and local systems.
The volume function defined by a domain in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$ is the function on the space of affine hyperplanes equal to volumes cut by these hyperplanes from the domain. The study of these functions originates from the works of Archimedes and Newton and is closely related to the theory of lacunas of hyperbolic partial differential equations.The volume functions are regular at the hyperplanes of general position with respect to the boundary of the cut domain. We study their behavior at the non-regular hyperplanes, which are either tangent to the boundary of the domain at its finit…
We study the vanishing neighbourhood of non-isolated singularities of functions on singular spaces by associating a general linear function. We use the carrousel monodromy in order to show how to get a better control over the attaching of thimbles. For one dimensional singularities, we prove obstructions to integer (co)homology groups and to the eigenspaces of the monodromy via monodromies of nearby sections. Our standpoint allows to find, in certain cases, the structure of the Milnor fibre up to the homotopy type.
We introduce and study the vanishing homology of singular projective hypersurfaces. We prove its concentration in two levels in case of 1-dimensional singular locus $Σ$, and moreover determine the ranks of the nontrivial homology groups. These two groups depend on the monodromy at special points of $Σ$ and on the effect of the monodromy of the local system over its complement.
Given a singular surface X, one can extract information on it by investigating the fundamental group $π_1(X - Sing_X)$. However, calculation of this group is non-trivial, but it can be simplified if a certain invariant of the branch curve of X - called the braid monodromy factorization - is known. This paper shows, taking the Cayley cubic as an example, how this fundamental group can be computed by using braid monodromy techniques and their liftings. This is one of the first examples that uses these techniques to calculate this sort of fundamental group.
We prove that a variation of graded-polarizable mixed Hodge structure over a punctured disk with unipotent monodromy, has a limiting mixed Hodge structure at the puncture (i.e., it is admissible in the sense of [SZ]) which splits over $\R$, if and only if certain grading of the complexified weight filtration, depending smoothly on the Hodge filtration, extends across the puncture. In particular, the result exactly supplements Schmid's Theorem for pure structures, which holds for the graded variation, and gives a Hodge-theoretic condition for the relative monodromy weight filtration to exist.
We resume the study initiated in \cite{CL}. For a generic curve $C$ in an ample linear system $\vert \mathcal{L} \vert$ on a toric surface $X$, a vanishing cycle of $C$ is an isotopy class of simple closed curve that can be contracted to a point along a degeneration of $C$ to a nodal curve in $\vert \mathcal{L} \vert$. The obstructions that prevent a simple closed curve in $C$ from being a vanishing cycle are encoded by the adjoint line bundle $K_X \otimes \mathcal{L}$. In this paper, we consider the linear systems carrying the two simplest types of obstruction. Geometrically, these obstructio…
In 1982, Yano proposed a conjecture predicting the $b$-exponents of an irreducible plane curve singularity which is generic in its equisingularity class. In this article we prove the conjecture for the case of two Puiseux pairs and monodromy with distinct eigenvalues. The hypothesis on the monodromy implies that the $b$-exponents coincide with the opposite of the roots of the Bernstein polynomial, and we compute the roots of the Bernstein polynomial.
The holomorphy conjecture states roughly that Igusa's zeta function associated to a hypersurface and a character is holomorphic on $\mathbb{C}$ whenever the order of the character does not divide the order of any eigenvalue of the local monodromy of the hypersurface. In this article we prove the holomorphy conjecture for surface singularities which are nondegenerate over $\mathbb{C}$ with respect to their Newton polyhedron. In order to provide relevant eigenvalues of monodromy, we first show a relation between the normalized volume (which appears in the formula of Varchenko for the zeta functi…
Consider the gradient map associated to any non-constant homogeneous polynomial $f\in \C[x_0,...,x_n]$ of degree $d$, defined by \[ϕ_f=grad(f): D(f)\to \CP^n, (x_0:...:x_n)\to (f_0(x):...:f_n(x))\] where $D(f)=\{x\in \CP^n; f(x)\neq 0\}$ is the principal open set associated to $f$ and $f_i=\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}$. This map corresponds to polar Cremona transformations. In Proposition \ref{p1} we give a new lower bound for the degree $d(f)$ of $ϕ_f$ under the assumption that the projective hypersurface $V:f=0 $ has only isolated singularities. When $d(f)=1$, Theorem \ref{t4} yields very…
We study the Dynkin diagram associated to the monodromy of direct sums of polynomials. The monodromy problem asks under which conditions on a polynomial, the monodromy of a vanishing cycle generates the whole homology of a regular fiber. We consider the case $y^4+g(x)$, which is a generalization of the results of Christopher and Marde$\check{s}$ić about the monodromy problem for hyperelliptic curves. Moreover, We solve the monodromy problem for direct sums of fourth degree polynomials.
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 extend the results from the previous paper by A. Frühbis-Krüger and the author [arXiv:1501.01915] to the vanishing topology of those singularities in the title. Studying the case of possibly non-isolated singularities in the Tjurina- transform, we reveal that in dimension 3 and 2 there always is exactly one special vanishing cycle in degree 2 closely related to the determinantal structure of the singularity.
We study topological zeta functions of complex plane curve singularities using toric modifications and further developments. As applications of the research method, we prove that the topological zeta function is a topological invariant for complex plane curve singularities, we give a short and new proof of the monodromy conjecture for plane curves.
In the author's paper ''Poincaré series and monodromy of a two-dimensional quasihomogeneous hypersurface singularity'' a relation is proved between the Poincaré series of the coordinate algebra of a two-dimensional quasihomogeneous isolated hypersurface singularity and the characteristic polynomial of its monodromy operator. We study this relation for Fuchsian singularities and show that it is connected with the mirror symmetry of K3 surfaces and with automorphisms of the Leech lattice. We also indicate relations between other singularities and Conway's group.
Isolated Cohen-Macaulay codimension 2 singularities share many common features with isolated complete intersection singularities, but they also exhibit some striking new behaviour. One such instance was recently observed by Damon and Pike in their study of the vanishing topology and Euler characteristic, where they took this class of singularities as examples. In this article, we explore their findings further by determining the Betti numbers explicitly and explain the new phenomena. An important tool here is the Tjurina modification relating a Cohen-Macaulay codimension 2 singularity to a fin…
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 …
We obtain sufficient conditions for the vanishing of higher homotopy groups of the complements to hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb C}^n$ in terms of the behavior at infinity and relate the monodromy of non isolated singularities to the position of singularities in generic plane sections.
In the paper we show that for a normal-crossings degeneration $Z$ over the ring of integers of a local field with $X$ as generic fibre, the local monodromy operator and its powers determine invariant cocycle classes under the decomposition group in the cohomology of the product $X \times X$. More precisely, they also define algebraic cycles on the special fibre of a resolution of $Z \times Z$. In the paper, we give an explicit description of these cycles for a degeneration with at worst triple points as singularities. These cycles explain geometrically the presence of poles on specific local f…
For a weighted quasihomogeneous two dimensional hypersurface singularity, we define a smoothing with unipotent monodromy and an isolated graded normal singularity. We study the natural weighted blow up of both the smoothing and the surface. In particular, we describe our construction for the quasihomogeneous singularities of type I, the 14 unimodal exceptional singularities and we relate it to their stable replacement.
A cusp singularity is a surface singularity whose minimal resolution is a cycle of smooth rational curves meeting transversely. Cusp singularities come in naturally dual pairs. Looijenga proved in 1981 that if a cusp singularity is smoothable, the minimal resolution of the dual cusp is the anticanonical divisor of some smooth rational surface. In 1983, the second author and Miranda gave a criterion for smoothability of a cusp singularity, in terms of the existence of a K-trivial semistable model for the central fiber of such a smoothing. We study these "Type III degenerations" of rational surf…