In this paper, we address the following two general problems: given two algebraic varieties in ${\bf C}^n$, find out whether or not they are (1) isomorphic; (2) equivalent under an automorphism of ${\bf C}^n$. Although a complete solution of either of these problems is out of the question at this time, we give here some handy and useful invariants of isomorphic as well as of equivalent varieties. Furthermore, and more importantly, we give a universal procedure for obtaining all possible algebraic varieties isomorphic to a given one, and use it to construct numerous examples of isomorphic, but inequivalent algebraic varieties in ${\bf C}^n$.
Among other things, we establish the following interesting fact: for isomorphic hypersurfaces $\{p(x_1,...,x_n)=0\}$ and $\{q(x_1,...,x_n)=0\}$, the number of zeros of $grad(p)$ might be different from that of $grad(q)$.
We find polyhedral divisors corresponding to the torus action of complexity one on affine trinomial hypersurfaces. Explicit computations for particular classes of such hypersurfaces including Pham-Brieskorn surfaces and rational trinomial hypersurfaces are given.
We study a kind of modification of an affine domain which produces another affine domain. First appeared in passing in the basic paper of O. Zariski (1942), it was further considered by E.D. Davis (1967). The first named author applied its geometric counterpart to construct contractible smooth affine varieties non-isomorphic to Euclidean spaces. Here we provide certain conditions which guarantee preservation of the topology under a modification. As an application, we show that the group of biregular automorphisms of the affine hypersurface $X \subset C^{k+2}$ given by the equation $uv=p(x_1,..…
We calculate the period integrals for a special class of affine hypersurfaces (deformed Delsarte hypersurfaces) in an algebraic torus by the aid of their Mellin transforms. A description of the relation between poles of Mellin transforms of period integrals and the mixed Hodge structure of the cohomology of the hypersurface is given. By interpreting the period integrals as solutions to Pochhammer hypergeometric differential equation, we calculate concretely the irreducible monodromy group of period integrals that correspond to the compactification of the affine hypersurface in a complete simpl…
We describe a method to construct hypersurfaces of the complex affine $n$-space with isomorphic $\mathbb{C}^*$-cylinders. Among these hypersurfaces, we find new explicit counterexamples to the Laurent Cancellation Problem, i.e. hypersurfaces that are non isomorphic, although their $\mathbb{C}^*$-cylinders are isomorphic as abstract algebraic varieties. We also provide examples of non isomorphic varieties $X$ and $Y$ with isomorphic cartesian squares $X\times X$ and $Y\times Y$.
Trinomial varieties are affine varieties given by some special system of equations consisting of polynomials with three terms. Such varieties are total coordinate spaces of normal rational varieties with torus action of complexity one. For an affine variety X we consider the subgroup SAut(X) of the automorphism group generated by all algebraic subgroups isomorphic to the additive group of the ground field. An affine variety X is rigid if SAut(X) is trivial. In opposite an affine variety is flexible if SAut(X) acts transitively on the regular locus. Arzhantsev proved a criterium for a factorial…
We obtain sharp estimates on the connectivity of complex affine hypersurfaces in terms of the decomposition of the defining equation as a sum of weighted homogeneous components relative to some weight system.
We prove that every biregular automorphism of the affine algebraic variety ${\mathbb P}^M\setminus S$, $M\geqslant 3$, where $S\subset {\mathbb P}^M$ is a hypersurface of degree $m\geqslant M+1$ with a unique singular point of multiplicity $(m-1)$, resolved by one blow up, is a restriction of some automorphism of the projective space ${\mathbb P}^M$, preserving the hypersurface $S$; in particular, for a general hypersurface $S$ the group $\mathop{\rm Aut} ({\mathbb P}^M\setminus S)$ is trivial.
We prove that every rational trinomial affine hypersurface admits a horizontal polynomial curve. This result provides an explicit non-trivial polynomial solution to a trinomial equation. Also we show that a trinomial affine hypersurface admits a Schwartz-Halphen curve if and only if the trinomial comes from a platonic triple. It is a generalization of Schwartz-Halphen's Theorem for Pham-Brieskorn surfaces.
In this note we look at the freeness for complex affine hypersurfaces. If $X \subset \mathbb{C}^n$ is such a hypersurface, and $D$ denotes the associated projective hypersurface, obtained by taking the closure of $X$ in $\mathbb{P}^n$, then we relate first the Jacobian syzygies of $D$ and those of $X$. Then we introduce two types of freeness for an affine hypersurface $X$, and prove various relations between them and the freeness of the projective hypersurface $D$. We write down a proof of the folklore result saying that an affine hypersurface is free if and only if all of its singularities ar…
The Russell cubic is a smooth contractible affine complex threefold which is not isomorphic to affine three-space. In previous articles, we discussed the structure of the automorphism group of this variety. Here we review some consequences of this structure and generalize some results to other hypersurfaces which arise as deformations of Koras-Russell threefolds.
We prove that if Y is a hypersurface of degree d in P^n with isolated singularities, then the log canonical threshold of (P^n,Y) is at least min{n/d,1}. Moreover, if d is at least n+1, then we have equality if and only if Y is the projective cone over a (smooth) hypersurface in P^{n-1}. In the case when Y is a hyperplane section of a smooth hypersurface in P^{n+1}, Cheltsov and Park have proved that Y has isolated singularities and they have obtained the above lower bound for the log canonical threshold. Moreover they made the conjecture about the equality case (for d=n+1) and they proved that…
A smooth affine hypersurface Z of complex dimension n is homotopy equivalent to an n-dimensional cell complex. Given a defining polynomial f for Z as well as a regular triangulation of its Newton polytope, we provide a purely combinatorial construction of a compact topological space S as a union of components of real dimension n, and prove that S embeds into Z as a deformation retract. In particular, Z is homotopy equivalent to S.
We prove that square integrable holomorphic functions (with respect to a plurisubharmonic weight) can be extended in a square integrable manner from certain singular hypersurfaces (which include uniformly flat, normal crossing divisors) to entire functions in affine space. This provides evidence for a conjecture regarding the positivity of the curvature of the weight under consideration.
We describe in purely combinatorial terms dual pairs of integral affine structures on spheres which come from the conjectural metric collapse of mirror families of Calabi-Yau toric hypersurfaces. The same structures arise on the base of a special Lagrangian torus fibration in the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow conjecture. We study the topological torus fibration in the large complex structure limit and show that it coincides with our combinatorial model.
This paper is a continuation of our paper math.AG/0205321 where we have built a combinatorial model for the torus fibrations of Calabi-Yau toric hypersurfaces. This part addresses the connection between the model torus fibration and the complex and Kähler geometry of the hypersurfaces.
This paper is the widely extended version of the publication, appeared in Proceedings of ISSAC'2009 conference \citep*{ALM09}. We discuss more details on proofs, present new algorithms and examples. We present a general algorithm for computing an intersection of a left ideal of an associative algebra over a field with a subalgebra, generated by a single element. We show applications of this algorithm in different algebraic situations and describe our implementation in \textsc{Singular}. Among other, we use this algorithm in computational $D$-module theory for computing e. g. the Bernstein-Sato…
It is well-known that the Hasse principle holds for quadric hypersurfaces. The Hasse principle fails for integral points on smooth quadric hypersurfaces of dimension 2 but the failure can be completely explained by the Brauer-Manin obstruction. We investigate how often the family of quadric hypersurfaces $ax^2 + by^2 +cz^2 = n$ has a Brauer-Manin obstruction. We improve previous bounds of Mitankin.
The total curvature of complex hypersurfaces in $\bC^{n+1}$ and its variation in families appear to depend not only on singularities but also on the behaviour in the neighbourhood of infinity. We find the asymptotic loss of total curvature towards infinity and we express the total curvature and the Gauss-Bonnet defect in terms of singularities and tangencies at infinity.
An affine algebraic variety $X$ is rigid if the algebra of regular functions ${\mathbb K}[X]$ admits no nonzero locally nilpotent derivation. We prove that a factorial trinomial hypersurface is rigid if and only if every exponent in the trinomial is at least 2.
The Aluffi algebra is algebraic definition of characteristic cycles of a hypersurface in intersection theory. In this paper we focus on the Aluffi algebra of quasi-homogeneous and locally Eulerian hypersurface with isolated singularities. We prove that the Jacobian ideal of an affine hypersurfac with isolated singularities is of linear type if and only if it is locally Eulerian. We show that the gradient ideal of a projective hypersurface is of linear type if and only if the corresponding affine curve in the affine chart associated to singular points is locally Eulerian. We prove that the grad…
To every Gorenstein algebra $A$ of finite dimension greater than 1 over a field ${\Bbb F}$ of characteristic zero, and a projection $π$ on its maximal ideal ${\mathfrak m}$ with range equal to the annihilator $\hbox{Ann}({\mathfrak m})$ of ${\mathfrak m}$, one can associate a certain algebraic hypersurface $S_π\subset{\mathfrak m}$. Such hypersurfaces possess remarkable properties. They can be used, for instance, to help decide whether two given Gorenstein algebras are isomorphic, which for ${\Bbb F}={\Bbb C}$ leads to interesting consequences in singularity theory. Also, for ${\Bbb F}={\Bbb R…
Suppose that $f$ defines a singular, complex affine hypersurface. If the critical locus of $f$ is one-dimensional, we obtain new general bounds on the ranks of the homology groups of the Milnor fiber of $f$. This result has an interesting implication on the structure of the vanishing cycles in the category of perverse sheaves.
Trinomial hypersurfaces form a natural class of affine algebraic varieties closely connected with varieties admitting a torus action of complexity one. We investigate orbits of the automorphism group on these hypersurfaces. We prove that each nonrigid trinomial variety has finite number of orbits. We investigate singular orbits and this gives us description of all orbits for some classes of flexible trinomial hypersurfaces. Also we obtain a description of orbits for a class of hypersurfaces having a unique variable with power one in the equation.
In this paper we give a description of hypersurfaces with trivial ring $AK(S)$, introduced by the second author as following. Let $X$ be an affine variety and let $G(X)$ be the group generated by all $\Bbb {C}^+$-actions on $X$. Then $AK(X)$ is the subring of all regular $G(X)-$ invariant functions on $X.$ We show that a smooth affine surface $S$ with $AK(S)=\Bbb C$ is quasihomogeneous and so may be obtained from a smooth rational projective surface by deleting a divisor of special form, which is called a ``zigzag''. We denote by $A$ the set of all such surfaces, and by $H$ those which have on…
We construct explicit embeddings of generalized Danielewski surfaves in affine spaces. The equations defining these embeddings are obtained from the 2x2 minors of a matrix attached to a labelled rooted tree. Then we describe more precisely those surfaces with a trivial Makar-Limanov invariant.
The Koras-Russell threefold is the hypersurface X of the complex affine four-space defined by the equation x^2y+z^2+t^3+x=0. It is well-known that X is smooth contractible and rational but that it is not algebraically isomorphic to affine three-space. The main result of this article is to show that there exists another hypersurface Y of the affine four-space, which is isomorphic to X as an abstract variety, but such that there exists no algebraic automorphism of the ambient space which restricts to an isomorphism between X and Y. In other words, the two hypersurfaces are inequivalent. The proo…
Let $\mathrm{R}$ be a real closed field. We prove that the number of semi-algebraically connected components of a real hypersurface in $\mathrm{R}^n$ defined by a multi-affine polynomial of degree $d$ is bounded by $2^{d-1}$. This bound is sharp and is independent of $n$ (as opposed to the classical bound of $d(2d -1)^{n-1}$ on the Betti numbers of hypersurfaces defined by arbitrary polynomials of degree $d$ in $\mathrm{R}^n$ due to Petrovski{\uı} and Ole{\uı}nik, Thom and Milnor). Moreover, we show there exists $c > 1$, such that given a sequence $(B_n)_{n >0}$ where $B_n$ is a closed ball in…
Koras-Russell threefolds are certain smooth contractible complex hypersurfaces in affine complex four-space which are not algebraically isomorphic to affine three-space. One of the important examples is the cubic Russell threefold, defined by the equation x^2y+z^2+t^3+x=0. In a previous article by A. Dubouloz, P.M. Poloni and the author, the automorphism group of the Russell cubic threefold was studied. It was shown, in particular, that all automorphisms of this hypersurface extend to automorphisms of the ambient space. This has several interesting consequences, including the fact that one can…
We classify affine varieties with an action of a connected, reductive algebraic group such that the group is isomorphic to an open orbit in the variety. This is accomplished by associating a set of one-parameter subgroups of the group to the variety, characterizing such sets, and proving that sets of this type correspond to affine embeddings of the group. Applications of this classification to the existence of morphisms are then given.
We find a relation between a cubic hypersurface $Y$ and its Fano variety of lines $F(Y)$ in the Grothendieck ring of varieties. We prove that if the class of an affine line is not a zero-divisor in the Grothendieck ring of varieties, then Fano variety of lines on a smooth rational cubic fourfold is birational to a Hilbert scheme of two points on a K3 surface; in particular, general cubic fourfold is irrational.
This paper has two objectives: we first generalize the theory of Abhyankar-Moh to quasi-ordinary polynomials, then we use the notion of approximate roots and that of generalized Newton polygons in order to prove the embedding conjecture for this class of polynomials. This conjecture -made by S.S. Abhyankar and A. Sathaye- says that if a hypersurface of the affine space is isomorphic to a coordinate, then it is equivalent to it.
In this article we introduce the mixed Hodge structure of the Brieskorn module of a polynomial $f$ in $\C^{n+1}$, where $f$ satisfies a certain regularity condition at infinity (and hence has isolated singularities). We give an algorithm which produces a basis of a localization of the Brieskorn module which is compatible with its mixed Hodge structure. As an application we show that the notion of a Hodge cycle in regular fibers of $f$ is given in terms of the vanishing of integrals of certain polynomial $n$-forms in $\C^{n+1}$ over topological $n$-cycles on the fibers of $f$. Since the $n$-th …
The Zariski theorem says that for every hypersurface in a complex projective (resp. affine) space of dimension at least 3 and for every generic plane in the projective (resp. affine) space the natural embedding generates an isomorphism of the fundamental groups of the complements to the hypersurface in the plane and in the space. If a family of hypersurfaces depends algebraically on parameters then it is not true in general that there exists a plane such that the natural embedding generates isomorphisms of the fundamental groups of the complements to each hypersurface from this family in the p…
The objective of this paper is to show how the recently proposed method by Giusti, Heintz, Morais, Morgenstern, Pardo \cite{gihemorpar} can be applied to a case of real polynomial equation solving. Our main result concerns the problem of finding one representative point for each connected component of a real bounded smooth hypersurface. The algorithm in \cite{gihemorpar} yields a method for symbolically solving a zero-dimensional polynomial equation system in the affine (and toric) case. Its main feature is the use of adapted data structure: Arithmetical networks and straight-line programs. Th…
Let $Y$ be the underlying variety of a connected affine algebraic group. We prove that two embeddings of the affine line $\mathbb{C}$ into $Y$ are the same up to an automorphism of $Y$ provided that $Y$ is not isomorphic to a product of a torus $(\mathbb{C}^\ast)^k$ and one of the three varieties $\mathbb{C}^3$, $\operatorname{SL}_2$, and $\operatorname{PSL}_2$.
Let f : X -> Y be a dominant polynomial mapping of affine varieties. For generic y in Y we have Sing(f^{-1}(y)) = f^{-1}(y) \cap Sing(X): As an application we show that symmetry defect hypersurfaces for two generic members of the irreducible algebraic family of n-dimensional smooth irreducible subvarieties in general position in C^{2n} are homeomorphic and they have homeomorphic sets of singular points. In particular symmetry defect curves for two generic curves in C^2 of the same degree have the same number of singular points.
We use Poonen's closed point sieve to prove two independent results. First, we show that the obvious obstruction to embedding a curve in a smooth surface is the only obstruction over a perfect field, by proving the finite field analogue of a Bertini-type result of Altman and Kleiman. Second, we prove a conjecture of Vakil and Wood on the asymptotic probability of hypersurface sections having a prescribed number of singularities.
Let X be a projective hypersurface in P_k^n of degree d <= n. In this paper we study the relation between the class [X] in K_0(Var_k) and the existence of k-rational points. Using elementary geometric methods we show, for some particular X, that X(k) is nonempty if and only if [X] is equivalent to 1 modulo the class of the affine line in K_0(Var_k). More precisely we consider the following cases: a union of hyperplanes, a quadric, a cubic hypersurface with a singular k-rational point, and a quartic which is a union of two quadrics one of which being smooth.
In \cite{DJL07} it was shown that if $\scra$ is an affine hyperplane arrangement in $\C^n$, then at most one of the $L^2$--Betti numbers $b_i^{(2)}(\C^n\sm \scra,\id)$ is non--zero. In this note we prove an analogous statement for complements of complex affine hyperurfaces in general position at infinity. Furthermore, we recast and extend to this higher-dimensional setting results of \cite{FLM,LM06} about $L^2$--Betti numbers of plane curve complements.
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.
We give a generalization of an algebraic formula of Gomez-Mont for the index of a vector field with isolated zero in (C^n,0) and tangent to an isolated hypersurface singularity. We only assume that the vector field has an isolated zero on the singularity.
In this paper, we show that any 3-dimensional normal affine quasihomogeneous SL(2)-variety can be described as a categorical quotient of a 4-dimensional affine hypersurface. Moreover, we show that the Cox ring of an arbitrary 3-dimensional normal affine quasihomogeneous SL(2)-variety has a unique defining equation. This allows us to construct SL(2)-equivariant flips by different GIT-quotients of hypersurfaces. Using the theory of spherical varieties, we describe SL(2)-flips by means of 2-dimensional colored cones.
Motivated by the theory of Inoue-type varieties, we give a structure theorem for projective manifolds $W_0$ with the property of admitting a 1-parameter deformation where $W_t$ is a hypersurface in a projective smooth manifold $Z_t$. Their structure is the one of special iterated univariate coverings which we call of normal type, which essentially means that the line bundles where the univariate coverings live are tensor powers of the normal bundle to the image $X$ of $W_0$. We give applications to the case where $Z_t$ is projective space, respectively an Abelian variety.
We consider mirror symmetry for (essentially arbitrary) hypersurfaces in (possibly noncompact) toric varieties from the perspective of the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow (SYZ) conjecture. Given a hypersurface $H$ in a toric variety $V$ we construct a Landau-Ginzburg model which is SYZ mirror to the blowup of $V\times\mathbb{C}$ along $H\times 0$, under a positivity assumption. This construction also yields SYZ mirrors to affine conic bundles, as well as a Landau-Ginzburg model which can be naturally viewed as a mirror to $H$. The main applications concern affine hypersurfaces of general type, for which…
Let G be a reductive algebraic group and H a closed subgroup of G. An affine embedding of the homogeneous space G/H is an affine G-variety with an open G-orbit isomorphic to G/H. We start with some basic properties of affine embeddings and consider the cases, where the theory is well-developed: toric varieties, normal SL(2)-embeddings, S-varieties, and algebraic monoids. We discuss connections between the theory of affine embeddings and Hilbert's 14th Problem via a theorem of Grosshans. We characterize affine homogeneous spaces G/H such that any affine embedding of G/H contains a finite number…
We describe a new relation between the topology of hypersurface complements, Milnor fibers and degree of gradient mappings. In particular we show that any projective hypersurface has affine parts which are bouquets of spheres. The main tools are the polar curves and the affine Lefschetz theory developped by H. Hamm, D.T. Lê and A. Némethi. In the special case of the hyperplane arrangements, we strengthen some results due to Orlik and Terao (see Math. Ann. 301(1995)) and obtain the minimality of hyperplane arrangements (see Randell math.AT/0011101 for another proof of this result). This is then…
We construct the moduli space of smooth hypersurfaces with level $N$ structure over $\mathbb{Z}[1/N]$. As an application we show that, for $N$ large enough, the stack of smooth hypersurfaces over $\mathbb{Z}[1/N]$ is uniformisable by a smooth affine scheme. To prove our results, we use the Lefschetz trace formula to show that automorphisms of smooth hypersurfaces act faithfully on their cohomology. We also prove a global Torelli theorem for smooth cubic threefolds over fields of odd characteristic.
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. For a Kleinian singularity not of type $A_{2n}$, this amounts to the statement that the Poincaré series is the quotient of the characteristic polynomial of the Coxeter element by the characteristic polynomial of the affine Coxeter element of the corresponding root system. We show that this result also follows from the McKay correspondence.
