We describe a new relation between the topology of hypersurface complements,
Milnor fibers and degree of gradient mappings. The main tools are polar curves and the affine Lefschetz theory developped by H. Hamm 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 an independant proof for the minimality of hyperplane arrangements (see Randell math.AT/0011101 for another proof of this result).
We prove vanishing results of the cohomology groups of Aomoto complex over arbitrary coefficient ring for real hyperplane arrangements. The proof is using minimality of arrangements and descriptions of Aomoto complex in terms of chambers. Our methods also provide a new proof for the vanishing theorem of local system cohomology groups which was first proved by Cohen, Dimca and Orlik.
Using recent results by A. Macinic, S. Papadima and R. Popescu, and a refinement of an older construction of ours, we determine the monodromy action on $H^1(F(G),C)$, where $F(G)$ denotes the Milnor fiber of a hyperplane arrangement associated to an irreducible complex reflection group $G$.
We study a topological method to calculate the first Milnor fiber cohomology of a defining polynomial of a reduced projective hyperplane arrangement $X$ of degree $d$. We can show the vanishing of a monodromy eigenspace of the first Milnor fiber cohomology with eigenvalue of order $m\ge 2$ if $X\setminus(X^{[(m)]}\cup X^{\langle 3\rangle})$ or more generally $X\setminus(X^{[(m)]}\cup X^{\langle 3\rangle}\cup X_d)$ is connected. Here $X^{[(m)]}$ is the set of points of $X$ with multiplicity divisible by $m$, and $X^{\langle 3\rangle}:=\bigcup_{i,j,k}X_i\cap X_j\cap X_k$ with $X_i$ the irreducib…
We use covering space theory and the fundamental group of complements of complexified-real line arrangements to explore the associated Milnor fiber. This work yields a combinatorially determined upper bound on the rank of the first homology group of the Milnor fiber. Under certain combinatorial conditions, we then show that one may determine the exact rank of the group and show that it is torsion free.
We prove that the complement of any affine 2-arrangement in R^d is minimal, that is, it is homotopy equivalent to a cell complex with as many i-cells as its i-th rational Betti number. For the proof, we provide a Lefschetz-type hyperplane theorem for complements of 2-arrangements, and introduce Alexander duality for combinatorial Morse functions. Our results greatly generalize previous work by Falk, Dimca--Papadima, Hattori, Randell, and Salvetti--Settepanella and others, and they demonstrate that in contrast to previous investigations, a purely combinatorial approach suffices to show minimali…
The order of the Milnor fiber monodromy operator of a central hyperplane arrangement is shown to be combinatorially determined. In particular, a necessary and sufficient condition for the triviality of this monodromy operator is given. It is known that the complement of a complex hyperplane arrangement is cohomologically Tate and, if the arrangement is defined over $\Q$, has polynomial count. We show that these properties hold for the corresponding Milnor fibers if the monodromy is trivial. We construct a hyperplane arrangement defined over $\Q$, whose Milnor fiber has a nontrivial monodromy o…
We prove that the mod $2$ Betti numbers of double coverings of a complex hyperplane arrangement complement are combinatorially determined. The proof is based on a relation between the mod $2$ Aomoto complex and the transfer long exact sequence. Applying the above result to the icosidodecahedral arrangement ($16$ planes in the three dimensional space related to the icosidodecahedron), we conclude that the first homology of the Milnor fiber has non-trivial $2$-torsion.
We prove that the complement of a toric arrangement has the homotopy type of a minimal CW complex. As a corollary we obtain that the integer cohomology of these spaces is torsion free. We use Discrete Morse Theory, providing a sequence of cellular collapses that leads to a minimal complex.
We study the first homology group of the Milnor fiber of sharp arrangements in the real projective plane. Our work relies on the minimal Salvetti complex of the deconing arrangement and its boundary map. We describe an algorithm which computes possible eigenvalues of the first monodromy operator. We prove that, if a condition on some intersection points of lines is satisfied, then the only possible non trivial eigenvalues are cubic roots of the unity. Moreover we give sufficient conditions for just eigenvalues of order 3 or 4 to appear in cases in which this condition is not satisfied.
This note is mostly an expository survey, centered on the topology of complements of hyperplane arrangements, their Milnor fibrations, and their boundary structures. An important tool in this study is provided by the degree 1 resonance and characteristic varieties of the complement, and their tight relationship with orbifold fibrations and multinets on the underlying matroid. In favorable situations, this approach leads to a combinatorial formula for the first Betti number of the Milnor fiber and the algebraic monodromy. We also produce a pair of arrangements for which the respective Milnor fi…
We construct a new class of maximal acyclic matchings on the Salvetti complex of a locally finite hyperplane arrangement. Using discrete Morse theory, we then obtain an explicit proof of the minimality of the complement. Our construction provides interesting insights also in the well-studied case of finite arrangements, and gives a nice geometric description of the Betti numbers of the complement. In particular, we solve a conjecture of Drton and Klivans on the characteristic polynomial of finite reflection arrangements. The minimal complex is compatible with restrictions, and this allows us t…
Let $\A$ be an arrangement of affine lines in $\C^2,$ with complement $\M(\A).$ The (co)homo-logy of $\M(\A)$ with twisted coefficients is strictly related to the cohomology of the Milnor fibre associated to the conified arrangement, endowed with the geometric monodromy. Although several partial results are known, even the first Betti number of the Milnor fiber is not understood. We give here a vanishing conjecture for the first homology, which is of a different nature with respect to the known results. Let $Γ$ be the graph of \emph{double points} of $\A:$ we conjecture that if $Γ$ is connecte…
We describe an algorithm computing the monodromy and the pole order filtration on the top Milnor fiber cohomology of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^n$ whose pole order spectral sequence degenerates at the second page. In the case of hyperplane arrangements and free, locally quasi-homogeneous hypersurfaces, and assuming a key conjecture, this algorithm is much faster than for a hypersurface as above. Our conjecture is supported by the results due to L. Narv\' ez Macarro and M. Saito on the roots of Bernstein-Sato polynomials of such hypersurfaces, by all the examples computed so far, and by one p…
A central question in arrangement theory is to determine whether the characteristic polynomial $Δ_q$ of the algebraic monodromy acting on the homology group $H_q(F(\mathcal{A}),\mathbb{C})$ of the Milnor fiber of a complex hyperplane arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ is determined by the intersection lattice $L(\mathcal{A})$. Under simple combinatorial conditions, we show that the multiplicities of the factors of $Δ_1$ corresponding to certain eigenvalues of order a power of a prime $p$ are equal to the Aomoto--Betti numbers $β_p(\mathcal{A})$, which in turn are extracted from $L(\mathcal{A})$. When $…
Consider a fibration \[p:E\to S^{p-1}\] with fiber $F$. We have the following natural question: Under what conditions does this fibration admit a cross-section? Our purpose is to discuss this problem when the fibration $p$ is the Milnor fibration $f_{\mid}:f^{-1}(S^{p-1}_δ)\cap D^{n}_ε\to S^{p-1}_δ$ with Milnor fiber $F_f$ and the Milnor fibration of arrangements $Q:\mathcal{M}(\mathcal{A})\to \mathbb{C}^\ast$ with fiber $F=F(\mathcal{A})$. Furthermore, we use our results to study the tasking planning problem for the Milnor fibration as a work map and we give the tasking algorithms.
For a finite real reflection group $W$ we use non-crossing partitions of type $W$ to construct finite cell complexes with the homotopy type of the Milnor fiber of the associated $W$-discriminant $Δ_W$ and that of the Milnor fiber of the defining polynomial of the associated reflection arrangement. These complexes support natural cyclic group actions realizing the geometric monodromy. Using the shellability of the non-crossing partition lattice, this cell complex yields a chain complex of homology groups computing the integral homology of the Milnor fiber of $Δ_W$.
It is known that there exist hyperplane arrangements with same underlying matroid that admit non-homotopy equivalent complement manifolds. In this work we show that, in any rank, complex central hyperplane arrangements with up to 7 hyperplanes and same underlying matroid are isotopic. In particular, the diffeomorphism type of the complement manifold and the Milnor fiber and fibration of these arrangements are combinatorially determined, i.e., they depend uniquely on the underlying matroid. To do this, we associate to every such matroid a topological space, that we call the reduced realization …