Let X be a smooth quasiprojective subscheme of P^n of dimension m >= 0 over F_q. Then there exist homogeneous polynomials f over F_q for which the intersection of X and the hypersurface f=0 is smooth. In fact, the set of such f has a positive density, equal to zeta_X(m+1)^{-1}, where zeta_X(s)=Z_X(q^{-s}) is the zeta function of X. An analogue for regular quasiprojective schemes over Z is proved, assuming the abc conjecture and another conjecture.
Poonen and Slavov recently developed a novel approach to Bertini irreducibility theorems over an arbitrary field, based on random hyperplane slicing. In this paper, we extend their work by proving an analogous bound for the dimension of the exceptional locus in the setting of linear subspaces of higher codimensions.
We first study hyperplane sections of some singular schemes over a field. We prove a Bertini theorem for the log smoothness of generic hyperplane sections of a large class of log smooth schemes over a log point. We also give an abstract generalization of the usual Bertini theorem for smoothness. We then apply this result to the study of hyperplane sections of regular schemes over a complete discrete valuation ring of characteristic zero with algebraically closed residue field. Lastly, give an exposition of a result of Faltings which states that one can compute the $p$-adic nearby cycles of smo…
We prove a semiample generalization of Poonen's Bertini Theorem over a finite field that implies the existence of smooth sections for wide new classes of divisors. The probability of smoothness is computed as a product of local probabilities taken over the fibers of the morphism determined by the relevant divisor. We give several applications including a negative answer to a question of Baker and Poonen by constructing a variety (in fact one of each dimension) which provides a counterexample to Bertini over finite fields in arbitrarily large projective spaces. As another application, we determ…
We introduce a novel approach to Bertini irreducibility theorems over an arbitrary field, based on random hyperplane slicing over a finite field. Extending a result of Benoist, we prove that for a morphism $ϕ\colon X \to \mathbb{P}^n$ such that $X$ is geometrically irreducible and the nonempty fibers of $ϕ$ all have the same dimension, the locus of hyperplanes $H$ such that $ϕ^{-1} H$ is not geometrically irreducible has dimension at most $\operatorname{codim} ϕ(X)+1$. We give an application to monodromy groups above hyperplane sections.
Let $\mathcal{X}$ be a regular projective arithmetic variety equipped with an ample hermitian line bundle $\overline{\mathcal{L}}$. We prove that the proportion of global sections $σ$ with $\left\lVert σ\right\rVert_{\infty}<1$ of $\overline{\mathcal{L}}^{\otimes d}$ whose divisor does not have a singular point on the fiber $\mathcal{X}_p$ over any prime $p<e^{\varepsilon d}$ tends to $ζ_{\mathcal{X}}(1+\dim \mathcal{X})^{-1}$ as $d\rightarrow \infty$.
We establish a relative Bertini type theorem for multiplier ideal sheaves. Then we prove a relative version of the Kollár--Nadel type vanishing theorem as an application.
Let $\mathcal X$ be a projective arithmetic variety of dimension at least $2$. If $\overline{\mathcal L}$ is an ample hermitian line bundle on $\mathcal X$, we prove that the proportion of those effective sections of $\overline{\mathcal L}^{\otimes n}$ that define an irreducible divisor on $\mathcal X$ tends to $1$ as $n$ tends to $\infty$. We prove variants of this statement for schemes mapping to such an $\mathcal X$. On the way to these results, we discuss some general properties of arithmetic ampleness, including restriction theorems, and upper bounds for the number of effective sections o…
In this paper, we prove a version of the arithmetic Bertini theorem asserting that there exists a strictly small and generically smooth section of a given arithmetically free graded arithmetic linear series.
In algebraic geometry, Bertini theorems are an extremely important tool. A generalization of the classical theorem to multiplier ideals show that multiplier ideals restrict to a general hyperplane section. In characteristic $p > 0$, the test ideal can be seen to be the characteristic $p > 0$ analog of the multiplier ideal. However, in this paper it is shown that the same type of Bertini type theorem does not hold for test ideals.
In this article, we prove a strong version of local Bertini theorem for normality on local rings in mixed characteristic. The main result asserts that a generic hyperplane section of a normal, Cohen-Macaulay, and complete local domain of dimension at least 3 is normal. Applications include the study of characteristic ideals attached to torsion modules over Noetherian normal domains, which is fundamental in the study of Euler system theory over normal domains and Iwasawa main conjectures.
After reviewing Bertini's life story, a fascinating drama, we make a critical examination of the old statements and proofs of Bertini's two fundamental theorems, the theorem on variable singular points and the theorem on reducible linear systems. We explain the content of the statements in a way that is accessible to a nonspecialist, and we develop versions of the old proofs that are complete and rigorous by current standards. In particular, we prove a new extension of Bertini's first theorem, which treats variable $r$-fold points for any $r$.
We prove a version of the classical 'generic smoothness' theorem with smooth varieties replaced by non-commutative resolutions of singular varieties. This in particular implies a non-commutative version of the Bertini theorem.
We prove that strongly F-regular and F-pure singularities satisfy Bertini-type theorems (including in the context of pairs) by building upon a framework of Cumino, Greco and Manaresi (compare with the work of Jouanolou and Spreafico). We also prove that F-injective singularities fail to satisfy even the most basic Bertini-type results.
Given a geometrically irreducible subscheme X in P^n over F_q of dimension at least 2, we prove that the fraction of degree d hypersurfaces H such that the intersection of H and X is geometrically irreducible tends to 1 as d tends to infinity. We also prove variants in which X is over an extension of F_q, and in which the immersion of X in P^n is replaced by a more general morphism.
We generalize the toric Bertini theorem of Fuchs, Mantova, and Zannier to positive characteristic. A key part of the proof is a new algebraically closed field containing the field \kk(t_1,\dots,t_d) of rational functions over an algebraically closed field \kk of prime characteristic. As a corollary, we extend the tropical Bertini theorem of Maclagan and Yu to arbitrary characteristic, which removes the characteristic dependence from the d-connectivity result for tropical varieties from that paper.
We prove that if $C$ is a reflexive smooth plane curve of degree $d$ defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ with $d\leq q+1$, then there is an $\mathbb{F}_q$-line $L$ that intersects $C$ transversely. We also prove the same result for non-reflexive curves of degree $p+1$ and $2p+1$ where $q=p^{r}$.
Given an irreducible variety $X$ over a finite field, the density of hypersurfaces of varying degree $d$ intersecting $X$ in an irreducible subvariety is $1$, by a result of Charles and Poonen. In this note, we analyse the situation fixing $d=1$ and extend the base field instead of the degree $d$. We compute the probability that a random linear subspace of the right dimension intersects $X$ in a given number of points.
Let $X$ be an irreducible projective variety and $f$ a morphism $X \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^n$. We give a new proof of the fact that the preimage of any linear variety of dimension $k\ge n+1-\dim f(X)$ is connected. We prove that the statement is a consequence of the Generalized Hodge Index Theorem using easy numerical arguments that hold in any characteristic. We also prove the connectedness Theorem of Fulton and Hansen as application of our main theorem.
We show the existence of good hyperplane sections for schemes over discrete valuation rings with good or (quasi) semistable reduction, and the existence of good Lefschetz pencils for schemes with good reduction or ordinary quadratic reduction. As an application we prove that the reciprocity map introduced for smooth projective varieties over local fields by Bloch, Kato and Saito is an isomorphism after profinite completion, if the variety has good reduction or 'almost good' reduction.
In this paper we give a simpler proof of a deep theorem proved by Pellikan, Shen and van Wee that all linear codes are weakly algebraic-geometric using a theorem of B.Poonen.
Let G be a smooth algebraic group acting on a variety X. Let F and E be coherent sheaves on X. We show that if all the higher Tor sheaves of F against G-orbits vanish, then for generic g in G, the sheaf Tor^X_j(gF, E) vanishes for all j >0. This generalizes a result of Miller and Speyer for transitive group actions and a result of Speiser, itself generalizing the classical Kleiman-Bertini theorem, on generic transversality, under a general group action, of smooth subvarieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0.
The classical Bertini theorem on generic intersection of an algebraic set with hyperplanes states the following: \emph{Let X be a nonsingular closed subvariety of $\mathbb{P}^n_k$, where $k$ is an algebraically closed field. Then there exists a hyperplane $H\subset \mathbb{P}^n_k$ not containing $X$ and such that the scheme $H\cap X$ is regular at every point. Furthermore, the set of hyperplanes with this property forms an open dense subset of the complete linear system $|H|$ considered as a projective space. } We will show that one can effectively indicate a finite family of hyperplanes $H$ s…
We show that Bertini theorems hold for $F$-signature and Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity. In particular, if $X \subseteq \mathbb{P}^n$ is normal and quasi-projective with $F$-signature greater than $λ$ (respectively the Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity is less than $λ$) at all points $x \in X$, then for a general hyperplane $H \subseteq \mathbb{P}^n$ the $F$-signature (respectively Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity) of $X \cap H$ is greater than $λ$ (respectively less than $λ$) at all points $x \in X \cap H$.
We study intersection theory for differential algebraic varieties. Particularly, we study families of differential hypersurface sections of arbitrary affine differential algebraic varieties over a differential field. We prove the differential analogue of Bertini's theorem, namely that for an arbitrary geometrically irreducible differential algebraic variety which is not an algebraic curve, generic hypersurface sections are geometrically irreducible and codimension one. Surprisingly, we prove a stronger result in the case that the order of the differential hypersurface is at least one; namely t…
Let P^n denote the n-dimensional projective space defined over the algebraic closure of a finite field F_q, let V contained P^n be a complete intersection defined over F_q of dimension r and singular locus of dimension at most s, and let π:V-->P^{s+1} be a "generic" linear mapping. We obtain an effective version of the Bertini smoothness theorem concerning π, namely an explicit upper bound of the degree of a proper Zariski closed subset of P^{s+1} which contains all the points defining singular fibers of π. For this purpose we make essential use of the concept of polar variety associated to th…
Let $X$ be a smooth irreducible projective variety of dimension at least 2 over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 in the projective space ${\mathbb{P}}^n$. Bertini's Theorem states that a general hyperplane $H$ intersects $X$ with an irreducible smooth subvariety of $X$. However, the precise location of the smooth hyperplane section is not known. We show that for any $q\leq n+1$ closed points in general position and any degree $a>1$, a general hypersurface $H$ of degree $a$ passing through these $q$ points intersects $X$ with an irreducible smooth codimension 1 subvariety on $X…
Fix a variety X with a transitive (left) action by an algebraic group G. Let E and F be coherent sheaves on X. We prove that, for elements g in a dense open subset of G, the sheaf Tor_i^X(E, g F) vanishes for all i > 0. When E and F are structure sheaves of smooth subschemes of X in characteristic zero, this follows from the Kleiman-Bertini theorem; our result has no smoothness hypotheses on the supports of E or F, or hypotheses on the characteristic of the ground field.
Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p > 0$. We show that if $X\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n_k$ is an equidimensional subscheme with Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity less than $λ$ at all points $x\in X$, then for a general hyperplane $H\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n_k$, the Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity of $X\cap H$ is less than $λ$ at all points $x\in X\cap H$. This answers a conjecture and generalizes a result of Carvajal-Rojas, Schwede and Tucker, whose conclusion is the same as ours when $X\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n_k$ is normal. In the process, we substantially generalize certain uniform estimate…
This paper discusses a central theorem in birational geometry first proved by Eugenio Bertini in 1891. J.L. Coolidge described the main ideas behind Bertini's proof, but he attributed the theorem to Clebsch. He did so owing to a short note that Felix Klein appended to the republication of Bertini's article in 1894. The precise circumstances that led to Klein's intervention can be easily reconstructed from letters Klein exchanged with Max Noether, who was then completing work on the lengthy report he and Alexander Brill published on the history of algebraic functions [Brill/Noether 1894]. This …
We formulate and prove an analog of Poonen's finite-field Bertini theorem with Taylor conditions that holds in the Grothendieck ring of varieties. This gives a broad generalization of the work of Vakil-Wood, who treated the case of smooth hypersurface sections. In fact, our techniques give analogs in motivic statistics of all known results in arithmetic statistics that have been proven using Poonen's sieve, including work of Bucur-Kedlaya on complete intersections and Erman-Wood on semi-ample Bertini theorems. A key ingredient is the use of motivic Euler products, as introduced by the first au…
We prove an identity of Segre classes for zero-schemes of compatible sections of two vector bundles. Applications include bounds on the number of equations needed to cut out a scheme with the same Segre class as a given subscheme of (for example) a projective variety, and a `Segre-Bertini' theorem controlling the behavior of Segre classes of singularity subschemes of hypersurfaces under general hyperplane sections. These results interpolate between an observation of Samuel concerning multiplicities along components of a subscheme and facts concerning the integral closure of corresponding ideal…
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 smooth projective variety defined over a finite field. We show that any algebraic $1$-cycle on $X$ is rationally equivalent to a smooth $1$-cycle, which is a $\mathbb{Z}$-linear combination of smooth curves on $X$. We also prove a generalized version of Poonen's Bertini theorem over finite fields. Given a very ample line bundle $\mathcal{L}$ on $X$ and an arbitrary line bundle $\mathcal{M}$, this version implies the existence of a global section of $\mathcal{M}\otimes \mathcal{L}^{\otimes d}$ for sufficiently large $d$ whose divisor is smooth.
We show explicit estimates on the number of $q$--rational points of an $F_q$--definable affine absolutely irreducible variety of the algebraic closure of the finite field $F_q$ of $q$ elements. Our estimates for a hypersurface significantly improve previous estimates of W. Schmidt and M.-D. Huang and Y.-C. Wong, while in the case of a variety our estimates improve those of S. Ghorpade and G. Lachaud in several important cases. Our proofs rely on elementary methods of effective elimination theory and suitable effective versions of the first Bertini theorem.
We use the "closed point sieve" to prove a variant of a Bertini theorem over finite fields. Specifically, given a smooth quasi-projective subscheme X of P^n of dimension m over F_q, and a closed subscheme Z in P^n such that Z intersect X is smooth of dimension l, we compute the fraction of homogeneous polynomials vanishing on Z that cut out a smooth subvariety of X. The fraction is positive if m>2l.
Looking in positive characteristic for failures of the Bertini-Sard theorem, we determine, up to birational equivalence, the separable proper morphisms of smooth algebraic varieties in characteristic two, whose fibres are non-smooth curves of arithmetic genus two.
We give a proof of Gabber's presentation lemma for finite fields. We use ideas from Poonen's proof of Bertini's theorem to prove this lemma in the special case of open subsets of the affine plane. We then reduce the case of general smooth varieties to this special case.
We study the asymptotic proportion of smooth plane curves over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ which are tangent to every line defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$. This partially answers a question raised by Charles Favre. Our techniques include applications of Poonen's Bertini theorem and Schrijver's theorem on perfect matchings in regular bipartite graphs. Our main theorem implies that a random smooth plane curve over $\mathbb{F}_q$ admits a transverse $\mathbb{F}_q$-line with very high probability.
We show that any polarized abelian variety over a finite field is covered by a Jacobian whose dimension is bounded by an explicit constant. We do this by first proving an effective version of Poonen's Bertini theorem over finite fields, which allows us to show the existence of smooth curves arising as hypersurface sections of bounded degree and genus. Additionally, we show that for simple abelian varieties a better bound is possible. As an application of these results we show that if $E$ is an elliptic curve over a finite field then for any $n\in \mathbb{N}$ there exist smooth curves of bounde…
We prove a general inequality for estimating the number of points of arbitrary complete intersections over a finite field. This extends a result of Deligne for nonsingular complete intersections. For normal complete intersections, this inequality generalizes also the classical Lang-Weil inequality. Moreover, we prove the Lang-Weil inequality for affine as well as projective varieties with an explicit description and a bound for the constant appearing therein. We also prove a conjecture of Lang and Weil concerning the Picard varieties and étale cohomology spaces of projective varieties. The gen…
We investigate a scheme-theoretic variant of Whitney condition a. If X is a projec-tive variety over the field of complex numbers and Y $\subset$ X a subvariety, then X satisfies generically the scheme-theoretic Whitney condition a along Y provided that the pro-jective dual of X is smooth. We give applications to tangency of projective varieties over C and to convex real algebraic geometry. In particular, we prove a Bertini-type theorem for osculating plane of smooth complex space curves and a generalization of a Theorem of Ranestad and Sturmfels describing the algebraic boundary of an affine …
We describe a Schubert induction theorem, a tool for analyzing intersections on a Grassmannian over an arbitrary base ring. The key ingredient in the proof is the Geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule, described in a companion paper. Schubert problems are among the most classical problems in enumerative geometry of continuing interest. As an application of Schubert induction, we address several long-standing natural questions related to Schubert problems, including: the "reality" of solutions; effective numerical methods; solutions over algebraically closed fields of positive characteristic; so…
We show that the tropicalization of an irreducible d-dimensional variety over a field of characteristic 0 is (d-l)-connected through codimension one, where l is the dimension of the lineality space of the tropicalization. From this we obtain a higher connectivity result for skeleta of rational polytopes. We also prove a tropical analogue of the Bertini Theorem: the intersection of the tropicalization of an irreducible variety with a generic hyperplane is again the tropicalization of an irreducible variety.
K. Kato's conjecture about the cohomological Hasse principle for regular connected schemes $\mathfrak X$ which are flat and proper over the complete discrete valuation rings $\mathcal O_N$ of higher local fields $F_N$ is proven. This generalizes the work of M. Kerz, S. Saito and U. Jannsen for finite fields to the case of all higher local fields. For that purpose a $p$-alteration theorem for the local uniformization of schemes over valuation rings of arbitrary finite rank and a corresponding Bertini theorem is developed extending the results of O. Gabber, J. deJong, L. Illusie, M. Temkin, S. S…
