Let $f:X\to C$ be a family of semistable K3 surfaces with non-empty set $S$ of singular fibres having infinite local monodromy. Then, when the so called Arakelov-Yau inequality reaches equality, we prove that $C\setminus S$ is a modular curve and the family comes essentially from a family of elliptic curves through a so called Nikulin-Kummer construction. In particular, when $C=\BBb P^1$, the family of elliptic curves must be one of Beauville's 6 examples where Arakelov inequality reaches equality.
This paper presents the current status on modularity of Calabi-Yau varieties since the last update in 2003. We will focus on Calabi-Yau varieties of dimension at most three. Here modularity refers to at least two different types: arithmetic modularity and geometric modularity. These will include: (1) the modularity (automorphy) of Galois representations of Calabi-Yau varieties (or motives) defined over Q or number fields, (2) the modularity of solutions of Picard--Fuchs differential equations of families of Calabi-Yau varieties, and mirror maps (mirror moonshine), (3) the modularity of generat…
We formulate the modularity conjecture for rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds defined over the field Q of rational numbers. We establish the modularity for the rigid Calabi-Yau threefold arising from the root lattice A_3. Our proof is based on geometric analysis.
We prove that (not necessarily rigid) Calabi-Yau threefolds defined over the rationals which contain sufficiently many elliptic ruled surfcaes are modular (under mild restrictions on the primes of bad reduction). Our proof uses the results of Dieulefait and Manoharmayum who proved modularity of rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds.
In this paper we discuss recent progress on the modularity of Calabi-Yau varieties. We focus mostly on the case of surfaces and threefolds. We will also discuss some progress on the structure of the L-function in connection with mirror symmetry. Finally, we address some questions and open problems.
We prove the modularity of Maschke's octic and two Calabi-Yau threefolds derived from it as double octic and quotient thereof by the Heisenberg group, as conjectured by Bini and van Geemen. The proofs rely on automorphisms of the varieties and isogenies of K3 surfaces.
In this paper we discuss four methods of proving modularity of Calabi--Yau threefolds with $h^{12}=1$: existence of elliptic ruled surfaces inside (Hulek-Verrill), correspondence with a product of an elliptic curve and a K3 surface (Livné-Yui), correspondence with a (modular) rigid Calabi-Yau threefold, and existence of an involution splitting the fourdimensional representation into twodimensional subrepresentations. We apply these methods to prove modularity of 17 out of 18 double octic Calabi-Yau threefolds for which "numerical evidence of modularity" was found in the second Author's thesis.…
We exhibit three double octic Calabi--Yau threefolds over the certain quadratic fields and prove their modularity. The non-rigid threefold has two conjugate Hilbert modular forms of weight [4,2] and [2,4] attached while the two rigid threefolds correspond to a Hilbert modular form of weight [4,4] and to the twist of the restriction of a classical modular form of weight 4.
We investigate the modularity of three non-rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds with bad reduction at 11 which arise as fibre products of rational elliptic surfaces. For this purpose, we apply a method by Serre to compare two-dimensional 2-adic Galois representations with uneven trace. Hereby, we associate two of the threefolds (or, more precisely, a two-dimensional piece of their middle cohomology group) to newforms of weight 4 and level 22 and 55, respectively. This enables us to compute the zeta-functions of these varieties up to the Euler factors of the bad primes.
Let $X$ be a Calabi--Yau threefold fibred over ${\mathbb P}^1$ by non-constant semi-stable K3 surfaces and reaching the Arakelov--Yau bound. In [STZ], X. Sun, Sh.-L. Tan, and K. Zuo proved that $X$ is modular in a certain sense. In particular, the base curve is a modular curve. In their result they distinguish the rigid and the non-rigid cases. In [SY] and [V] rigid examples were constructed. In this paper we construct explicit examples in non-rigid cases. Moreover, we prove for our threefolds that the ``interesting'' part of their $L$-series is attached to an automorphic form, and hence that …
In their paper Livné and Yui (math.AG/0304497) discuss several examples of non-rigid Calabi-Yau varieties which admit semi-stable K3-fibrations with 6 singular fibres over a base which is a rational modular curve. They also establish the modularity of the L-function of these examples. The purpose of this note is to point out that the examples which were listed in their paper, but which do not lead to semi-stable fibrations, are still modular in the sense that their L-function is associated to modular forms. We treat the case associated to the group Gamma_1(7) in detail, but our technique also …
Flux compactification of IIB string theory associates special points in Calabi-Yau moduli space to choices of (pairs of) integral three-form fluxes. In this paper, we propose that supersymmetric flux vacua are modular. That is, to a supersymmetric flux vacuum arising in a variety defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, we associate a two-dimensional Galois representation that we conjecture to be modular. We provide numerical evidence for our conjecture by examining flux vacua arising on the octic hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^{4}(1,1,2,2,2)$.
For a one parameter family of Calabi-Yau threefolds, Green, Griffiths and Kerr have expressed the total singularities in terms of the degrees of Hodge bundles and Euler number of the general fiber. In this paper, we show that the total singularities can be expressed by the sum of asymptotic values of BCOV invariants, studied by Fang, Lu and Yoshikawa. On the other hand, by using Yau's Schwarz lemma, we prove Arakelov type inequalities and Euler number bound for Calabi-Yau family over a compact Riemann surface.
We examine instances of modularity of (rigid) Calabi-Yau manifolds whose periods are expressed in terms of hypergeometric functions. The $p$-th coefficients $a(p)$ of the corresponding modular form can be often read off, at least conjecturally, from the truncated partial sums of the underlying hypergeometric series modulo a power of $p$ and from Weil's general bounds $|a(p)|\le2p^{(m-1)/2}$, where $m$ is the weight of the form. Furthermore, the critical $L$-values of the modular form are predicted to be $\mathbb Q$-proportional to the values of a related basis of solutions to the hypergeometri…
In recent work, we conjectured that Calabi-Yau threefolds defined over $\mathbb{Q}$ and admitting a supersymmetric flux compactification are modular, and associated to (the Tate twists of) weight-two cuspidal Hecke eigenforms. In this work, we will address two natural follow-up questions, of both a physical and mathematical nature, that are surprisingly closely related. First, in passing from a complex manifold to a rational variety, as we must do to study modularity, we are implicitly choosing a "rational model" for the threefold; how do different choices of rational model affect our results?…
The moduli space of (1,3)-polarized abelian surfaces with full level-2 structure is birational to a double cover of the Barth-Nieto quintic. Barth and Nieto have shown that these varieties have Calabi-Yau models Z and Y, respectively. In this paper we apply the Weil conjectures to show that Y and Z are rigid and we prove that the L-function of their common third étale cohomology group is modular, as predicted by a conjecture of Fontaine and Mazur. The corresponding modular form is the unique normalized cusp form of weight 4 for the group Γ_1(6). By Tate's conjecture, this should imply that Y, …
Maschke's Calabi-Yau threefold is the double cover of projective three space branched along Maschke's octic surface. This surface is defined by the lowest degree invariant of a certain finite group acting on a four dimensional vector space. Using this group, we show that the middle Betti cohomology group of the threefold decomposes into the direct sum of 150 two-dimensional Hodge substructures. We exhibit one dimensional families of rational curves on the threefold and verify that the associated Abel-Jacobi map is non-trivial. By counting the number of points over finite fields, we determine t…
We prove that the Consani-Scholten quintic, a Calabi-Yau threefold over QQ, is Hilbert modular. For this, we refine several techniques known from the context of modular forms. Most notably, we extend the Faltings-Serre-Livne method to induced four-dimensional Galois representations over QQ. We also need a Sturm bound for Hilbert modular forms; this is developed in an appendix by Jose Burgos Gil and the second author.
Motivated by a conjecture of Lian and Yau concerning the mirror map in string theory, we determine when the mirror map q-series of certain elliptic curve and K3 surface families are Hauptmoduln (genus zero modular functions). Our geometric criterion for modularity characterizes orbifold uniformization properties of their Picard-Fuchs equations, effectively demystifying the mirror-moonshine phenomenon. A longer, more comprehensive treatment of these results will appear shortly.
We prove the Landau-Ginzburg/Calabi-Yau correspondence between the Gromov-Witten theory of each elliptic orbifold curve and its Fan-Jarvis-Ruan-Witten theory counterpart via modularity. We show that the correlation functions in these two enumerative theories are different representations of the same set of quasi-modular forms, expanded around different points on the upper-half plane. We relate these two representations by the Cayley transform.
In the studies on the modularity conjecture for rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds several examples with the unique level 8 cusp form were constructed. According to the Tate Conjecture correspondences inducing isomorphisms on the middle cohomologies should exist between these varieties. In the paper we construct several examples of such correspondences. In the constructions elliptic fibrations play a crucial role. In fact we show that all but three examples are in some sense built upon two modular curves from the Beauville list.
By the modularity theorem every rigid Calabi-Yau threefold $X$ has associated modular form $f$ such that the equality of $L$-functions $L(X,s)=L(f,s)$ holds. In this case period integrals of $X$ are expected to be expressible in terms of the special values $L(f,1)$ and $L(f,2)$. We propose a similar interpretation of period integrals of a nodal model of $X$. It is given in terms of certain variants of a Mellin transform of $f$. We provide numerical evidence towards this interpretation based on a case of double octics.
In this paper, we study the enumeration of virtual numbers of immersed nodal curves along certain Calabi-Yau K3 fibrations. By using the concept of cosmic strings, we verify the modularity conjeture of the generating function of immersed nodal curves from String theory (Harvey-Moore). Based on the theory defining virtual numbers of nodal curves on algebraic surface (applying to a pencil of lattice polarized K3), a mathematical definition of virtual numbers of immersed rational curves (so-called Gopakumar-Vafa numbers) for Calabi-Yau K3 fibrations is given and it is shown to match up with strin…
Motivated by S-duality modularity conjectures in string theory, we define new invariants counting a restricted class of 2-dimensional torsion sheaves, enumerating pairs $Z\subset H$ in a Calabi-Yau threefold X. Here H is a member of a sufficiently positive linear system and Z is a 1-dimensional subscheme of it. The associated sheaf is the ideal sheaf of $Z\subset H$, pushed forward to X and considered as a certain Joyce-Song pair in the derived category of X. We express these invariants in terms of the MNOP invariants of X.
Let $X\to \mathbb P^2$ be the elliptic Calabi-Yau threefold given by a general Weierstrass equation. We answer the enumerative question of how many discrete rational curves lie over lines in the base, proving part of a conjecture by Huang, Katz, and Klemm. The key inputs are a modularity theorem of Kudla and Millson for locally symmetric spaces of orthogonal type and the deformation theory of $A_n$ singularities.
We establish the supercongruences for the fourteen rigid hypergeometric Calabi--Yau threefolds over $\mathbb Q$ conjectured by Rodriguez-Villegas in 2003. Our first method is based on Dwork's theory of $p$-adic unit roots and it allows us to establish the supercongruences between the truncated hypergeometric series and the corresponding unit roots for ordinary primes. The other method makes use of the theory of hypergeometric motives, in particular, adapts the techniques from the recent work of Beukers, Cohen and Mellit on finite hypergeometric sums over $\mathbb Q$. Essential ingredients in e…
We discuss Donaldson-Thomas (DT) invariants of torsion sheaves with 2 dimensional support on a smooth projective surface in an ambient non-compact Calabi Yau fourfold given by the total space of a rank 2 bundle on the surface. We prove that in certain cases, when the rank 2 bundle is chosen appropriately, the universal truncated Atiyah class of these codimension 2 sheaves reduces to one, defined over the moduli space of such sheaves realized as torsion codimension 1 sheaves in a noncompact divisor (threefold) embedded in the ambient fourfold. Such reduction property of universal Atiyah class e…
In the process of studying the zeta-function for one parameter families of Calabi-Yau manifolds we have been led to a manifold, first studied by Verrill, for which the quartic numerator of the zeta-function factorises into two quadrics remarkably often. Among these factorisations, we find persistent factorisations; these are determined by a parameter that satisfies an algebraic equation with coefficients in Q, so independent of any particular prime. Such factorisations are expected to be modular with each quadratic factor associated to a modular form. If the parameter is defined over Q this mo…
