In two articles by Barthel, Brasselet, Fieseler and Kaup, and, Bressler and Lunts, a combinatorial theory of intersection cohomology and perverse sheaves has been developed on fans. In the first one, one tried to present everything on an elementary level,using only some commutative algebra and no derived categories. There remained two major gaps:
First of all the Hard Lefschetz Theorem was only conjectured and secondly the intersection product seemed to depend on some non-canonical choices. Meanwhile the Hard Lefschetz theorem has been proved by Karu. The proof relies heavily on the intersection product, since what finally has to be shown are the Hodge-Riemann relations. In fact here again choices enter: The intersection product is induced from the intersection product on some simplicial subdivision via a direct embedding of the corresponding intersection cohomology sheaves, a fact, which makes the argumentation quite involved. In a recent paper by Bressler and Lunts, one shows by a detailed analysis that eventually all possible choices do not affect the definition of the pairing.
Our goal here is the same, but we shall try to follow the spirit of the first cited paper avoiding the formalism of derived categories. For perverse sheaves we define their dual sheaf and check that the intersection cohomology sheaf is self- dual in a natural way.
There is a strange duality between the quadrangle isolated complete intersection singularities discovered by the first author and C.T.C.Wall. We derive this duality from the mirror symmetry, the Berglund-Hübsch transposition of invertible polynomials, and our previous results about the strange duality between hypersurface and complete intersection singularities using matrix factorizations of size two.
C.T.C. Wall and the first author discovered an extension of Arnold's strange duality embracing on one hand series of bimodal hypersurface singularities and on the other, isolated complete intersection singularities. In this paper, we derive this duality from the mirror symmetry and the Berglund-Hübsch transposition of invertible polynomials.
Classically, the projective duality between joins of varieties and the intersections of varieties only holds in good cases. In this paper, we show that categorically, the duality between joins and intersections holds in the framework of homological projective duality (HPD) [K07], as long as the intersections have expected dimensions. This result together with its various applications provide further evidences for the proposal of homological projective geometry of Kuznetsov and Perry [KP18]. When the varieties are inside disjoint linear subspaces, our approach also provides a new proof of the m…
We prove that there is an algorithm to compute the class of the intersection of the divisor of schemes incident to a fixed line with any other class of a basis of the Chow ring $A^*(\mathbb{P}^{2[N]})$ due to Mallavibarrena and Sols. This is progress towards a combinatorial description of the intersection product on the Hilbert scheme of points in the projective plane.
The proof of the combinatorial Hard Lefschetz Theorem for the ``virtual'' intersection cohomology of a not necessarily rational polytopal fan that has been presented by K. Karu completely establishes Stanley's conjectures for the generalized $h$-vector of an arbitrary polytope. The main ingredients, namely, Poincare Duality and the Hard Lefschetz Theorem, both rely on the intersection product. In the constructions of Barthel, Brasselet, Fieseler and Kaup and Bressler and Lunts, there remained an apparent ambiguity. The recent solution of this problem by Bressler and Lunts uses the formalism of…
We give a generalization of the duality of a zero-dimensional complete intersection to the case of one-dimensional almost complete intersections, which results in a {\em Gorenstein module} $M=I/J$. In the real case the resulting pairing has a signature, which we show to be constant under flat deformations. In the special case of a non-isolated real hypersurface singularity $f$ with a one-dimensional critical locus, we relate the signature on the jacobian module $I/J_f$ to the Euler characteristic of the positive and negative Milnor fibre, generalising the result for isolated critical points. A…
This is an expanded version of the author's talk at the third annual meeting of International Consortium of Chinese Mathematicians held at USTC in December 2020. In this expository article, we give a survey on joint works with Hosono, Lian, and Yau in arXiv:2003.07148 and arXiv:2008.04039. We also carry out some explicit examples to illustrate our results in enumerative geometry which will appear in our forthcoming papers.
The real intersection cohomology of a toric variety is described in a purely combinatorial way using methods of elementary commutative algebra only. We define, for arbitrary fans, the notion of a ``minimal extension sheaf'' on the fan as an axiomatic characterization of the equivariant intersection cohomology sheaf. This provides a purely algebraic interpretation of Stanley's generalized f- and g-vector of an arbitrary polytope or complete fan under a natural vanishing condition. -- The results presented in this note originate from joint work with G.Barthel, J.-P.Brasselet and L.Kaup, continui…
We show that every complete intersection of Laurent polynomials in an algebraic torus is isomorphic to a complete intersection of master functions in the complement of a hyperplane arrangement, and vice versa. We call this association Gale duality because the exponents of the monomials in the polynomials annihilate the weights of the master functions. We use Gale duality to give a Kouchnirenko theorem for the number of solutions to a system of master functions and to compute some topological invariants of generic master function complete intersections.
Paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal für die reine und Angewandte Mathematik. This version contains the corrections and additional references made in the Galley proofs.
The Hilbert scheme of $n$ points in the affine plane contains the open subscheme parametrizing $n$ distinct points in the affine plane, and the closed subscheme parametrizing ideals of codimension $n$ supported at the origin of the affine plane. Both schemes admit Białynicki-Birula decompositions into moduli spaces of ideals with prescribed lexicographic Gröbner deformations. We show that both decompositions are stratifications in the sense that the closure of each stratum is a union of certain other strata. We show that the corresponding two partial orderings on the set of of monomial ideals …
We show that every thick subcategory of the singularity category of a complete intersection ring is self dual. We also prove the analogous statement for thick subcategories of the bounded derived category and give applications to the symmetry of vanishing of cohomology. These results are also proved for certain complete intersection schemes.
For zero-dimensional complete intersections with homogeneous ideal generators of equal degrees over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, we give a combinatorial proof of the smoothness of the corresponding catalecticant schemes along an open subset of a particular irreducible component.
Assume that the link of a complex normal surface singularity is a rational homology sphere. Then its Seiberg-Witten invariant can be computed as the `periodic constant' of the topological multivariable Poincaré series (zeta function). This involves a complicated regularization procedure (via quasipolynomials measuring the asymptotic behaviour of the coefficients). We show that the (a Gorenstein type) symmetry of the zeta function combined with Ehrhart-Macdonald-Stanley reciprocity (of Ehrhart theory of polytopes) provide a simple expression for the periodic constant. Using these dualities we a…
The Hurwitz space is a compactification of the space of rational functions of a given degree. We study the intersection of various strata of this space with its boundary. A study of the cohomology ring of the Hurwitz space then allows us to obtain recurrence relations for certain numbers of ramified coverings of a sphere by a sphere with prescribed ramifications. Generating functions for these numbers belong to a very particular subalgebra of the algebra of power series.
We review the theory of combinatorial intersection cohomology of fans developed by Barthel-Brasselet-Fieseler-Kaup, Bressler-Lunts, and Karu. This theory gives a substitute for the intersection cohomology of toric varieties which has all the expected formal properties but makes sense even for non-rational fans, which do not define a toric variety. As a result, a number of interesting results on the toric $g$ and $h$ polynomials have been extended from rational polytopes to general polytopes. We present explicit complexes computing the combinatorial IH in degrees one and two; the degree two com…
Motivated by definitions in mixed Hodge theory, we define the weight filtration and the monodromy weight filtration on the combinatorial intersection cohomology of a fan. These filtrations give a natural definition of the multivariable invariants of subdivisions of polytopes, lattice polytopes and fans, namely the mixed $h$-polynomial, the refined limit mixed $h^*$-polynomial, and the mixed $cd$-index, defined by Katz--Stapledon and Dornian--Katz--Tsang. Previously, only the refined limit mixed $h^*$-polynomial had a geometric interpretation, which came from filtrations on the cohomology of a …
We propose a combinatorical duality for lattice polyhedra which conjecturally gives rise to the pairs of mirror symmetric families of Calabi-Yau complete intersections in toric Fano varieties with Gorenstein singularities. Our construction is a generalization of the polar duality proposed by Batyrev for the case of hypersurfaces.
We prove in full generality the mirror duality conjecture for string-theoretic Hodge numbers of Calabi-Yau complete intersections in Gorenstein toric Fano varieties. The proof is based on properties of intersection cohomology
The Beilinson-Bloch type conjectures predict that the low degree rational Chow groups of intersections of quadrics are one dimensional. This conjecture was proved by Otwinowska. Making use of homological projective duality and the recent theory of (Jacobians of) noncommutative Chow motives, we give an alternative proof of this conjecture in the case of a complete intersection of either two quadrics or three odd-dimensional quadrics. Moreover, without the use of the powerful Lefschetz theorem, we prove that in these cases the unique non-trivial algebraic Jacobian is the middle one. As an applic…
The purpose of this paper is to review some combinatorial ideas behind the mirror symmetry for Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces and complete intersections in Gorenstein toric Fano varieties. We suggest as a basic combinatorial object the notion of a Gorenstein polytope of index r. A natural combinatorial duality for d-dimensional Gorenstein polytopes of index r extends the well-known polar duality for reflexive polytopes (case r=1). We consider the Borisov duality between two nef-partitions as a duality between two Gorenstein polytopes P and P^* of index r together with selected special (r-1)-dimensio…
We show that certain categories of perverse sheaves on a pair of affine toric varieties defined by dual cones are Koszul dual in the sense of Beilinson, Ginzburg and Soergel. The functor expressing this duality is constructed explicitly using a combinatorial model for mixed sheaves on toric varieties.
Points in the intersection of Schubert varieties are counted by various combinatorial objects, for example standard tableaux. This paper consider the problem of producing a natural labelling of intersection points by these combinatorial objects. When the Schubert varieties are being taken with respect to flags osculating at real points, several different methods have appeared implicitly in the literature (specifically in work of Mukhin-Tarasov-Varchenko, Speyer and Marcus). In this paper we show these various methods produce the same labelling and we describe it in an elementary way.
We continue the approach toward a purely combinatorial "virtual" intersection cohomology for possibly non-rational fans, based on our investigation of equivariant intersection cohomology for toric varieties (see math.AG/9904159). Fundamental objects of study are "minimal extension sheaves" on "fan spaces". These are flabby sheaves of graded modules over a sheaf of polynomial rings, satisfying three relatively simple axioms that characterize the properties of the equivariant intersection cohomology sheaf on a toric variety, endowed with the finite topology given by open invariant subsets. These…
It is conjectured that the dual variety of every smooth nonlinear subvariety of dimension $> \frac{2N}{3}$ in projective $N$-space is a hypersurface, an expectation known as the duality defect conjecture. This would follow from the truth of Hartshorne's complete intersection conjecture but nevertheless remains open for the case of subvarieties of codimension $> 2$. A combinatorial approach to proving the conjecture in the codimension $2$ case was developed by Holme, and following this approach Oaland devised an algorithm for proving the conjecture in the codimension $3$ case for particular $N$…
This is an extended example of the study of mirror symmetry via log schemes and the discrete Legendre transform on affine manifolds, introduced by myself and Bernd Siebert in "Mirror Symmetry via Logarithmic Degeneration Data I" (math.AG/0309070). In this paper, I consider the construction as it applies to the Batyrev-Borisov construction for complete intersections in toric varieties. Given a pair of reflexive polytopes with nef decompositions dual to each other, and given polarizations on the corresponding toric varieties, we construct examples of toric degenerations and their dual intersecti…
Let $X$ be a smooth variety or orbifold and let $Z \subseteq X$ be a complete intersection defined by a section of a vector bundle $E \to X$. Originally proposed by Givental, quantum Serre duality refers to a precise relationship between the Gromov--Witten invariants of $Z$ and those of the dual vector bundle $E^\vee$. In this paper we prove a quantum Serre duality statement for quasimap invariants. In shifting focus to quasimaps, we obtain a comparison which is simpler and which also holds for non-convex complete intersections. By combining our results with the wall-crossing formula developed…
In this article, we prove that there is a canonical Verdier self-dual intersection space sheaf complex for the middle perversity on Witt spaces that admit compatible trivializations for their link bundles, for example toric varieties. If the space is an algebraic variety our construction takes place in the category of mixed Hodge modules. We obtain an intersection space cohomology theory, satisfying Poincaré duality, valid for a class of pseudomanifolds with arbitrary depth stratifications. The main new ingredient is the category of Künneth complexes; these are cohomologically constructible co…
The method of intersection spaces associates rational Poincaré complexes to singular stratified spaces. For a conifold transition, the resulting cohomology theory yields the correct count of all present massless 3-branes in type IIB string theory, while intersection cohomology yields the correct count of massless 2-branes in type IIA theory. For complex projective hypersurfaces with an isolated singularity, we show that the cohomology of intersection spaces is the hypercohomology of a perverse sheaf, the intersection space complex, on the hypersurface. Moreover, the intersection space complex …
A net in $\mathbb{P}^2$ is a configuration of lines $\mathcal A$ and points $X$ satisfying certain incidence properties. Nets appear in a variety of settings, ranging from quasigroups to combinatorial design to classification of Kac-Moody algebras to cohomology jump loci of hyperplane arrangements. For a matroid $M$ and rank $r$, we associate a monomial ideal (a monomial variant of the Orlik-Solomon ideal) to the set of flats of $M$ of rank $\le r$. In the context of line arrangements in $\mathbb{P}^2$, applying Alexander duality to the resulting ideal yields insight into the combinatorial str…
In this article, we summarize combinatorial description of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds in Hibi toric varieties. Such Calabi-Yau threefolds have at worst conifold singularities, and are often smoothable to non-singular Calabi-Yau threefolds. We focus on such non-singular Calabi-Yau threefolds of Picard number one, and illustrate the calculation of topological invariants, using new motivating examples.
We use a Mayer-Vietoris-like spectral sequence to establish vanishing results for the cohomology of complements of linear and elliptic hyperplane arrangements, as part of a more general framework involving duality and abelian duality properties of spaces and groups. In the process, we consider cohomology of local systems with a general, Cohen-Macaulay-type condition. As a result, we recover known vanishing theorems for rank-1 local systems as well as group ring coefficients, and obtain new generalizations.
Two arrangements with the same combinatorial intersection lattice but whose complements have different fundamental groups are called a Zariski pair. This work finds that there are at most nine such pairs amongst all ten line arrangements whose intersection points are doubles or triples. This result is obtained by considering the moduli space of a given configuration table which describes the intersection lattice. A complete combinatorial classification is given of all arrangements of this type under a suitable assumption, producing a list of seventy-one described in a table, most of which do n…
Viewing a fan as a partially ordered set (of cones) we consider a category of sheaves on the fan which corresponds to a category of equivariant sheaves on the corresponding toric variety if the fan is rational. In this category we define an object which corresponds to the equivariant intersection cohomology complex. Our first main result is the ``elementary'' decomposition theorem for the direct image under subdivision of fans We also develop the Borel-Moore- Verdier duality in the derived category of sheaves on the fan.
We review some relations occurring between the combinatorial intersection theory on the moduli spaces of stable curves and the asymptotic behavior of the 't Hooft-Kontsevich matrix integrals. In particular, we give an alternative proof of the Witten-Di Francesco-Itzykson-Zuber theorem --which expresses derivatives of the partition function of intersection numbers as matrix integrals-- using techniques based on diagrammatic calculus and combinatorial relations among intersection numbers. These techniques extend to a more general interaction potential.
We introduce a duality construction for toric Landau-Ginzburg models, applicable to complete intersections in toric varieties via the sigma model / Landau-Ginzburg model correspondence. This construction is shown to reconstruct those of Batyrev-Borisov, Berglund-H"ubsch, Givental, and Hori-Vafa. It can be done in more general situations, and provides partial resolutions when the above constructions give a singular mirror. An extended example is given: the Landau-Ginzburg models dual to elliptic curves in (P^1)^2 .