By using superisolated surface singularities whose link is a rational homology sphere we give counterexamples to some of the most important conjetures concernig invariants of normal surface singularities.
We give explicit examples of Gorenstein surface singularities with integral homology sphere link, which are not complete intersections. Their existence was shown by Luengo-Velasco, Melle-Hernandez and Nemethi, thereby providing counterexamples to the Universal abelian covering conjecture of Neumann and Wahl.
Any germ of a complex analytic space is equipped with two natural metrics: the outer metric induced by the hermitian metric of the ambient space and the inner metric, which is the associated riemannian metric on the germ. A complex analytic germ is said Lipschitz normally embedded (LNE) if its outer and inner metrics are bilipschitz equivalent. LNE seems to be fairly rare among surface singularities; the only known LNE surface germs outside the trivial case (straight cones) are the minimal singularities. In this paper, we show that a superisolated hypersurface singularity is LNE if and only if…
In this survey, we review part of the theory of superisolated surface singularities (SIS) and its applications including some new and recent developments. The class of SIS singularities is, in some sense, the simplest class of germs of normal surface singularities. Namely, their tangent cones are reduced curves and the geometry and topology of the SIS singularities can be deduced from them. Thus this class \emph{contains}, in a canonical way, all the complex projective plane curve theory, which gives a series of nice examples and counterexamples. They were introduced by I. Luengo to show the n…
For a double solid $V\to P_3(C)$ branched over a surface $B\subset P_3(C)$ with only ordinary nodes as singularities, we give a set of generators of the divisor class group $Pic(\tilde{V}})$ in terms of contact surfaces of $B$ with only superisolated singularities in the nodes of $B$. As an application we give a condition when the integral cohomology of $\tilde{V}$ has no 2-torsion. All possible cases are listed if $B$ is a quartic surface. Furthermore we give a new lower bound for the dimension of the code of $B$.
Let $(X,o)$ be a complex normal surface singularity. We fix one of its good resolutions $\widetilde{X}\to X$, an effective cycle $Z$ supported on the reduced exceptional curve, and any possible (first Chern) class $l'\in H^2(\widetilde{X},\mathbb{Z})$. With these data we define the variety ${\rm ECa}^{l'}(Z)$ of those effective Cartier divisors $D$ supported on $Z$ which determine a line bundles $\mathcal{O}_Z(D)$ with first Chern class $l'$. Furthermore, we consider the affine space ${\rm Pic}^{l'}(Z)\subset H^1(\mathcal{O}_Z^*)$ of isomorphism classes of holomorphic line bundles with Chern c…
Let $Y$ be a generic link of a subvariety $X$ of a nonsingular variety $A$. We give a description of the Grauert-Riemenschneider canonical sheaf of $Y$ in terms of the multiplier ideal sheaves associated to $X$ and use it to study the singularities of $Y$. As the first application, we give a criterion when $Y$ has rational singularities and show that log canonical threshold increases and log canonical pairs are preserved in generic linkage. As another application we give a quick and simple liaison method to generalize the results of de Fernex-Ein and Chardin-Ulrich on the Castelnuovo-Mumford r…
We prove that a sufficiently large surgery on any algebraic link is an L-space. For torus links we give a complete classification of integer surgery coefficients providing L-spaces.
We characterize sandwiched singularities in terms of their link in two different settings. We first prove that such singularities are precisely the normal surface singularities having self-similar non-archimedean links. We describe this self-similarity both in terms of Berkovich analytic geometry and of the combinatorics of weighted dual graphs. We then show that a complex surface singularity is sandwiched if and only if its complex link can be embedded in a Kato surface in such a way that its complement remains connected.
In this article, we consider an infinite family of normal surface singularities with an integral homology sphere link which is related to the family of space monomial curves with a plane semigroup. These monomial curves appear as the special fibers of equisingular families of curves whose generic fibers are a complex plane branch, and the related surface singularities appear in a proof of the monodromy conjecture for these curves. To investigate whether the link of a normal surface singularity is an integral homology sphere, one can use a characterization that depends on the determinant of the…
The main question we target is the following: If one fixes a topological type of a complex normal surface singularity then what are the possible analytic types supported by it, and/or, what are the possible values of the geometric genus? We answer the question for a specific (in some sense pathological) topological type, which supports rather different analytic structures. These structures are listed together with some of their key analytic invariants.
We describe Milnor open books and Legendrian surgery diagrams for canonical contact structures of links of some rational surface singularities. We also describe an infinite family of Milnor fillable contact 3-manifolds so that the Milnor genus (resp. Milnor norm) is strictly greater than the support genus (resp. support norm) of the canonical contact structure, for each member of this family.
This is a part survey part research paper studying the local topology of complex analytic spaces. We review and strengthen the results of Kapovich--Kollár "Fundamental groups of links of isolated singularities" (1109.4047) and incorporate the paper "Dual graphs of exceptional divisors" (1203.2640) into the current one. A new result is the characterization of the fundamental group of links of Cohen-Macaulay singularities. The last section lists numerous open problems and conjectures. Version 2: Questions 62--65 revised following comments of Shaneson and Maxim. Version 3: Many small changes, esp…
We recover the Newton diagram (modulo a natural ambiguity) from the link for any surface hypersurface singularity with non-degenerate Newton principal part whose link is a rational homology sphere. As a corollary, we show that the link determines the embedded topological type, the Milnor fibration, and the multiplicity of such a germ. This proves (even a stronger version of) Zariski's Conjecture about the multiplicity for such a singularity.
We prove that the link of a complex normal surface singularity is an L--space if and only if the singularity is rational. This via a recent result of Hanselman, J. Rasmussen, S. D. Rasmussen and Watson (proving the conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson), shows that a singularity link is not rational if and only if its fundamental group is left-orderable if and only if it admits a coorientable taut foliation.
It has long been known that every quasi-homogeneous normal complex surface singularity with Q-homology sphere link has universal abelian cover a Brieskorn complete intersection singularity. We describe a broad generalization: First, one has a class of complete intersection normal complex surface singularities called "splice type singularities", which generalize Brieskorn complete intersections. Second, these arise as universal abelian covers of a class of normal surface singularities with Q-homology sphere links, called "splice-quotient singularities". According to the Main Theorem, splice-quo…
A generalised Thurston-Bennequin invariant for a Q-singularity of a real algebraic variety is defined as a linking form on the homologies of the real link of the singularity. The main goal of this paper is to present a method to calculate the linking form in terms of the very good resolution graph of a real normal unibranch surface singularity. For such singularities, the value of the linking form is the Thurston-Bennequin number of the real link of the singularity. As a special case of unibranch surface singularities, the behaviour of the linking form is investigated on the Brieskorn double p…
We study fundamental groups of projective varieties with normal crossing singularities and of germs of complex singularities. We prove that for every finitely-presented group G there is a complex projective surface S with simple normal crossing singularities only, so that the fundamental group of S is isomorphic to G. We use this to construct 3-dimensional isolated complex singularities so that the fundamental group of the link is isomorphic to G. Lastly, we prove that a finitely-presented group G is Q-superperfect (has vanishing rational homology in dimensions 1 and 2) if and only if G is iso…
The abstract link L_d of the complex isolated singularity x^2 + y^2 + z^2 + v^{2d} = 0 is diffeomorphic to S^3 \times S^2. We classify the embedded links of these singularities up to regular homotopies precomposed with diffeomorphisms of S^3 \times S^2. Let us denote by i_d the inclusion of L_d in S^7. We show that for arbitrary diffeomorphisms φ_d of S^3 \times S^2 with L_d the compositions i_d \circ φ_d are image regularly homotopic for two values d_1 and d_2 if and only if d_1-d_2 is even.
We study the boundary of the Milnor fibre of real analytic singularities $f: (\bR^m,0) \to (\bR^k,0)$, $m\geq k$, with an isolated critical value and the Thom $a_f$-property. We define the vanishing zone for $f$ and we give necessary and sufficient conditions for it to be a fibre bundle over the link of the singular set of $f^{-1}(0)$. In the case of singularities of the type $\fgbar: (\bC^n,0) \to (\bC,0)$ with an isoalted critical value, $f, g$ holomorphic, we further describe the degeneration of the boundary of the Milnor fibre to the link of $\fgbar$. As a milestone, we also construct a Lê…
In the present article we determine and characterize completely the support genus, the binding number and the norm of a page of an open book under the following restrictions: M is a rational homology sphere which can be realized as the link of a surface singularity. Moreover, we restrict ourselves to the collection of those open book decompositions which can be realized as Milnor fibrations determined by some analytic germ (the so-called Milnor open books).
We construct the equivariant analytic lattice cohomology associated with the analytic type of a complex normal surface singularity whenever the link is a rational homology sphere. It is the categorification of the equivariant geometric genus of the germ. This is the analytic analogue of the topological lattice cohomology, associated with the link of the germ, and indexed by the spin$^c$--structures of the link (which is a categorification of the Seiberg--Witten invariant and conjecturally it is isomorphic with the Heegaard Floer cohomology).
While the topological types of {normal} surface singularities with homology sphere link have been classified, forming a rich class, until recently little was known about the possible analytic structures. We proved in [Geom. Topol. 9(2005) 699-755] that many of them can be realized as complete intersection singularities of "splice type", generalizing Brieskorn type. We show that a normal singularity with homology sphere link is of splice type if and only if some naturally occurring knots in the singularity link are themselves links of hypersurface sections of the singular point. The Casson Inva…
A link of an isolated singularity of a two-dimensional semialgebraic surface in $R^4$ is a knot (or a link) in $S^3$. Thus the ambient Lipschitz classification of surface singularities in $R^4$ can be interpreted as a bi-Lipschitz refinement of the topological classification of knots (or links) in $S^3$. We show that, given a knot $K$ in $S^3$, there are infinitely many distinct ambient Lipschitz equivalence classes of outer metric Lipschitz equivalent singularities in $R^4$ with the links topologically equivalent to $K$.
For any elliptic normal surface singularity with rational homology sphere link we consider a new elliptic sequence, which differs from the one introduced by Laufer and S. S.-T. Yau. However, we show that their length coincide. Using the properties of both sequences we succeed to connect the common length with the geometric genus and also with several topological invariants, e.g. with the Seiberg--Witten invariant of the link.
For a germ of a variety $\mathcal{V}, 0 \subset \mathbb C^N, 0$, a singularity $\mathcal{V}_0$ of type $\mathcal{V}$, is given by a germ $f_0 : \mathbb C^n, 0 \to \mathbb C^N, 0$ which is transverse to $\mathcal{V}$ in an appropriate sense so that $\mathcal{V}_0 = f_0^{-1}(\mathcal{V})$. For these singularities, we introduce "characteristic cohomology" to capture the contribution of the topology of $\mathcal{V}$ to that of $\mathcal{V}_0$, for the Milnor fiber (for $\mathcal{V}, 0$ a hypersurface), and complement and link of $\mathcal{V}_0$ (in the general case). The characteristic cohomology …
This is a continuation of our paper math.AG/0111298. We prove an explicit formula for the geometric genus p_g of a quasihomogeneous isolated surface singularity in terms of the Seiberg-Witten invariant of the link and other topological data which can be read from a resolution graph of the singularity. Moreover, we also determine all the Reidemeister-Turaev sign-refined torsion of the link (associated with any spin^c structure) in terms of the Seifert invariants.
For analytic map germs $f: (\mathbb{R}^n, 0)\to (\mathbb{R}, 0)$ having an isolated critical value in the origin with $\dim V(f)>0$ and satisfying the transversality property of D.B. Massey we show that for $c>0$ a large enough constant, and $k$ a large enough natural number the local Milnor-Lê fibers of $f$ and of the isolated singularity $g=f-c(\sum_{i=1}^n x_i^2)^k$ satisfies the following. There exists a homotopy equivalence between the negative Milnor-Lê fiber of $f$, to which a cobordism between its boundary and the link of $f$ has been adjoined, and the negative Milnor-Lê fiber of $g$.
We use purely topological methods to prove the semicontinuity of the mod 2 spectrum of local isolated hypersurface singularities in $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$, using Seifert forms of high-dimensional non-spherical links, the Levine--Tristram signatures and the generalized Murasugi--Kawauchi inequality obtained in earlier work for cobordisms of links.
Given a normal surface singularity (X,0), its link, M is a closed differentiable three dimensional manifold which carries much analytic information. It is an interesting question to ask whether, under suitable analytic and topological conditions, the geometric genus (or other analytic invariants) can be recovered from the link. The Casson invariant conjecture predicts that p_g can be identified using the Casson invariant in the case when (X,0) is a complete intersection and M has trivial first homology with integral coefficients. The Seiberg-Witten invariant conjecture predicts that the geomet…
The main message of the paper is that for Gorenstein singularities, whose (real) link is rational homology sphere, the Artin--Laufer program can be continued. Here we give the complete answer in the case of elliptic singularities. The main result of the paper says that in the case of an elliptic Gorenstein singularity whose link is rational homology sphere, the geometric genus is a topological invariant. Actually, it is exactly the length of the elliptic sequence in the minimal resolution (or, equivalently, in S. S.-T. Yau's terminology: these singularities are maximally elliptic). In the pape…
This expository talk is an expanded version of a lecture at G.-M. Greuel's 60th Birthday Conference in Kaiserslautern in October, 2004. We survey recent work of Neumann-Wahl and others on the relation between topology and geometry of normal surface singularities, especially how to write explicit equations of a singularity with given topology, in case the link is a rational homology sphere (i.e., the resolution graph is a tree of rational curves). Specifically, under some reasonable conditions on the link, there is an explicit "complete intersection of splice type" whose link is the universal a…
We construct closed arboreal Lagrangian skeleta associated to links of isolated plane curve singularities. This yields closed arboreal Lagrangian skeleta for Weinstein pairs and Weinstein 4-manifolds associated to max-tb Legendrian representatives of algebraic links. We provide computations of Legendrian and Weinstein invariants, and discuss the symplectic topological nature of the Fomin-Pylyavskyy-Shustin-Thurston cluster algebra associated to a singularity. Finally, we present a conjectural ADE-classification for Lagrangian fillings of certain Legendrian links and list some related problems.
The current work will appear in a Celebratio Mathematica volume in honor of Walter Neumann. We summarize results and methods from our long-time collaboration with Neumann, especially the motivation for the introduction of splice diagrams to define singularities of splice type and splice-quotient singularities. The Casson Invariant Conjecture and Milnor Fiber Conjectures are discussed, as well as some open questions about hypersurface and complete intersection singularities with integral homology sphere link.
Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences(波兰科学院数学研究所);Department of Mathematics, Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University(庆应义塾大学日吉校区数学系);Tokyo Institute of Technology(东京工业大学);Departement of Mathematics, Galatasaray University(加拉塔萨雷大学数学系)
We study the cohomology of the generic determinantal varieties $M_{m,n}^s = \{ φ\in \mathbb C^{m\times n} : \mathrm{rank} φ<s \}$, their polar multiplicities, their sections $D_k \cap M_{m,n}^s$ by generic hyperplanes $D_k$ of various dimension $k$, and the real and complex links of the spaces $(D_k\cap M_{m,n}^s,0)$. Such complex links were shown to provide the basic building blocks in a bouquet decomposition for the (determinantal) smoothings of smoothable isolated determinantal singularities. The detailed vanishing topology of such singularities was still not fully understood beyond isolate…
We construct the analytic lattice cohomology associated with the analytic type of any complex normal surface singularity. It is the categorification of the geometric genus of the germ, whenever the link is a rational homology sphere. It is the analytic analogue of the topological lattice cohomology, associated with the link of the germ whenever it is a rational homology sphere. This topological lattice cohomology is the categorification of the Seiberg--Witten invariant, and conjecturally it is isomorphic with the Heegaard Floer cohomology. We compare the two lattice cohomologies: in some simpl…
We study the counting function of topological Poincaré series associated with rational homology sphere plumbed 3-manifold with connected negative definite tree, interpreting as an alternating sum of coefficient functions associated with some Taylor expansions. It is motivated by a theorem of Szenes and Vergne which expresses these coefficient functions in terms of Jeffrey--Kirwan residues. This is used to prove the uniqueness of the quasipolynomiality inside a special cone, the structure of the counting function in terms of the graph and construction for a polynomial generalization of the Seib…
We consider suspension hypersurface singularities of type g=f(x,y)+z^n, where f is an irreducible plane curve singularity. For such germs, we prove that the link of g determines completely the Newton pairs of f and the integer n except for two pathological cases, which can be completely described. Even in the pathological cases, the link and the Milnor number of g determine uniquely the Newton pairs of f and n. In particular, for such g, we verify Zariski's conjecture about the multiplicity. The result also supports the following conjecture formulated in the paper. If the link of an isolated h…
We discuss the evidence for and implications of a conjecture that the universal abelian cover of a Q-Gorenstein surface singularity with finite local homology (i.e., the singularity link is a Q-homology sphere) is a complete intersection singularity.
In this paper, we give partial answers to the following questions: Which contact manifolds are contactomorphic to links of isolated complex singularities? Which symplectic manifolds are symplectomorphic to smooth affine varieties? The invariant that we will use to distinguish such manifolds is called the growth rate of wrapped Floer cohomology. Using this invariant we show that if Q is a simply connected manifold whose unit cotangent bundle is contactomorphic to the link of an isolated singularity or whose cotangent bundle is symplectomorphic to a smooth affine variety then M must be rationall…
We use topological methods to prove a semicontinuity property of the Hodge spectra for analytic germs defined on an isolated surface singularity. For this we introduce an analogue of the Seifert matrix (the fractured Seifert matrix), and of the Levine--Tristram signatures associated with it, defined for null-homologous links in arbitrary three dimensional manifolds. Moreover, we establish Murasugi type inequalities in the presence of cobordisms of links. It turns out that the fractured Seifert matrix determines the Hodge spectrum and the Murasugi type inequalities can be read as spectrum semic…
The paper is devoted to relations between topological and metric properties of germs of real surfaces, obtained by analytic maps from $R^2$ to $R^4$. We show that for a big class of such surfaces the normal embedding property implies the triviality of the knot, presenting the link of the surfaces. We also present some criteria of normal embedding in terms of the polar curves.
We formulate a very general conjecture relating the analytical invariants of a normal surface singularity to the Seiberg-Witten invariants of its link provided that the link is a rational homology sphere. As supporting evidence, we establish its validity for a large class of singularities: some rational and minimally elliptic (including the cyclic quotient and `polygonal') singularities, and Brieskorn-Hamm complete intersections. Some of the verifications are based on a result which describes (in terms of the plumbing graph) the Reidemeister-Turaev sign refined torsion (or, equivalently, the S…
We target multivariable series associated with resolutions of complex analytic normal surface singularities. In general, the equivariant multivariable analytical and topological Poincaré series are well-defined and have good properties only if the link is a rational homology sphere. We wish to create a model when this assumption is not valid: we analyse the case of cusps. For such germs we define even the motivic versions of these two series, we prove that they are equal, and we provide explicit combinatorial expression for them. This is done via a motivic multivariable series associated with …
We give a summary on spectral techniques for finite dimensional algebras and study its link to singularity theory. In particular, we offer a contribution to the categorification of the Milnor lattice of two-dimensional singularities through triangulated categories naturally associated with a weighted projective line.
We define normalized versions of Berkovich spaces over a trivially valued field $k$, obtained as quotients by the action of $\mathbb R_{>0}$ defined by rescaling semivaluations. We associate such a normalized space to any special formal $k$-scheme and prove an analogue of Raynaud's theorem, characterizing categorically the spaces obtained in this way. This construction yields a locally ringed $G$-topological space, which we prove to be $G$-locally isomorphic to a Berkovich space over the field $k((t))$ with a $t$-adic valuation. These spaces can be interpreted as non-archimedean models for the…
We address Nash problem for surface singularities using wedges. We give a refinement of the characterisation of A. Reguera of the image of the Nash map in terms of wedges. Our improvement consists in a characterisation of the bijectivity of the Nash mapping using wedges defined over the base field, which are convergent if the base field is the field of complex numbers, and whose generic arc has transverse lifting to the exceptional divisor of a resolution of singularities. This improves the recent results of M. Lejeune-Jalabert and A. Reguera for the surface case. In the way to do this we find…