For a subvariety of a smooth projective variety, consider the family of smooth hypersurfaces of sufficiently large degree containing it, and take the quotient of the middle cohomology of the hypersurfaces by the cohomology of the ambient variety and also by the cycle classes of the irreducible components of the subvariety. Using Deligne's semisimplicity theorem together with Steenbrink's theory for semistable degenerations, we give a simpler proof of the first author's theorem (with a better bound of the degree of hypersurfaces) that this monodromy representation is irreducible.
We give a survey on some aspects of the topological investigation of isolated singularities of complex hypersurfaces by means of Picard-Lefschetz theory. We focus on the concept of distinguished bases of vanishing cycles and the concept of monodromy.
We show that if a cubic hypersurface with positive dual defect over the complex number field is not a cone, then either the hypersurface coincides with the secant variety of the singular locus, or the hypersurface contains a linear subvariety of dimension greater than the dual defect such that the intersection of the singular locus and a general contact locus is contained in the linear subvariety.
Let $X$ be a general complex projective hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ of degree $d>1$. A point $P$ not in $X$ is called uniform if the monodromy group of the projection of $X$ from $P$ is isomorphic to the symmetric group. We prove that all the points in $\mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ are uniform for $X$, generalizing a result of Cukierman on general plane curves.
We introduce braid monodromy for the discriminant hypersurface in versal unfoldings of hypersurface singularities. Our objective is then to compute this invariant for singularities of Brieskorn Pham type: First we consider the unfolding by linear monomials in some detail and relate it to the versal unfolding. Next we present the A_n case in our framework. The two main chapters then provide the result in case of two variables and the inductive step to all higher dimensions. We finish with a presentation of the fundamental group of the discriminant complement.
Let $X$ be an irreducible, reduced complex projective hypersurface of degree $d$. A point $P$ not contained in $X$ is called uniform if the monodromy group of the projection of $X$ from $P$ is isomorphic to the symmetric group $S_d$. We prove that the locus of non--uniform points is finite when $X$ is smooth or a general projection of a smooth variety. In general, it is contained in a finite union of linear spaces of codimension at least $2$, except possibly for a special class of hypersurfaces with singular locus linear in codimension $1$. Moreover, we generalise a result of Fukasawa and Taka…
We consider an arbitrary polynomial map $f:{\mathbb C}^{n+1}\to {\mathbb C} $ and we study the Alexander invariants of ${\mathbb C}^{n+1}\setminus X$ for any fiber $X$ of $f$. The article has two major messages. First, the most important qualitative properties of the Alexander modules are completely independent of the behaviour of $f$ at infinity, or about the special fibers. Second, all the Alexander invariants of all the fibers of the polynomial $f$ are closely related to the monodromy representation of $f$. In fact, all the torsion parts of the Alexander modules (associated with all the pos…
We study the topology of the space of affine hyperplanes $L \subset \CC^n$ which are in general position with respect to a given generic quadratic hypersurface $A$, and calculate the monodromy action of the fundamental group of this space on the relative homology groups $H_*(\CC^n, A \cup L)$ associated with such hyperplanes.
The monodromy conjecture is an umbrella term for several conjectured relationships between poles of zeta functions, monodromy eigenvalues and roots of Bernstein-Sato polynomials in arithmetic geometry and singularity theory. Even the weakest of these relations -- the Denef--Loeser conjecture on topological zeta functions -- is open for surface singularities. We prove it for a wide class of multidimensional singularities that are non-degenerate with respect to their Newton polyhedra, including all such singularities of functions of four variables. A crucial difference from the known case of thr…
The Tannakian formalism allows to attach to any subvariety of an abelian variety an algebraic group in a natural way. The arising groups are closely related to moduli questions such as the Schottky problem, but their geometric interpretation is still mysterious. We show that for the theta divisor on the intermediate Jacobian of a cubic threefold, the Tannaka group is an exceptional group of type E_6. This is the first known exceptional case, and it suggests a connection with the monodromy of the Gauss map.
A Kodaira fibration is a non-isotrivial fibration $f\colon S\rightarrow B$ from a smooth algebraic surface $S$ to a smooth algebraic curve $B$ such that all fibers are smooth algebraic curves of genus $g$. Such fibrations arise as complete curves inside the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_g$ of genus $g$ algebraic curves. We investigate here the possible connected monodromy groups of a Kodaira fibration in the case $g=3$ and classify which such groups can arise from a Kodaira fibration obtained as a general complete intersection curve inside a subvariety of $\mathcal{M}_3$ parametrizing curves whose…
Let $Y$ be an $(m+1)$-dimensional irreducible smooth complex projective variety embedded in a projective space. Let $Z$ be a closed subscheme of $Y$, and $δ$ be a positive integer such that $\mathcal I_{Z,Y}(δ)$ is generated by global sections. Fix an integer $d\geq δ+1$, and assume the general divisor $X \in |H^0(Y,\ic_{Z,Y}(d))|$ is smooth. Denote by $H^m(X;\mathbb Q)_{\perp Z}^{\text{van}}$ the quotient of $H^m(X;\mathbb Q)$ by the cohomology of $Y$ and also by the cycle classes of the irreducible components of dimension $m$ of $Z$. In the present paper we prove that the monodromy represent…
A relation is proved between the Poincaré series of the coordinate algebra of a two-dimensional quasihomogeneous isolated hypersurface singularity and the characteristic polynomial of its monodromy operator. For a Kleinian singularity not of type $A_{2n}$, this amounts to the statement that the Poincaré series is the quotient of the characteristic polynomial of the Coxeter element by the characteristic polynomial of the affine Coxeter element of the corresponding root system. We show that this result also follows from the McKay correspondence.
We describe the relationship between intersection cohomology with twisted coefficients and the perverse sheaves which play the role of the eigenspaces for the Milnor monodromy of an affine hypersurface.
Let $k$ be an uncountable algebraically closed field of characteristic $0$, and let $X$ be a smooth projective connected variety of dimension $2p$, appropriately embedded into $\mathbb P^m$ over $k$. Let $Y$ be a hyperplane section of $X$, and let $A^p(Y)$ and $A^{p+1}(X)$ be the groups of algebraically trivial algebraic cycles of codimension $p$ and $p+1$ modulo rational equivalence on $Y$ and $X$ respectively. Assume that, whenever $Y$ is smooth, the group $A^p(Y)$ is regularly parametrized by an abelian variety $A$ and coincides with the subgroup of degree $0$ classes in the Chow group $CH^…
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…
The Monodromy Conjecture asserts that if c is a pole of the local topological zeta function of a hypersurface, then exp(2πi c) is an eigenvalue of the monodromy on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber. A stronger version of the conjecture asserts that every pole is a root of the Bernstein-Sato polynomial of the hypersurface. In this note we prove the weak version of the conjecture for hyperplane arrangements. Furthermore, we reduce the strong version to the following conjecture: -n/d is always a root of the Bernstein-Sato polynomial of an indecomposable essential central hyperplane arrangement o…
In this paper we are interested in proving that the infinitesimal variations of Hodge structure of hypersurfaces of high enough degree lie in a proper subvariety of the variety of all infinitesimal variations. This is proved using a space of symmetrizers as defined by Donagi, to identify a geometric structure carried by the variety of all infinitesimal variations of Hodge structure.
We study subvarieties of a general projective degree $d$ hypersurface $X_d\subset \mathbf P^n$. Our main theorem, which improves previous results of L. Ein and C. Voisin, implies in particular the following sharp corollary: any subvariety of a general hypersurface $X_{d}\subset {\mathbf P}^n$, for $n\geq 6$ and $d\geq 2n-2$, is of general type.
Let $\{V_q\}_{q}$ be a complex one-parameter family of smooth hypersurfaces in a toric variety. In this paper, we give a concrete description of the monodromy transformation of $\{V_q\}_q$ around $q=\infty$ in terms of tropical geometry. The main tool is the tropical localization introduced by Mikhalkin.
I describe the monodromy of smooth hypersurfaces $X$ of high degree in a fixed smooth variety $Y$ containing a fixed subvariety $W$ of $Y$. The cohomology of $X$ in middle degree spanned by the pull-back of the cohomology of $Y$ and by the classes of the irreducible components of $W$ is monodromy invariant. I show that the monodromy representation on the orthogonal of those classes is irreducible. The proof is essentially topological. Difficulties arise from the fact that $W$ may have arbitrary singularities.
A log generic hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^n$ with respect to a birational modification of $\mathbb{P}^n$ is by definition the image of a generic element of a high power of an ample linear series on the modification. A log very-generic hypersurface is defined similarly but restricting to line bundles satisfying a non-resonance condition. Fixing a log resolution of a product $f=f_1\ldots f_p$ of polynomials, we show that the monodromy conjecture, relating the motivic zeta function with the complex monodromy, holds for the tuple $(f_1,\ldots,f_p,g)$ and for the product $fg$, if $g$ is log generic…
The main goal of this work is to prove that every entire curve in a generic hypersurface of degree greater than or equal to 593 in the complex projective space of dimension 4 is algebraically degenerated i.e contained in a proper subvariety.
Let $H \subset {\mathbb P}^n$ be a real-analytic subvariety of codimension one induced by a real-analytic curve in the Grassmannian $G(n+1,n)$. Assuming $H$ has a global defining function, we prove $H$ is Levi-flat, the closure of its smooth points of top dimension is a union of complex hyperplanes, and its singular set is either of dimension $2n-2$ or dimension $2n-4$. If the singular set is of dimension $2n-4$, then we show the hypersurface is algebraic and the Levi-foliation extends to a singular holomorphic foliation of ${\mathbb P}^n$ with a meromorphic (rational of degree 1) first integr…
Let $k$ be an integer such that $1\leq k\leq n-5$, and $X_{2n-2-k}\subset \mathbf P^n$ a general projective hypersurface of degree $d=2n-2-k$. In this paper we prove that the only $k$-dimensional subvariety $Y$ of $X_{2n-2-k}$ having geometric genus zero is the one covered by the lines. As an immediate corollary we obtain that, for $n>5$, the general $X_{2n-3}\subset \mathbf P^n$, contains no rational curves of degree $δ>1$.
This paper is a sequel to [He7]. There a notion of marking of isolated hypersurface singularities was defined, and a moduli space $M_μ^{mar}$ for marked singularities in one $μ$-homotopy class of isolated hypersurface singularities was established. One can consider it as a global $μ$-constant stratum or as a Teichmüller space for singularities. It comes together with a $μ$-constant monodromy group $G^{mar}\subset G_Z$. Here $G_Z$ is the group of automorphisms of a Milnor lattice which respect the Seifert form. It was conjectured that $M_μ^{mar}$ is connected. This is equivalent to $G^{mar}= G_…
We introduce and study the vanishing homology of singular projective hypersurfaces. We prove its concentration in two levels in case of 1-dimensional singular locus $Σ$, and moreover determine the ranks of the nontrivial homology groups. These two groups depend on the monodromy at special points of $Σ$ and on the effect of the monodromy of the local system over its complement.
We find restrictions on the topology of tropical varieties that arise from a certain natural class of varieties. We develop a theory of tropical degenerations that is a nonconstant coefficient analogue of Tevelev's theory of tropical compactifications, and use it to construct normal crossings degenerations of a subvariety X of a torus, under mild hypotheses on X. These degenerations allow us to construct a natural, "multiplicity-free" parameterization of Trop(X) by a topological space Γ_X. We give a geometric interpretation of the cohomology of Γ_X in terms of the action of a monodromy operato…
We introduce and study coordinate-wise powers of subvarieties of $\mathbb{P}^n$, i.e. varieties arising from raising all points in a given subvariety of $\mathbb{P}^n$ to the $r$-th power, coordinate by coordinate. This corresponds to studying the image of a subvariety of $\mathbb{P}^n$ under the quotient of $\mathbb{P}^n$ by the action of the finite group $\mathbb{Z}_r^{n+1}$. We determine the degree of coordinate-wise powers and study their defining equations, particularly for hypersurfaces and linear spaces. Applying these results, we compute the degree of the variety of orthostochastic mat…
Let X be an irreducible, reduced complex projective hypersurface of degree d. A uniform point for X is a point P such that the projection of X from P has maximal monodromy. We extend and improve some results concerning the finiteness of the locus of non-uniform points for projections of hypersurfaces obtained by the authors and Cuzzucoli only for P not contained in X.
We consider a hypersurface in $\mathbb{C}^n$ with an isolated singular point at the origin, and study the mixed Hodge structure of the stalk of its intersection cohomology complex at the origin. In particular we express the dimension of each graded piece of the weight filtration of this mixed Hodge structure in terms of the numbers of the Jordan blocks in the Milnor monodromy.
R. Beheshti showed that, for a smooth Fano hypersurface $X$ of degree $\leq 8$ over the complex number field $\mathbb{C}$, the dimension of the space of lines lying in $X$ is equal to the expected dimension. We study the space of conics on $X$. In this case, if $X$ contains some linear subvariety, then the dimension of the space can be larger than the expected dimension. In this paper, we show that, for a smooth Fano hypersurface $X$ of degree $\leq 6$ over $\mathbb{C}$, and for an irreducible component $R$ of the space of conics lying in $X$, if the $2$-plane spanned by a general conic of $R$…
In this work, it is established that for a generic projective hypersurface $H\subset\mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{C})$ of degree $d\geq(5n)^2\,n^{n}$, any holomorphic entire curve $f\colon\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{C})\setminus H$ has its image contained in a proper algebraic subvariety $Z\subsetneq\mathbb{P}^{n}(\mathbb{C})$, that does not depend on the curve $f$. Here generic means that the coefficients of the defining equation of $H$ have to lie outside of a proper algebraic subvariety of the projective space of coefficients of homogeneous polynomials of degree $d$ (that parametrizes the alge…
We say that a complex analytic space, $X$, is an intersection cohomology manifold if and only if the shifted constant sheaf on $X$ is isomorphic to intersection cohomology; this is quickly seen to be equivalent to $X$ being a homology manifold. Given an analytic function $f$ on an intersection cohomology manifold, we describe a simple relation between $V(f)$ being an intersection cohomology manifold and the vanishing cycle Milnor monodromy of $f$. We then describe how the Sebastiani-Thom isomorphism allows us to easily produce intersection cohomology manifolds with arbitrary singular sets. Fin…
The topology of smooth quasi-projective complex varieties is very restrictive. One aspect of this statement is the fact that natural strata of local systems, called cohomology support loci, have a rigid structure: they consist of torsion-translated subtori in a complex torus. We propose and partially confirm a relation between Bernstein-Sato ideals and local systems. This relation gives yet a different point of view on the nature of the structure of cohomology support loci of local systems. The main result is a partial generalization to the case of a collection of polynomials of the theorem of…
We establish the Hodge conjecture for some subvarieties of a class of toric varieties. First we study quasi-smooth intersections in a projective simplicial toric variety, which is a suitable notion to generalize smooth complete intersection subvarieties in the toric environment, and in particular quasi-smooth hypersurfaces. We show that under appropriate conditions, the Hodge Conjecture holds for a very general quasi-smooth intersection subvariety, generalizing the work on quasi-smooth hypersurfaces of the first author and Grassi in [3]. We also show that the Hodge Conjecture holds asymptotica…
We study in detail the family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces defined by x_1+...+x_n+1/(x_1...x_n)=t over a finite field k. We determine its local and global monodromy and the trivial factors of its moment zeta function and Dwork's unit root zeta function.
Recently it has been proved that any arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay (ACM) bundle of rank two on a general, smooth hypersurface of degree at least three and dimension at least four is a sum of line bundles. When the dimension of the hypersurface is three, a similar result is true provided the degree of the hypersurface is at least six. We extend these results to complete intersection subvarieties by proving that any ACM bundle of rank two on a general, smooth complete intersection subvariety of sufficiently high multi-degree and dimension at least four splits. We also obtain partial results in t…
We use the mixed-twist construction of Doran and Malmendier to obtain a multi-parameter family of K3 surfaces of Picard rank $ρ\ge 16$. Upon identifying a particular Jacobian elliptic fibration on its general member, we determine the lattice polarization and the Picard-Fuchs system for the family. We construct a sequence of restrictions that lead to extensions of the polarization by two-elementary lattices. We show that the Picard-Fuchs operators for the restricted families coincide with known resonant hypergeometric systems. Second, for the one-parameter mirror families of deformed Fermat hyp…
Consider the gradient map associated to any non-constant homogeneous polynomial $f\in \C[x_0,...,x_n]$ of degree $d$, defined by \[ϕ_f=grad(f): D(f)\to \CP^n, (x_0:...:x_n)\to (f_0(x):...:f_n(x))\] where $D(f)=\{x\in \CP^n; f(x)\neq 0\}$ is the principal open set associated to $f$ and $f_i=\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}$. This map corresponds to polar Cremona transformations. In Proposition \ref{p1} we give a new lower bound for the degree $d(f)$ of $ϕ_f$ under the assumption that the projective hypersurface $V:f=0 $ has only isolated singularities. When $d(f)=1$, Theorem \ref{t4} yields very…
Let $\mathbb{W}$ be an irreducible subvariety a Hilbert scheme $Hilb_{p_W} (t) (\mathbb{P}^n )$. We show that under mild hypothesis there are polynomial formulas for the degrees of the loci of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^n$ with singular subschemes containing some member of the family $\mathbb{W}$. The formulas are made explicit in a number of cases.
We show that for every smooth generic projective hypersurface $X\subset\mathbb P^{n+1}$, there exists a proper subvariety $Y\subsetneq X$ such that $\operatorname{codim}_X Y\ge 2$ and for every non constant holomorphic entire map $f\colon\mathbb C\to X$ one has $f(\mathbb C)\subset Y$, provided $°X\ge 2^{n^5}$. In particular, we obtain an effective confirmation of the Kobayashi conjecture for threefolds in $\mathbb P^4$.
We show how some of our recent results clarify the relationship between the Lê numbers and the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of a non-isolated hypersurface singularity. The Lê numbers are actually the ranks of the free Abelian groups -- the Lê modules -- appearing in a complex whose cohomology is that of the Milnor fiber. Moreover, the Milnor monodromy acts on the Lê module complex, and we describe the traces of these monodromy actions in terms of the topology of the critical locus.
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.
We show that the kernel of the monodromy representation for hypersurfaces of degree d and dimension n is large for d at least three with the exception of the cases (d,n) = (3,0) and (3,1). For these the kernel is finite. By "large" we mean a group that admits a homomorphism to a semisimple Lie group of noncompact type with Zariski-dense image. By the Tits alternative a large group contains a free subgroup of rank two.
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.
