We give a geometric interpretation of the Weil representation of the metaplectic group, placing it in the framework of the geometric Langlands program.
For a smooth projective curve X we introduce an algebraic stack \tilde\Bun_G of metaplectic bundles on X. It also has a local version \tilde\Gr_G, which is a gerbe over the affine grassmanian of G.
We define a categorical version of the (nonramified) Hecke algebra of the metaplectic group. This is a category Sph(\tilde\Gr_G) of certain perverse sheaves on \tilde\Gr_G, which act on \tilde\Bun_G by Hecke operators. A version of the Satake equivalence is proved describing Sph(\tilde\Gr_G) as a tensor category.
Further, we construct a perverse sheaf on \tilde\Bun_G corresponding to the Weil representation and show that it is a Hecke eigen-sheaf.
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we survey known results about theta dualities on moduli spaces of sheaves on curves and surfaces. Secondly, we establish new such dualities in the surface case. Among others, the case of elliptic K3 surfaces is studied in detail; we propose further conjectures which are shown to imply strange duality.
We show that the only summands of theta divisors on Jacobians of curves and on intermediate Jacobians of cubic threefolds are the obvious powers of the curve and the Fano surface of lines on the threefold. The proof uses the decomposition theorem for perverse sheaves, a bit of representation theory and a computation of characteristic cycles for Brill-Noether sheaves.
This survey is based on my lectures given in last a few years. As a reference, constructions of moduli spaces of parabolic sheaves and generalized parabolic sheaves are provided. By a refinement of the proof of vanishing theorem, we show, without using vanishing theorem, a new observation that ${\rm dim}\,H^0(\sU_C,Θ_{\sU_C})$ is independent of all of the choices for any smooth curves. The estimate of various codimension and computation of canonical line bundle of moduli space of generalized parabolic sheaves on a reducible curve are provided in Section 6, which is completely new.
Let X be a smooth projective curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic >2. Let Bun_{Mp_2} be the stack of metaplectic bundles on X of rank 2. In this paper we study the derived category of genuine l-adic sheaves on Bun_{Mp_2} in the framework of the quantum geometric Langlands. We describe the corresponding Whittaker category, develop the theory of geometric Eisenstein series and calculate the most non-degenerate Fourier coefficients of these Eisenstein series. The existing constructions of automorphic sheaves for GL_n are based on using Whittaker sheaves. Our calculations lea…
We give a comprehensive treatment of the transformation laws of theta functions from an algebro-geometric perspective, that is, in terms of moduli of abelian schemes. This is accomplished by introducing geometric notions of theta-descent structures, metaplectic stacks, and bundles of half-forms, whose analytic incarnations underlie different aspects of the classical transformation laws. As an application, we lay the foundations for a geometric theory of modular forms of half-integral weight and, more generally, for modular forms taking values in the Weil representation. We discuss further appl…
Let (S,H) be a rational algebraic surface with an ample divisor. We compute generating functions for the Hodge numbers of the moduli spaces of H-stable rank 2 sheaves on S in terms of certain theta functions for indefinite lattices that were introduced in the paper alg-geom/9612020 written jointly with Don Zagier. If H lies in the closure of the ample cone and has self-intersection 0, it follows that the generating functions are Jacobi forms. In particular the generating functions for the Euler numbers have a similar transformation behaviour under SL(2,Z) as that predicted in Vafa and Witten: …
These are expanded notes on a lecture of the same title at the 2015 AMS summer institute in algebraic geometry. We give an introduction and overview of the "beyond geometric invariant theory" program for analyzing moduli problems in algebraic geometry. We discuss methods for analyzing stability in general moduli problems, focusing on the moduli of coherent sheaves on a smooth projective scheme as a toy example. We describe several applications: a general structure theorem for the derived category of coherent sheaves on an algebraic stack; some results on the topology of moduli stacks; and a "v…
We formulate three versions of a strange duality conjecture for sections of the Theta bundles on the moduli spaces of sheaves on abelian surfaces. As supporting evidence, we check the equality of dimensions on dual moduli spaces, answering a question raised by Gottsche-Nakajima-Yoshioka.
We study the bundles of generalized theta functions constructed from moduli spaces of sheaves over abelian surfaces. In degree 0, the splitting type of these bundles is expressed in terms of indecomposable semihomogeneous factors. Furthermore, Fourier-Mukai symmetries of the Verlinde bundles are found, consistently with strange duality. Along the way, a transformation formula for the theta bundles is derived, extending a theorem of Drezet-Narasimhan from curves to abelian surfaces.
We explore a new direction in representation theory which comes from holomorphic gerbes on complex tori. The analogue of the theta group of a holomorphic line bundle on a (compact) complex torus is developed for gerbes in place of line bundles. The theta group of symmetries of the gerbe has the structure of a Picard groupoid. We calculate it explicitly as a central extension of the group of symmetries of the gerbe by the Picard groupoid of the underlying complex torus. We discuss obstruction to equivariance and give an example of a group of symmetries of a gerbe with respect to which the gerbe…
We prove that moduli spaces of semistable parabolic bundles and generalized parabolic sheaves (GPS) with a fixed determinant on a smooth projective curve are globally F-regular type. As an application, we prove vanishing theorems on the moduli spaces of semistable parabolic sheaves on a singular curve, which combining with Factorization theorems in [24] and [25] give two recurrence relations among dimensions of spaces of generalized theta functions. By using of these recurrence relations, we prove an explicit formula (Verlinde formula) for the dimension of spaces of generalized theta functions…
We show how natural functors from the category of coherent sheaves on a projective scheme to categories of Kronecker modules can be used to construct moduli spaces of semistable sheaves. This construction simplifies or clarifies technical aspects of existing constructions and yields new simpler definitions of theta functions, about which more complete results can be proved.
Let G be a simple simply-connected group over an algebraically closed field k, X be a smooth connected projective curve over k. In this paper we develop the theory of geometric Eisenstein series on the moduli stack Bun_G of G-torsors on X in the setting of the quantum geometric Langlands program (for étale l-adic sheaves) in analogy with [3]. We calculate the intersection cohomology sheaf on the version of Drinfeld compactification in our twisted setting. In the case G=SL_2 we derive some results about the Fourier coefficients of our Eisenstein series. In the case of G=SL_2 and X=P^1 we also c…
This article computes the generating functions of the Betti numbers of the moduli space of stable sheaves of rank 3 on the projective plane P2 and its blow-up. Wall-crossing is used to obtain the Betti numbers on the blow-up. These can be derived equivalently using flow trees, which appear in the physics of BPS-states. The Betti numbers for P2 follow from those for the blow-up by the blow-up formula. The generating functions are expressed in terms of modular functions and indefinite theta functions.
This article is based on lecture notes prepared for the August 2006 Cologne Summer School. The first part contains background material and references for beginners. The second (and main) part is a survey of the current status in the theory of pluri-theta linear series and generalized theta divisors on moduli spaces of vector bundles on curves. It emphasizes relatively new techniques employed in the analysis of linear series on these moduli spaces, namely the use of moduli spaces of stable maps for understanding Quot schemes, and the Fourier-Mukai functor in the study of coherent sheaves on abe…
The Jacobian $J$ of a complete, smooth, connected curve $X$ admits a canonical divisor $Θ$, called the Theta divisor. It is well-known that $Θ$ is ample and, in fact, $3Θ$ is very ample. For a general complete, integral curve $X$, D'Souza constructed a compactification $\bar J$ of the Jacobian $J$ by considering torsion-free, rank 1 sheaves on $X$. Soucaris and the author considered independently the analogous Theta divisor $Θ$ on $\bar J$, and showed that $Θ$ is ample. In this article, we show that $nΘ$ is very ample for $n$ greater or equal to a specified lower bound. If $X$ has at most ordi…
This article treats compactifications of the space of generalized spin curves. Generalized spin curves, or $r$-spin curves, are pairs $(X,L)$ with $X$ a smooth curve and $L$ a line bundle whose r-th tensor power is isomorphic to the canonical bundle of $X.$ These are a natural generalization of $2$-spin curves (algebraic curves with a theta-characteristic), which have been of interest recently, in part because of their applications to fermionic string theory. Three different compactifications over $\Bbb{Z}[1/r],$ all using torsion-free sheaves, are constructed. All three yield algebraic stacks…
In the prequel to this paper, two versions of Le Potier's strange duality conjecture for sheaves over abelian surfaces were studied. A third version is considered here. In the current setup, the isomorphism involves moduli spaces of sheaves with fixed determinant and fixed determinant of the Fourier-Mukai transform on one side, and moduli spaces where both determinants vary, on the other side. We first establish the isomorphism in rank one using the representation theory of Heisenberg groups. For product abelian surfaces, the isomorphism is then shown to hold for sheaves with fiber degree 1 vi…
Moduli spaces of stable coherent sheaves on a surface are of much interest for both mathematics and physics. Yoshioka computed generating functions of Poincare polynomials of such moduli spaces if the surface is the projective plane P2 and the rank of the sheaves is 2. Motivated by physical arguments, this paper investigates the modular properties of these generating functions. It is shown that these functions can be written in terms of the Lerch sum and theta function. Based on this, we prove a conjecture by Vafa and Witten, which expresses the generating functions of Euler numbers as a mixed…
Let $C/M$ be a local universal family of smooth curves and $S/M$ be the family of moduli spaces of stable bundles with a fixed determinant on curves. In this paper, we find locally free sheaves $\Cal G_E$, $S(\Cal G_E)$ on $X=C\times_M S$ such that their first direct images are isomorphic to sheaves $\Cal D^{\le 1}_{S/M}(Θ)$, $\Cal D^{\le 1}_S(Θ)$ of 1-st order differential operators on the theta line bundle over $S$. As an application, we give a new construction of Hitchin's projective connection (or KZ-connection). Our main results have clearly an extension to some stable singular curves. Th…
We examine a sequence of examples of pairs of moduli spaces of sheaves on $\mathbb P^2$ where Le Potier's strange duality is expected to hold. One of the moduli spaces in these pairs is the Hilbert scheme of two points. We compute the sections of the relevant theta bundle as a representation of $SL(X)$, where $\mathbb P^2=\mathbb P(X)$. For the higher rank space, we construct a moduli space using the resolution of exceptional bundles from Coskun, Huizenga, and Woolf. We compute a subspace of the sections of the theta bundle which is dual to the sections on the Hilbert scheme. In the second par…
