These notes reproduce the content of a short, 50-minutes, survey talk given at the Nice University in September, 2004. We added a few topics that have not been touched on in the lecture by lack of time.
This note was prepared after the workshop on cdh descent and algebraic $K$-theory in Hara-mura, Japan (1 - 5 Sept. 2016), to complement the author's talk on the history and applications of pro cdh descent. In the final section pro cdh descent is used to define $K$-groups of rigid analytic varieties. This note was revised and released in light of Kerz, Strunk, and Tamme establishing pro cdh descent in general (arXiv:1611.08466).
In this expository note, we offer an overview of the relationship between Hodge-theoretic and geometric compactifications of moduli spaces of algebraic varieties.
Stratified-algebraic vector bundles on real algebraic varieties have many desirable features of algebraic vector bundles but are more flexible. We give a characterization of the compact real algebraic varieties having the following property: There exists a positive integer r such that for any topological vector bundle E on X, the direct sum of r copies of E is isomorphic to a stratified-algebraic vector bundle. In particular, each compact real algebraic variety of dimension at most 8 has this property. Our results are expressed in terms of K-theory.
Comessatti proved that the set of real points of a rational real algebraic surface is either a nonorientable surface, or the two-sphere, or the torus. Conversely, it is easy to see that all of these surfaces admit a rational real algebraic model. We prove that they admit exactly one rational real algebraic model. This was known earlier only for the two-sphere, torus, projective plane and the Klein bottle.
The survey gives an overview of the achievements in topology of real algebraic varieties in the direction initiated in the early 70th by V.I.Arnold and V.A.Rokhlin. We make an attempt to systematize the principal results in the subject. After an exposition of general tools and results, special attention is paid to surfaces and curves on surfaces.
We show that, as in de Rham cohomology over the complex numbers, the value of the entropy of an automorphism of the surface over a finite field $\F_q $ is taken on the span of the Néron-Severi group inside of $\ell$-adic cohomology. v2: (some) typos removed, exposition (partly) improved.
In this paper, we investigate automorphisms of compact Kähler manifolds with different levels of topological triviality. In particular, we provide several examples of smooth complex projective surfaces X whose groups of $C^\infty$-isotopically trivial automorphisms, resp. cohomologically trivial automorphisms, have a number of connected components which can be arbitrarily large.
For an arbitrary complex algebraic variety which is not necessarily pure dimensional, the intersection complex can be defined as the direct sum of the Deligne-Goresky-MacPherson intersection complexes of each irreducible component. We give two axiomatic topological characterizations of the middle perversity direct sum intersection complex, one stratification dependent and the other stratification independent. To accomplish this, we show that this direct sum intersection complex can be constructed using Deligne's construction in the more general context of topologically stratified spaces. A con…
The Euler characteristic of the link of a real algebraic variety is an interesting topological invariant in order to discuss local topological properties. We prove in the paper that an invariant stronger than the Euler Characteristic is well defined for the link of an algebraic variety: its virtual Poincaré polynomial.
These notes are an introduction to and an overview of the theory of algebraic surfaces over algebraically closed fields of positive characteristic. After some background in characteristic-p-geometry, we sketch the Kodaira-Enriques classification. Next, we turn to more special characteristic-p topics, and end by lifting results and applications to characteristic zero. We assume that the reader has a background in complex geometry and has seen the Kodaira-Enriques classification of complex surfaces before.
We extend to the topological setting the classical constructions of the Abel-Jacobi mapping on homologically trivial algebraic cycles and the height pairing between two such cycles. We further interpret the height pairing between homologically trivial topological cycles (with disjoint support) as giving a lifting of their Abel-Jacobi images to the fiber of the Poincaré bundle, extending work of R. Hain in the algebraic setting. Part II of the current revision further explores the relationship between the topological height pairing and the classical height pairing in the case of algebraic cycle…
We establish an Atiyah-Hirzebruch type spectral sequence relating real morphic cohomology and real semi-topological K-theory and prove it to be compatible with the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence relating Bredon cohomology and Atiyah's KR-theory constructed by Dugger. An equivariant and a real version of Suslin's conjecture on morphic cohomology are formulated, proved to come from the complex version of Suslin conjecture and verified for certain real varieties. In conjunction with the spectral sequences constructed here this allows the computation of the real semi-topological K-theory of s…
In this paper we prove the topological uniqueness of maximal arrangements of a real plane algebraic curve with respect to three lines. More generally, we prove the topological uniqueness of a maximally arranged algebraic curve on a real toric surface. We use the moment map as a tool for studying the topology of real algebraic curves and their complexifications.
We investigate stratified-algebraic vector bundles on a real algebraic variety X. A stratification of X is a finite collection of pairwise disjoint, Zariski locally closed subvarieties whose union is X. A topological vector bundle on X is called a stratified-algebraic vector bundle if, roughly speaking, there exists a stratification of X such that the restriction of the bundle to each stratum is an algebraic vector bundle. In particular, every algebraic vector bundle on X is stratified-algebraic. It turns out that stratified-algebraic vector bundles have many surprising properties, which disti…
We show that the weight 0 part of the first cohomology of a complex algebraic variety $X$ is a topological invariant, and give an explicit description of its dimension using a topological construction of the normalization of $X$, where $X$ can be reducible, but must be equidimensional. The first assertion is known in the $X$ compact case by A. Weber, where intersection cohomology is used. Note that the weight 1 or 2 part of the first cohomology is not a topological (or even analytic) invariant in the non-compact case by Serre's example.
In this paper, we give an overview of our previous paper concerning the investigation of the algebraic and $p$-adic properties of Eisenstein-Kronecker numbers using Mumford's theory of algebraic theta functions.
We prove that any complex or real analytic set or function germ is topologically equivalent to a germ defined by polynomial equations whose coefficients are algebraic numbers.
I will discuss recent progress by many people in the program of extending natural topological invariants from manifolds to singular spaces. Intersection homology theory and mixed Hodge theory are model examples of such invariants. The past 20 years have seen a series of new invariants, partly inspired by string theory, such as motivic integration and the elliptic genus of a singular variety. These theories are not defined in a topological way, but there are intriguing hints of their topological significance.
We study families of algebraic varieties parametrized by topological spaces and generalize some classical results such as Hilbert Nullstellensatz and primary decomposition of commutative rings. We show that there is an equivalence between the category of bivariant coherent sheaves and the category of sheaves of finitely generated modules.
Draisma recently proved that polynomial representations of $\mathbf{GL}_{\infty}$ are topologically noetherian. We generalize this result to algebraic representations of infinite rank classical groups.
This paper is an overview of my recent work on abstract homomorphisms of algebraic groups. It is based on a talk given at the Conference on Group Actions and Applications in Geometry, Topology, and Analysis held in Kunming in July 2012.
The manuscript is an overview of the motivations and foundations lying behind Voevodsky's ideas of constructing categories similar to the ordinary topological homotopy categories. The objects of these categories are strictly related to algebraic varieties and preserve some of their algebraic invariants.
A projective algebraic surface which is homeomorphic to a ruled surface over a curve of genus $g\ge 1$ is itself a ruled surface over a curve of genus $g$. In this note, we prove the analogous result for projective algebraic manifolds of dimension 4 in case $g\ge 2$.
T. Mostowski showed that every (real or complex) germ of an analytic set is homeomorphic to the germ of an algebraic set. In this paper we show that every (real or complex) analytic function germ, defined on a possibly singular analytic space, is topologically equivalent to a polynomial function germ defined on an affine algebraic variety.
This a slightly expended version of my habilitation thesis, which is an overview of my research activities during the last 4 years, written in a rather informal style.
We study the problem of when a topological vector bundle on a smooth complex affine variety admits an algebraic structure. We prove that all rank $2$ topological complex vector bundles on smooth affine quadrics of dimension $11$ over the complex numbers admit algebraic structures.
These are expended notes of my talk at the summer institute in algebraic geometry (Seattle, July-August 2005), whose main purpose is to present a global overview on the theory of higher and derived stacks. This text is far from being exhaustive but is intended to cover a rather large part of the subject, starting from the motivations and the foundational material, passing through some examples and basic notions, and ending with some more recent developments and open questions.
We study the flow (G(Qp); SG(Qp)) of trigonalizable algebraic group acting on its type space, focusing on the problem raised in [17] of whether weakly generic types coincide with almost periodic types if the group has global definable f-generic types, equivalently whether the union of minimal subflows of a suitable type space is closed. We will give a description of of f-generic types of trigonalizable algebraic groups, and prove that every f-generic type is almost periodic.
We study rational cuspidal curves in projective surfaces. We specify two criteria obstructing possible configurations of singular points that may occur on such curves. One criterion generalizes the result of Fernandez de Bobadilla, Luengo, Melle--Hernandez and Nemethi and is based on the Bezout theorem. The other one is a generalization of the result obtained by Livingston and the author and relies on Ozsvath--Szabo inequalities for $d$-invariants in Heegaard Floer homology. We show by means of explicit calculations that the two approaches give very similar obstructions.
We study some basic properties of schematic homotopy types and the schematization functor. We describe two different algebraic models for schematic homotopy types: co-simplicial Hopf alegbras and equivariant co-simplicial algebras, and provide explicit constructions of the schematization functor for each of these models. We also investigate some standard properties of the schematization functor helpful for the description of the schematization of smooth projective complex varieties. In a companion paper these results are used in the construction of a non-abelian Hodge structure on the schemati…
We compute the integral homology (including torsion), the topological K-theory, and the Hodge structure on cohomology of Calabi-Yau threefold hypersurfaces and complete intersections in Gorenstein toric Fano varieties. The methods are purely topological.
We first provide an overview of several results dealing with the genus of a division algebra and highlight the role of ramification in its analysis. We then give a survey of recent developments on the genus problem for simple algebraic groups and its connections to the analysis of groups with good reduction.
The Ceresa cycle is an algebraic cycle attached to a smooth algebraic curve with a marked point, which is trivial when the curve is hyperelliptic with a marked Weierstrass point. The image of the Ceresa cycle under a certain cycle class map provides a class in étale cohomology called the Ceresa class. Describing the Ceresa class explicitly for non-hyperelliptic curves is in general not easy. We present a "combinatorialization" of this problem, explaining how to define a Ceresa class for a tropical algebraic curve, and also for a topological surface endowed with a multiset of commuting Dehn twi…
The first part of these notes gives an introduction to noncommutative projective geometry after Artin--Zhang. The second part provides an overview of the work of Polishchuk that reconciles noncommutative two-tori having real multiplication with the Artin--Zhang setting.
Suppose $X$ is a smooth complex algebraic variety. A necessary condition for a complex topological vector bundle on $X$ (viewed as a complex manifold) to be algebraic is that all Chern classes must be algebraic cohomology classes, i.e., lie in the image of the cycle class map. We analyze the question of whether algebraicity of Chern classes is sufficient to guarantee algebraizability of complex topological vector bundles. For affine varieties of dimension $\leq 3$, it is known that algebraicity of Chern classes of a vector bundle guarantees algebraizability of the vector bundle. In contrast, w…
A summary of an experimental course on algebraic curves is given that was held for young learners at age 11. The course was a part of Epsilon camp, a program designed for very gifted students who have already demonstrated high interest in studying mathematics. Prerequisites for the course were mastery of Algebra I and at least one preliminary year in a prior Epsilon camp. The summary gives an overview of the flow of teaching, the achieved results and some evaluation of the given feedback.
Motivated by the path integral analysis of boundary conditions in a 3-dimensional topological sigma-model, we suggest a definition of the 2-category associated with a holomorphic symplectic manifold X and study its properties. The simplest objects of this 2-category are holomorphic lagrangian submanifolds of X. We pay special attention to the case when X is the total space of the cotangent bundle of a complex manifold U or a deformation thereof. In the latter case the endomorphism category of the zero section is a monoidal category which is an A-infinity deformation of the 2-periodic derived c…
In this paper, we discuss the properties of the generating functions of spin Hurwitz numbers. In particular, for spin Hurwitz numbers with arbitrary ramification profiles, we construct the weighed sums which are given by Orlov's hypergeometric solutions of the 2-component BKP hierarchy. We derive the closed algebraic formulas for the correlation functions associated with these tau-functions, and under reasonable analytical assumptions we prove the loop equations (the blobbed topological recursion). Finally, we prove a version of topological recursion for the spin Hurwitz numbers with the spin …
It is well-known that classical two-dimensional topological field theories are in one-to-one correspondence with commutative Frobenius algebras. An important extension of classical two-dimensional topological field theories is provided by open-closed two-dimensional topological field theories. In this paper we extend open-closed two-dimensional topological field theories to nonorientable surfaces. We call them Klein topological field theories(KTFT). We prove that KTFTs bijectively correspond to algebras with certain additional structures, called structure algebras. Semisimple structure algebra…
Multiparametric families of hypergeometric $τ$-functions of KP or Toda type serve as generating functions for weighted Hurwitz numbers, providing weighted enumerations of branched covers of the Riemann sphere. A graphical interpretation of the weighting is given in terms of constellations mapped onto the covering surface. The theory is placed within the framework of topological recursion, with the Baker function at ${\bf t} ={\bf 0}$ shown to satisfy the quantum spectral curve equation, whose classical limit is rational. A basis for the space of formal power series in the spectral variable is …
In this survey article we discuss the question: to what extent is an algebraic variety determined by its ring of differential operators? In the case of affine curves, this question leads to a variety of mathematical notions such as the Weyl algebra, Calogero-Moser spaces and the adelic Grassmannian. We give a fairly detailed overview of this material.
We study local, global and local-to-global properties of threefolds with certain singularities. We prove criteria for these threefolds to be rational homology manifolds and conditions for threefolds to satisfy rational Poincaré duality. We relate the topological Euler characteristic of elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds with $\mathbb Q$-factorial terminal singularities to dimensions of Lie algebras and certain representations, Milnor and Tyurina numbers and other birational invariants of an elliptic fibration. We give an interpretation in terms of complex deformations. We state a conjecture on the…
We show that every hypersurface in $\R^s\times \R^s$ contains a large grid, i.e., the set of the form $S\times T$, with $S,T\subset \R^s$. We use this to deduce that the known constructions of extremal $K_{2,2}$-free and $K_{3,3}$-free graphs cannot be generalized to a similar construction of $K_{s,s}$-free graphs for any $s\geq 4$. We also give new constructions of extremal $K_{s,t}$-free graphs for large $t$.
Sampling real algebraic varieties for topological data analysis
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham(诺丁汉大学数学科学学院);Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, University of Notre Dame(圣母大学应用与计算数学及统计学系)
We construct a family of oriented extended topological field theories using the AKSZ construction in derived algebraic geometry, which can be viewed as an algebraic and topological version of the classical AKSZ field theories that occur in physics. These have as their targets higher categories of symplectic derived stacks, with higher morphisms given by iterated Lagrangian correspondences. We define these, as well as analogous higher categories of oriented derived stacks and iterated oriented cospans, and prove that all objects are fully dualizable. Then we set up a functorial version of the A…