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 abelian cover of the original one, and for which the action of the covering group can be explicitly described. Recent work of T. Okuma shows every rational surface singularity can be described in this way. Full details are found in papers in Geometry and Topology, math.AG/0301165 and math.AG/0407287.
We study the topology of some simple infinite dimensional singularities arising from spaces of \emph{algebraic formal loops}. We prove that in some simple cases the natural analogue of nearby cycles cohomology for a function on the loop space vanishes, and show further that a suitably renormalized version of the above cohomology produces a simple (non-zero) result.
We prove that the boundaries of the Milnor fibers of smoothings of non-isolated reduced complex surface singularities are graph manifolds. Moreover, we give a method, inspired by previous work of Némethi and Szilard, to compute associated plumbing graphs.
Isolated Cohen-Macaulay codimension 2 singularities share many common features with isolated complete intersection singularities, but they also exhibit some striking new behaviour. One such instance was recently observed by Damon and Pike in their study of the vanishing topology and Euler characteristic, where they took this class of singularities as examples. In this article, we explore their findings further by determining the Betti numbers explicitly and explain the new phenomena. An important tool here is the Tjurina modification relating a Cohen-Macaulay codimension 2 singularity to a fin…
Kähler's paper "Über die Verzweigung einer algebraischen Funktion zweier Veränderlichen in der Umgebung einer singulären Stelle" offered a more perceptual view of the link of a complex plane curve singularity than that provided shortly before by Brauner. Kähler's innovation of using a "square sphere" became standard in the toolkit of later researchers on singularities. We describe his contribution and survey developments since then, including a brief discussion of the topology of isolated hypersurface singularities in higher dimension.
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.
Let $Y$ be a complex projective variety of dimension $n$ with isolated singularities, $π:X\to Y$ a resolution of singularities, $G:=π^{-1}\left(\rm{Sing}(Y)\right)$ the exceptional locus. From the Decomposition Theorem one knows that the map $H^{k-1}(G)\to H^k(Y,Y\backslash {\rm{Sing}}(Y))$ vanishes for $k>n$. It is also known that, conversely, assuming this vanishing one can prove the Decomposition Theorem for $π$ in few pages. The purpose of the present paper is to exhibit a direct proof of the vanishing. As a consequence, it follows a complete and short proof of the Decomposition Theorem fo…
We present several aspects of the "topology of meromorphic functions", which we conceive as a general theory which includes the topology of holomorphic functions, the topology of pencils on quasi-projective spaces and the topology of polynomial functions.
This article recounts the interaction of topology and singularity theory (mainly singularities of complex algebraic varieties) which started in the early part of this century and bloomed in the 1960's with the work of Hirzebruch, Brieskorn, Milnor and others. Some of the topics are followed to the present day. (A chapter for the book "History of Topology", ed. I. M. James)
In this paper we use the results from the first part to compute the vanishing topology for matrix singularities based on certain spaces of matrices. We place the variety of singular matrices in a geometric configuration of free divisors which are the "exceptional orbit varieties" for repesentations of solvable groups. Because there are towers of representations for towers of solvable groups, the free divisors actually form a tower of free divisors $E_n$, and we give an inductive procedure for computing the vanishing topology of the matrix singularities. The inductive procedure we use is an ext…
The splice quotients are an interesting class of normal surface singularities with rational homology sphere links, defined by W. Neumann and J. Wahl. If Gamma is a tree of rational curves that satisfies certain combinatorial conditions, then there exist splice quotients with resolution graph Gamma. Suppose the equation z^n=f(x,y) defines a surface X_{f,n} with an isolated singularity at the origin in C^3. For f irreducible, we completely characterize, in terms of n and a variant of the Puiseux pairs of f, those X_{f,n} for which the resolution graph satisfies the combinatorial conditions that …
We describe the sheaf T^1(X) of first order deformations of a reduced scheme with normal crossing singularities. In particular, we obtain a formula for T^1(X) in a suitable log resolution of X.
This is the paper as published. The topology of a complex plane curve singularity with real branches is deduced from any real deformation having delta crossings. An example of the computation of the global geometric monodromy of a polynomial mapping is added.
Khimshiashvili proved a topological degree formula for the Eu-ler characteristic of the Milnor fibres of a real function-germ with an isolated singularity. We give two generalizations of this result for non-isolated singularities. As corollaries we obtain an algebraic formula for the Euler characteristic of the fibres of a real weighted-homogeneous polynomial and a real version of the L{ê}-Iomdine formula. We have also included some results of the same flavor on the local topology of locally closed definable sets.
We provide combinatorial/topological formula for the multiplicity of a complex analytic normal surface singularity whenever the analytic structure on the fixed topological type is generic.
Let $Y$ be a complex projective variety of dimension $n$ with isolated singularities, $π:X\to Y$ a resolution of singularities, $G:=π^{-1}{\rm{Sing}}(Y)$ the exceptional locus. From Decomposition Theorem one knows that the map $H^{k-1}(G)\to H^k(Y,Y\backslash {\rm{Sing}}(Y))$ vanishes for $k>n$. Assuming this vanishing, we give a short proof of Decomposition Theorem for $π$. A consequence is a short proof of the Decomposition Theorem for $π$ in all cases where one can prove the vanishing directly. This happens when either $Y$ is a normal surface, or when $π$ is the blowing-up of $Y$ along ${\r…
Given an algebraic variety X defined over an algebraically closed field, we study the space RZ(X,x) consisting of all the valuations of the function field of X which are centered in a closed point x of X. We concentrate on its homeomorphism type. We prove that, when x is a regular point, this homeomorphism type only depends on the dimension of X. If x is a singular point of a normal surface, we show that it only depends on the dual graph of a good resolution of (X,x) up to some precise equivalence. This is done by studying the relation between RZ(X,x) and the normalized non-Archimedean link of…
We prove semi-rationalification and semi-log-canonicalization for Gorenstein demi-normal surfaces. That is, given a Gorenstein demi-normal surface X with semi-rational (respectively, semi-log canonical) singularities in an open set U with complement a finite set of points, there is a proper birational morphism f : Y --> X such that f is an isomorphism over U and Y has only semi-rational (respectively, semi-log canonical) singularities. We proceed by passing to the normalization and then gluing along the conductor in an appropriate rationalification or log-canonicalization of the normalization …
Normally one assumes isolated surface singularities to be normal. The purpose of this paper is to show that it can be useful to look at nonnormal singularities. By deforming them interesting normal singularities can be constructed, such as isolated, non Cohen-Macaulay threefold singularities. They arise by a small contraction of a smooth rational curve, whose normal bundle has a sufficiently positive subbundle. We study such singularities from their nonnormal general hyperplane section.
This note gives two examples of surfaces with normal crossing singularities. In the first example the canonical ring is not finitely generated. In the second, the canonical line bundle is not ample but its pull back to the normalization is ample. The latter answers in the negative a problem left unresolved in [EGA,III.2.6.2] and raised again by Viehweg.
In this paper, we prove that the Milnor fibre of a singularity over an i.c.i.s. of dimension 3 has the homotopy type of a bouquet of spheres, provided that the function that defines the singularity has finite extended codimension with respect to the ideal that defines the i.c.i.s.
We overview our recent work defining and studying normal crossings varieties and subvarieties in symplectic topology. This work answers a question of Gromov on the feasibility of introducing singular (sub)varieties into symplectic topology in the case of normal crossings singularities. It also provides a necessary and sufficient condition for smoothing normal crossings symplectic varieties. In addition, we explain some connections with other areas of mathematics and discuss a few directions for further research.
We study the deformation theory of a Fano variety X with normal crossing singularities of dimension at most three. We obtain a formula for the sheaf T^1(X) of first order deformations of X in a suitable log resolution of X and its singular locus Z and we obtain explicit criteria for the existence of smoothings of X.
In this paper, the notion of local algebraic fundamental groups of normal complex analytic singularities are generalized to certain profinite groups called $D$-local algebraic fundamental groups which turns out to be useful even for the study of usual local algebraic fundamental groups and the Lefshetz type theorem for $D$-local algebraic fundamental groups is proved under certain conditions. The theorem yields, for example, the finiteness of the local algebraic fundamental groups of a certain class of four dimensional singularities and will be useful for the classification of three dimensiona…
Normal complex surface singularities with rational homology disk smoothings
Rényi Institute of Mathematics（雷尼数学研究所）；University of Technology and Economics（布达佩斯技术与经济大学）；Konkuk University（建国大学）；Chungnam National University（忠南国立大学）
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…
The germ of an algebraic variety is naturally equipped with two different metrics up to bilipschitz equivalence. The inner metric and the outer metric. One calls a germ of a variety Lipschitz normally embedded if the two metrics are bilipschitz equivalent. In this article we prove that the model determinantal singularity, that is the space of $m\times n$ matrices of rank less than a given number, is Lipschitz normally embedded. We will also discuss some of the difficulties extending this result to the case of general determinantal singularities.
This paper obtains criteria for a Fano variety X with normal crossing singularities defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, to be smoothable. The difference with the original version is that the theory of logarithmic structures and deformations is used in order to prove that X is smoothable by a smooth variety, if and only if T^1(X)=O_D, where D is the singular locus of X.
We study the topology of the complements of discriminants of simple real boundary singularities by counting the connected components of these sets and assigning to them certain topological characteristics. Results of this paper serve as a generalization of those recently acquired by Vassiliev arXiv:2109.12287 for ordinary function singularities.
We show that the zero locus of a normal function on a smooth complex algebraic variety S is algebraic provided that the normal function extends to a admissible normal function on a smooth compactification of S with torsion singularity. This result generalizes our previous result for admissible normal functions on curves [arxiv:math/0604345 [math.AG]]. It has also been obtained by M. Saito using a different method in a recent preprint [arXiv:0803.2771v2].
Let $(X,o)$ be a complex analytic normal surface singularity and let ${\mathcal O}_{X,o}$ be its local ring. We investigate the normal reduction number of ${\mathcal O}_{X,o}$ and related numerical analytical invariants via resolutions $\widetilde{X}\to X$ of $(X,o)$ and cohomology groups of different line bundles ${\mathcal L}\in {\rm Pic}(\widetilde{X})$. The normal reduction number is the universal optimal bound from which powers of certain ideals have stabilization properties. Here we combine this with stability properties of the iterated Abel maps. Some of the main results provide topolog…
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. These two metrics are in general nonequivalent up to bilipschitz homeomorphism. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a normal surface singularity to be Lipschitz normally embedded (LNE), i.e., to have bilipschitz equivalent outer and inner metrics. In a partner paper [15] we apply it to prove that rational surface singularities are LNE if and only if they are mini…
We construct a collection of higher Chow cycles on certain surfaces which degenerate to an arrangement of planes in general position. When its degree is 4, this construction gives a new explicit proof of the Hodge-D-Conjecture for a certain type of K3 surfaces. As an application, we also construct a certain type of threefolds with non trivial Griffiths group.
Any germ of a complex analytic space is equipped with two natural metrics: the {\it outer metric} induced by the hermitian metric of the ambient space and the {\it inner metric}, which is the associated riemannian metric on the germ. We show that minimal surface singularities are Lipschitz normally embedded (LNE), i.e., the identity map is a bilipschitz homeomorphism between outer and inner metrics, and that they are the only rational surface singularities with this property.
We develop a Hodge theory for relative simple normal crossing varieties over an Artinian base scheme. We introduce the notion of a mixed Hodge structure over an Artin ring, which axiomatizes the structure that is found on the cohomology of such a variety. As an application we prove that the maps between the graded pieces of the Hodge bundles have constant rank.
In recent work, we introduced topological notions of simple normal crossings symplectic divisor and variety, showed that they are equivalent, in a suitable sense, to the corresponding geometric notions, and established a topological smoothability criterion for them. The present paper extends these notions to arbitrary normal crossings singularities, from both local and global perspectives, and shows that they are also equivalent to the corresponding geometric notions. In subsequent papers, we extend our smoothability criterion to arbitrary normal crossings symplectic varieties and construct a …
The subject is partial resolution of singularities. Given an algebraic variety X (not necessarily equidimensional) in characteristic zero (or, more generally, a pair (X,D), where D is a divisor on X), we construct a functorial desingularization of all but stable simple normal crossings (stable-snc) singularities, by smooth blowings-up that preserve such singularities. A variety has stable simple normal crossings at a point if, locally, its irreducible components are smooth and tranverse in some smooth embedding variety. We also show that our main assertion is false for more general simple norm…
A T-variety is an algebraic variety X with an effective regular action of an algebraic torus T. Altmann and Hausen gave a combinatorial description of an affine T-variety X by means of polyhedral divisors. In this paper we compute the higher direct images of the structure sheaf of a desingularization of X in terms of this combinatorial data. As a consequence, we give a criterion as to when a T-variety has rational singularities. We also provide a partial criterion for a T-variety to be Cohen-Macaulay. As an application we characterize in this terms quasihomogeneous elliptic singularities of su…
We propose a method to compute a desingularization of a normal affine variety X endowed with a torus action in terms of a combinatorial description of such a variety due to Altmann and Hausen. This desingularization allows us to study the structure of the singularities of X. In particular, we give criteria for X to have only rational, (QQ-)factorial, or (QQ-)Gorenstein singularities. We also give partial criteria for X to be Cohen-Macaulay or log-terminal. Finally, we provide a method to construct factorial affine varieties with a torus action. This leads to a full classification of such varie…
In a recent paper, M. Green and P. Griffiths used R. Thomas' works on nodal hypersurfaces to establish the equivalence of the Hodge conjecture and the existence of certain singular admissible normal functions. Inspired by their work, we study normal functions using M. Saito's mixed Hodge modules and prove that the existence of singularities of the type considered by Griffiths and Green is equivalent to the Hodge conjecture. Several of the intermediate results, including a relative version of the weak Lefschetz theorem for perverse sheaves, are of independent interest.
Recent work ([18], [1]) has produced a complete list of weighted homogeneous surface singularities admitting smoothings whose Milnor fibre has only trivial rational homology (a "rational homology disk"). Though these special singularities form an unfamiliar class and are rarely even log-canonical, we prove the Theorem. A rational homology disk smoothing of a weighted homogeneous surface singularity can always be chosen so that the total space is log-terminal. In particular, this smoothing is $\Q$-Gorenstein. The key idea is to define a finite "graded discrepancy" of a normal graded domain with…
In this paper we show the lower bound of the set of non-zero $-K^2$ for normal surface singularities establishing that this set has no accumulation points from above. We also prove that every accumulation point from below is a rational number and every positive integer is an accumulation point. Every rational number can be an accumulation point modulo $\bZ$. We determine all accumulation points in $[0, 1]$. If we fix the value $-K^2$, then the values of $p_g$, $p_a$, mult, embdim and the numerical indices are bounded, while the numbers of the exceptional curves are not bounded.
We study the topology of polynomial functions by deforming them generically. We explain how the non-conservation of the total ``quantity'' of singularity in the neighbourhood of infinity is related to the variation of topology in certain families of boundary singularities along the hyperplane at infinity.
It is a conjecture of Kollár that a variety $X$ with rational singularities in some open subvariety $U$ has a rationalification; that is, a proper, birational morphism $f: Y \rightarrow X$ such that $Y$ has rational singularities, and which is an isomorphism over $U$. Whether this is true is already unknown in the case of a (normal) threefold with rational singularities along a curve $C$ except at a single point $p \in C$. There is an analogous conjecture for demi-normal varieties $X$, where we must insist that $Y$ has only semi-rational singularities. Our main result is that if a stronger ver…
We show, in this second part, that the maximal number of singular points of a quartic surface $X \subset \mathbb{P}^3_K$ defined over an algebraically closed field $K$ of characteristic 2 is at most 14, and that, if we have 14 singularities, these are nodes and moreover the minimal resolution of $X$ is a supersingular K3 surface. We produce an irreducible component, of dimension 24, of the variety of quartics with 14 nodes. We also exhibit easy examples of quartics with 7 $A_3$-singularities.
The birational classification of varieties inevitably leads to the study of singularities. The types of singularities that occur in this context have been studied by Mori, Kollár, Reid, and others, beginning in the 1980s with the introduction of the minimal model program. Normal singularities that are terminal, canonical, log terminal, and log canonical, and their non-normal counterparts, are typically studied using a resolution of singularities (or a semiresolution) and finding numerical conditions that relate the canonical class of the variety to that of its resolution. In order to do this, …
In this paper we give a new point of view for optimizing the definitions related to the study of singularities of normal varieties, introduced in [dFH09] and further studied in [Urb12a] and [Urb12b], in relation to the Minimal Model Program. We introduce a notion of discrepancy for normal varieties, and we define log terminal+ singularities. We use finite generation to relate these new singularities with log terminal singularities (in the sense of [dFH09]).
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…
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…
The work is a detailed study of rational singularities of multiplicity 3 (RTP-singularities, for short). We give a list of nonisolated hypersurface singularities of which normalisations are the RTP-singularities, and construct their minimal resolution graphs by means of a subdivision of Newton polygons of those -- a method introduced by M. Oka for isolated complete intersection singularities. We show that nonisolated forms of RTP-singularities and their normalisations are both Newton non-degenerate.
We proof here the existence of a topological thick and thin decomposition of any closed definable thick isolated singularity germ in the spirit of the recently discovered metric thick and thin decomposition of complex normal surface singularities of [10]. Our thin zone catches exactly the homology of the family of the links collapsing faster than linearly. Simultaneously we introduce a class of rigid homeomorphisms more general than bi-Lipschitz ones, which map the topological thin zone onto the topological thin zone of its image. As a consequence of this point of view for the class of singula…
We study the normalized volume of toric singularities. As it turns out, there is a close relation to the notion of (non-symmetric) Mahler volume from convex geometry. This observation allows us to use standard tools from convex geometry, such as the Blaschke-Santaló inequality and Radon's theorem to prove non-trivial facts about the normalized volume in the toric setting. For example, we prove that for every $ε> 0$ there are only finitely many $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein toric singularities with normalized volume at least $ε$. From this result, it directly follows that there are also only finitely…
