We determine which tangential varieties of homogeneously embedded rational homogeneous varieties are spherical. We determine the homogeneous coordinate rings and rings of covariants of the tangential varieties of homogenously embedded compact Hermitian symmetric spaces (CHSS). We give bounds on the degrees of generators of the ideals of tangential varieties of CHSS and obtain more explicit infomation about the ideals in certain cases.
We compute the dimensions of all the secant varieties to the tangential varieties of all Segre-Veronese surfaces. We exploit the typical approach of computing the Hilbert function of special 0-dimensional schemes on projective plane by using a new degeneration technique.
We prove a conjecture stated by Catalisano, Geramita, and Gimigliano in 2002, which claims that the secant varieties of tangential varieties to the $d$th Veronese embedding of the projective $n$-space $\mathbb{P}^n$ have the expected dimension, modulo a few well-known exceptions. As Bernardi, Catalisano, Gimigliano, and Idá demonstrated that the proof of this conjecture may be reduced to the case of cubics, i.e., $d=3$, the main contribution of this work is the resolution of this base case. The proposed proof proceeds by induction on the dimension $n$ of the projective space via a specializati…
Going one step further in Zak's classification of Scorza varieties with secant defect equal to one, we characterize the Veronese embedding of $¶^n$ given by the complete linear system of quadrics and its smooth projections from a point as the only smooth irreducible complex and non-degenerate projective subvarieties of $¶^N$ that can be projected isomorphically into $¶^{2n}$ when $N\geq\binom{n+2}{2}-2$.
A point $p\in\mathbb{P}^N$ of a projective space is $h$-identifiable, with respect to a variety $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$, if it can be written as linear combination of $h$ elements of $X$ in a unique way. Identifiability is implied by conditions on the contact locus in $X$ of general linear spaces called non weak defectiveness and non tangential weak defectiveness. We give conditions ensuring non tangential weak defectiveness of an irreducible and non-degenerated projective variety $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$, and we apply these results to Segre-Veronese varieties.
Let $X\subset \mathbb{P}^r$ be an integral and non-degenerate variety. Let $σ_{a,b}(X)\subseteq \mathbb{P}^r$, $(a,b)\in \mathbb{N}^2$, be the join of $a$ copies of $X$ and $b$ copies of the tangential variety of $X$. Using the classical Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem (case $b=0$) and a recent paper by H. Abo and N. Vannieuwenhoven (case $a=0$) we compute $\dim σ_{a,b}(X)$ in many cases when $X$ is the $d$-Veronese embedding of $\mathbb{P}^n$. This is related to certain additive decompositions of homogeneous polynomials. We give a general theorem proving that $\dim σ_{0,b}(X)$ is the expected o…
We study the local differential geometry of varieties $X^n\subset \Bbb C\Bbb P^{n+a}$ with degenerate secant and tangential varieties. We show that the second fundamental form of a smooth variety with degenerate tangential variety is subject to certain rank restrictions. The rank restrictions imply a slightly refined version of Zak's theorem on linear normality and a short proof of the Zak-Fantecchi theorem on the superadditivity of multisecant defects. We show there is a vector bundle defined over general points of $TX$ whose fibers carry the structure of a Clifford algebra. This structure im…
With the help of Lusztig's canonical basis, we study local intersection cohomology of the Zariski closures of orbits of representations of a quiver of type A, D or E. In particular, we characterize the rationally smooth orbits and prove that orbit closures are smooth if and only if they are rationally smooth. This provides an analogue of theorems of V. Deodhar, and J. Carrell and D. Peterson on Schubert varieties.
Let $N$ be a point of an orbit closure $\bar{O_M}$ in a module variety such that its orbit $O_N$ has codimension two in $\bar{O_M}$. We show that under some additional conditions the pointed variety $(\bar{O_M},N)$ is smoothly equivalent to a cone over a rational normal curve.
We investigate geometry of D-affine varieties. Our main result is that a D-affine rational projective surface over an algebraically closed field is a generalised flag variety of a reductive group.
We prove a stronger version of a criterion of rationality given by Ionescu and Russo. We use this stronger version to define an invariant for rational varieties (we call it rationality degree), and we classify rational varieties for small values of the invariant.
For a very general product $A$ of seven or more elliptic curves, every rational curve on the Kummer variety of $A$ projects trivially onto the Kummer variety of at least one of its factors. As a consequence, a very general member of certain families of abelian varieties parametrized by connected Shimura varieties of unitary type has the property that its Kummer variety has no rational curves.
We investigate basic properties of uniformly rational varieties, i.e. those smooth varieties for which every point has a Zariski open neighborhood isomorphic to an open subset of A^n. It is an open question of Gromov whether all smooth rational varieties are uniformly rational. We discuss some potential criteria that might allow one to show that they form a proper subclass in the class of all smooth rational varieties. Finally we prove that small algebraic resolutions and big resolutions of nodal cubic threefolds are uniformly rational.
We give a classification of embedded smooth projective varieties swept out by rational homogeneous varieties whose Picard number and codimension are one.
We give upper and lower bounds for the number of rational points on Prym varieties over finite fields. Moreover, we determine the exact maximum and minimum number of rational points on Prym varieties of dimension 2.
In this article we give the definitions of log Fano varieties and log Calabi-Yau varieties in the framework of theory of log schemes of Fontain-Illusie-Kato and give congruences of the cardinalities of rational points of them over the log points of finite fields.
The aim of these notes is to give a introduction to the ideas and techniques of handling rational curves on varieties. The main emphasis is on varieties with many rational curves which are the higher dimensional analogs of rational curves and surfaces. The first six sections closely follow the lectures of J. Kollár given at the summer school ``Higher dimensional varieties and rational points''. The notes were written up by C. Araujo and substantially edited later. Revised version with 2 new sections.
We give an explicit description of the divisor class groups of rational trinomial varieties. As an application, we relate the iteration of Cox rings of any rational variety with torus action of complexity one to that of a Du Val surface.
This is an expanded and updated version of a lecture series I gave at Seoul National University in September 1997. It is in some sense an update of the 1979 Griffiths and Harris paper with a similar title. I discuss: Homogeneous varieties, Topology and consequences Projective differential invariants, Varieties with degenerate Gauss images, When can a uniruled variety be smooth?, Dual varieties, Linear systems of bounded and constant rank, Secant and tangential varieties, Systems of quadrics with tangential defects, Recognizing uniruled varieties, Recognizing intersections of quadrics, Recogniz…
Motivated by recent work in the mathematics and engineering literature, we study integrability and non-tangential regularity on the two-torus for rational functions that are holomorphic on the bidisk. One way to study such rational functions is to fix the denominator and look at the ideal of polynomials in the numerator such that the rational function is square integrable. A concrete list of generators is given for this ideal as well as a precise count of the dimension of the subspace of numerators with a specified bound on bidegree. The dimension count is accomplished by constructing a natura…
Complex projective algebraic varieties with $\mathbb{C}^*$-actions can be thought of as geometric counterparts of birational transformations. In this paper we describe geometrically the birational transformations associated to rational homogeneous varieties endowed with a $\mathbb{C}^*$-action with no proper isotropy subgroups.
This note proves the existence of universal rational parametrizations. The description involves homogeneous coordinates on a toric variety coming from a lattice polytope. We first describe how smooth toric varieties lead to universal rational parametrizations of certain projective varieties. We give numerous examples and then discuss what happens in the singular case. We also describe rational maps to smooth toric varieties.
We investigate families of minimal rational curves on Schubert varieties, their Bott-Samelson desingularizations, and their generalizations constructed by Nicolas Perrin in the minuscule case. In particular, we describe the minimal families on small resolutions of minuscule Schubert varieties.
We relate the representations of the rational Cherednik algebras associated with the complex reflection group G(m,1,n) to sheaves on Nakajima quiver varieties associated with extended Dynkin gaphs via a Z-algebra construction. As the parameters defining the Cherednik algebra vary, the stability conditions defining the quiver variety change. We interpret the ordering on category O geometrically using this relationship; we also relate the geometry to the a-function for Hecke algebras with unequal parameters.
In this paper we show that if two central simple $k$-algebras generate the same cyclic subgroup in $\mathrm{Br}(k)$, then there are rational maps between varieties associated to these algebras, such as Brauer--Severi varieties, norm hypersurfaces and symmetric powers. In some cases we even have rational embeddings. We also relate the obtained results to the Amitsur conjecture.
In this paper, using a generalization of the notion of Prym variety for covers of quasi-projective varieties, we prove a structure theorem for the Mordell-Weil group of the abelian varieties over function fields that are twists of Abelian varieties by Galois covers of irreducible quasi-projective varieties. In particular, the resutls we obtain contribute in the construction of Jacobians (of covers of the projective line) of high rank.
We present a new proof of the classification of complex simple Lie algebras via the projective geometry of homogeneous varieties. Our proof proceeds by constructing homogeneous varieties using the ideals of the secant and tangential varieties of homogeneous varieties already constructed. Our algorithms make no reference to root systems. Our proofs use properties of root systems, but not their classification.
We shortly describe the algorithms behind some of the functions provided by the Macaulay2 package MultiprojectiveVarieties, a package for multi-projective varieties and rational maps between them.
In this paper, we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture in the Minimal Model Program. We prove that log $Q$-Fano varieties of dim $n$ are rationally connected. We also study the behavior of the canonical bundles under projective morphisms.
Smooth projective varieties $X$ over a finite field $k$ with $CH_0(X\otimes \bar{k(X)})=\mathbb Z$ have a rational point, in particular Fano varieties. We also refer to http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00222/tocs.htm where the last version, cleaned from some typos, should be published online.
Let $X$ be a projective variety and let $C$ be a rational normal curve on $X$. We compute the normal bundle of $C$ in a general complete intersection of hypersurfaces of sufficiently large degree in $X$. As a result, we establish the separable rational connectedness of a large class of varieties, including general Fano complete intersections of hypersurfaces of degree at least three in flag varieties, in arbitrary characteristic. In addition, we give a new way of computing the normal bundle of certain rational curves in products of varieties in terms of their restricted tangent bundles and nor…
This work is a PhD thesis. First we provide some general context on wonderful varieties and moduli spaces of rational curves. Working over complex numbers we prove that the moduli space of rational curves with no marked points on the wonderful compactification of a symmetric space is not irreducible in general. Lastly we show that in the case of wonderful group compactifications the set of rational curves with no marked points and irreducible source is irreducible.
A smooth variety is called uniformly rational if every point admits a Zariski open neighborhood isomorphic to a Zariski open subset of the affine space. In this note we show that every smooth and rational affine variety endowed with an algebraic torus action such that the algebraic quotient has dimension 0 or 1 is uniformly rational.
We study finite $p$-subgroups of birational automorphism groups. By virtue of boundedness theorem of Fano varieties, we prove that there exists a constant $R(n)$ such that a rationally connected variety of dimension $n$ over an algebraically closed field is rational if its birational automorphism group contains a $p$-subgroups of maximal rank for $p > R(n)$. Some related applications on Jordan property are discussed.
We characterize complete intersection matrix Schubert varieties, generalizing the classical result on one-sided ladder determinantal varieties. We also give a new proof of the F-rationality of matrix Schubert varieties. Although it is known that such varieties are F-regular (hence F-rational) by the global F-regularity of Schubert varieties, our proof is of independent interest since it does not require the Bott-Samelson resolution. As a consequence, this provides an alternative proof of the classical fact that Schubert varieties in flag varieties are normal and have rational singularities.
A powerful method pioneered by Swinnerton-Dyer allows one to study rational points on pencils of curves of genus 1 by combining the fibration method with a sophisticated form of descent. A variant of this method, first used by Skorobogatov and Swinnerton-Dyer in 2005, can be applied to study rational points on Kummer varieties. In this paper we extend the method to include an additional step of second descent. Assuming finiteness of the relevant Tate-Shafarevich groups, we use the extended method to show that the Brauer-Manin obstruction is the only obstruction to the Hasse principle on Kummer…
We study the equivalence between infinitesimal Torelli theorem for smooth hypersurfaces in rational homogeneous varieties with Picard number one and the theory of generalized Massey products. This equivalence shows that the differential of the period map vanishes on an infinitesimal deformation if and only if certain twisted differential forms are elements of the Jacobian ideal of the hypersurface. We also prove an infinitesimal Torelli theorem result for smooth hypersurfaces in log parallelizable varieties.
Self-rational maps of generic algebraic K3 surfaces are conjectured to be trivial. We relate this conjecture to a conjecture concerning the irreducibility of the universal Severi varieties parametrizing nodal curves of given genus and degree lying on some K3 surface. We also establish a number of numerical constraints satisfied by such non trivial rational maps, that is of topological degree >1.
Smooth Schubert varieties in rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number 1 are horospherical varieties. We characterize standard embeddings of smooth Schubert varieties in rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number 1 by means of varieties of minimal rational tangents. In particular, we mainly consider nonhomogeneous smooth Schubert varieties in symplectic Grassmannians and in the 20-dimensional $F_4$-homogeneous manifold associated to a short simple root.
The purpose of this paper is to show that the third unramified cohomology with divisible coefficients of a smooth projective geometrically rational threefold over a finite field must vanish under $\Z_{\ell}$-exactness Hard Lefschetz condition.
We study families of rational curves on certain irreducible holomorphic symplectic varieties. In particular, we prove that any ample linear system on a projective holomorphic symplectic variety of K3[n]-type contains a uniruled divisor. As an application we provide a generalization of the Beauville-Voisin result on the Chow group of 0-cycles on such varieties.
We study homotopy rational points of Brauer-Severi varieties over fields of characteristic zero. We are particularly interested if a Brauer-Severi variety admitting a homotopy rational point splits. The analogue statement turns out to be true for open subvarieties of twisted hyperplane arrangements. In the complete case, the obstruction turns out to be the pullback of the Chern class of a generator of the Picard group along the homotopy rational point. Moreover, we will show that every Brauer-Severi variety over a $p$-adic field with $p$-primary period admits a homotopy rational point.
In this article we prove a result comparing rationality of algebraic cycles over the function field of a projective homogeneous variety under a linear algebraic group of type $F_4$ or $E_8$ and over the base field, which can be of any characteristic.
We report on progress in the qualitative study of rational points on rationally connected varieties over number fields, also examining integral points, zero-cycles, and non-rationally connected varieties. One of the main objectives is to highlight and explain the many recent interactions with analytic number theory.
This note studies, and partially solves, 3 elementary questions about continuous rational functions on real (and p-adic) algebraic varieties: Can one restrict such a function to a subvariety? Can one extend such a function from a subvariety? Which linear equations can be solved using such functions?
