These notes give an introduction to Geometric Invariant Theory and symplectic reduction, with lots of pictures and simple examples. We describe their applications to moduli of bundles and varieties, and their infinite dimensional analogues in gauge theory and the theory of special metrics on algebraic varieties. Donaldson's "quantisation" link between the infinite and finite dimensional situations is described, as are surprisingly strong connections between the bundle and variety cases.
We generalize Fujiki relation of Beauville-Bogomolov quadratic form on a projective symplectic variety. As an application, we study a fibre space structure of a projective symplectic variety.
We develop criteria for affine varieties to admit uniruled subvarieties of certain dimensions. The measurements are from long exact sequences of versions of symplectic cohomology, which is a Hamiltonian Floer theory for some open symplectic manifolds including affine varieties. Symplectic cohomology is hard to compute, in general. However, certain vanishing and invariance properties of symplectic cohomology can be used to prove that our criteria for finding uniruled subvarieties hold in some cases. We provide applications of the criteria in birational geometry of log pairs in the direction of …
This paper deals with symplectic varieties which do not have symplectic resolutions. Some moduli spaces of semi-stable torsion-free sheaves on a K3 surface, and symplectic V-manifolds are such varieties. We shall prove local Torelli theorem for symplectic varieties. Some results on symplectic singularities are also included.
We introduce the notion of a conical symplectic variety, and show that any symplectic resolution of such a variety is isomorphic to the Springer resolution of a nilpotent orbit in a semisimple Lie algebra, composed with a linear projection.
We survey recent results on ample cones and birational contractions of holomorphic symplectic varieties of K3 type, focusing on explicit constructions and concrete examples.
We classify the polarized symplectic automorphisms of Fano varieties of smooth cubic fourfolds (equipped with the Plücker polarization) and study the fixed loci.
We study derived equivalences of Abelian varieties in terms of their associated symplectic data. For simple Abelian varieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero we prove that the natural correspondence introduced by Orlov, which maps equivalences to symplectic isomorphisms, is surjective.
We prove that the integral Hodge conjecture holds for 1-cycles on irreducible holomorphic symplectic varieties of K3 type and of Generalized Kummer type. As an application, we give a new proof of the integral Hodge conjecture for cubic fourfolds.
We study the global geometry of the ten dimensional O'Grady irreducible symplectic variety. We determine its second Betti number, its Beauville form and its Fujiki constant.
We prove several results concerning the intersection cohomology and the perverse filtration associated with a Lagrangian fibration of an irreducible symplectic variety. We first show that the perverse numbers only depend on the deformation equivalence class of the ambient variety. Then we compute the border of the perverse diamond, which further yields a complete description of the intersection cohomology of the Lagrangian base and the invariant cohomology classes of the fibers. Lastly, we identify the perverse and Hodge numbers of intersection cohomology when the irreducible symplectic variet…
We develop the global moduli theory of symplectic varieties in the sense of Beauville. We prove a number of analogs of classical results from the smooth case, including a global Torelli theorem. In particular, this yields a new proof of Verbitsky's global Torelli theorem in the smooth case (assuming $b_2\geq 5$) which does not use the existence of a hyperkähler metric or twistor deformations.
In this article we explore compactifications of cluster varieties of finite type in complex dimension two. Cluster varieties can be viewed as the spec of a ring generated by theta functions and a compactification of such varieties can be given by a grading on that ring, which can be described by positive polytopes [17]. In the examples we exploit, the cluster variety can be interpreted as the complement of certain divisors in del Pezzo surfaces. In the symplectic viewpoint, they can be described via almost toric fibrations over $\R^2$ (after completion). Once identifying them as almost toric m…
We study the algebraic symplectic geometry of multiplicative quiver varieties, which are moduli spaces of representations of certain quiver algebras, introduced by Crawley-Boevey and Shaw, called multiplicative preprojective algebras. They are multiplicative analogues of Nakajima quiver varieties. They include character varieties of (open) Riemann surfaces fixing conjugacy class closures of the monodromies around punctures, when the quiver is "crab-shaped". We prove that, under suitable hypotheses on the dimension vector of the representations, or the conjugacy classes of monodromies in the ch…
We prove that any ample class on a primitive symplectic variety that is locally trivial deformation of O'Grady's singular 6 dimensional example is proportional to the first Chern class of a uniruled divisor. This result answers a question of Lehn, Mongardi and Pacienza, extending their result for primitive symplectic varieties of this deformation type.
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 give an example of a pair of projective symplectic varieties in arbitrarily large dimensions which are D-equivalent, L-equivalent, and birationally inequivalent.
We determine the Mori cone of holomorphic symplectic varieties deformation equivalent to the punctual Hilbert scheme on a K3 surface. Our description is given in terms of Markman's extended Hodge lattice.
We show that the Andre motive of an irreducible, symplectic variety, which is deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of points on a K3 surface, is an object the category generated by its motive truncated in degree two.
Under some conditions on the deformation type, which we expect to be satisfied for arbitrary irreducible symplectic varieties, we describe which big and nef line bundles on irreducible symplectic varieties have base divisors. In particular, we show that such base divisors are always irreducible and reduced. This is applied to understand the behaviour of divisorial base components of big and nef line bundles under deformations and for K3$^{[n]}$-type and Kum$^n$-type.
We prove that the Kodaira dimension of the n-fold universal family of lattice-polarized holomorphic symplectic varieties with dominant and generically finite period map stabilizes to the moduli number when n is sufficiently large. Then we study the transition of Kodaira dimension explicitly, from negative to nonnegative, for known explicit families of polarized symplectic varieties. In particular, we determine the exact transition point in the cases of Beauville-Donagi and Debarre-Voisin, where the Borcherds Phi_{12} form plays a crucial role.
We will show that the cotangent bundle of a manifold whose free loopspace homology grows exponentially is not symplectomorphic to any smooth affine variety. We will also show that the unit cotangent bundle of such a manifold is not Stein fillable by a Stein domain whose completion is symplectomorphic to a smooth affine variety. For instance, these results hold for end connect sums of simply connected manifolds whose cohomology with coefficients in some field has at least two generators. We use an invariant called the growth rate of symplectic homology to prove this result.
We systematically study the moduli theory of symplectic varieties (in the sense of Beauville) which admit a resolution by an irreducible symplectic manifold. In particular, we prove an analog of Verbitsky's global Torelli theorem for the locally trivial deformations of such varieties. Verbitsky's work on ergodic complex structures replaces twistor lines as the essential global input. In so doing we extend many of the local deformation-theoretic results known in the smooth case to such (not-necessarily-projective) symplectic varieties. We deduce a number of applications to the birational geomet…
We prove several results on symplectic varieties with a Hamiltonian action of a reductive group having invariant Lagrangian subvarieties. Our main result states that the images of the moment maps of a Hamiltonian variety and of the cotangent bundle over an invariant Lagrangian subvariety coincide. This implies that the complexity and rank of the Lagrangian subvariety are equal to the half of the corank and to the defect of the Hamiltonian variety, respectively. This result generalizes a theorem of Panyushev on the complexity and rank of a conormal bundle. A simple elementary proof of this theo…
For simple and simply-connected complex algebraic group G, we conjecture the existence of a functor eta_G from the category of 2-bordisms to the category of holomorphic symplectic varieties with Hamiltonian action, such that gluing of boundaries corresponds to the holomorphic symplectic quotient with respect to the diagonal action of G. We describe various properties of eta_G obtained via string-theoretic analysis. Mathematicians are urged to construct eta_G rigorously.
If X is a symplectic variety emedded in an affine space as a complete intersection of homogeneous polynomials, then X coincides with the nilpotent variety of a semisimple Lie algebra.
This short note considers varieties of the form $G\times S_{\text{reg}}$, where $G$ is a complex semisimple group and $S_{\text{reg}}$ is a regular Slodowy slice in the Lie algebra of $G$. Such varieties arise naturally in hyperkähler geometry, theoretical physics, and in the theory of abstract integrable systems developed by Fernandes, Laurent-Gengoux, and Vanhaecke. In particular, previous work of the author and Rayan uses a Hamiltonian $G$-action to endow $G\times S_{\text{reg}}$ with a canonical abstract integrable system. One might therefore wish to understand, in some sense, all examples…
We show that the graded Chow rings of two birational irreducible symplectic varieties are isomorphic. This lifts a result known for the cohomology algebras to the level of Chow rings, despite the non-injectivity the cycle class map. In the special case of general Mukai flops, we present an alternative approach based on explicit calculations.
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 construct a multiplicative spectral sequence converging to the symplectic cohomology ring of any affine variety $X$, with first page built out of topological invariants associated to strata of any fixed normal crossings compactification $(M,\mathbf{D})$ of $X$. We exhibit a broad class of pairs $(M,\mathbf{D})$ (characterized by the absence of relative holomorphic spheres or vanishing of certain relative GW invariants) for which the spectral sequence degenerates, and a broad subclass of pairs (similarly characterized) for which the ring structure on symplectic cohomology can also be describ…
A singular Moishezon space is not projective even if it is Kaehler. This paper gives a projectivity criterion for Kaehler Moishezon spaces. We shall use this projectivity criterion to show the density of projective symplectic varieties in the Kuranishi family of a (singular) symplectic variety.
Irreducible symplectic manifolds are one of the three building blocks of compact Kähler manifolds with numerically trivial canonical bundle by the Beauville-Bogomolov decomposition theorem. There are several singular analogues of irreducible symplectic manifolds, in particular in the context of compact Kähler orbifolds, and in the context of normal projective varieties with canonical singularities. In this paper we will collect their definitions, analyze their mutual relations and provide a list of known examples.
We shall prove that the Poisson deformation functor of an affine (singular) symplectic variety is unobstructed. As a corollary, we prove the following result. Theorem: For an affine symplectic variety $X$ with a good $C^*$-action (where its natural Poisson structure is positively weighted), the following are equivalent (1) $X$ has a crepant projective resolution. (2) $X$ has a smoothing by a Poisson deformation.
We study symplectic varieties defined over fields of positive characteristics, especially the supersingular ones, generalizing the theory of supersingular K3 surfaces. In this work, we are mainly interested in the following two types of symplectic varieties over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic, under natural numerical conditions: (1) smooth moduli spaces of sheaves on K3 surfaces and (2) smooth Albanese fibers of moduli spaces of sheaves on abelian surfaces. Several natural definitions of the supersingularity for symplectic varieties are discussed, which are proved to …
We prove the standard conjectures for complex projective varieties that are deformations of the Hilbert scheme of points on a K3 surface. The proof involves Verbitsky's theory of hyperholomorphic sheaves and a study of the cohomology algebra of Hilbert schemes of K3 surfaces.
Our previous paper introduces topological notions of normal crossings symplectic divisor and variety and establishes that they are equivalent, in a suitable sense, to the desired geometric notions. Friedman's d-semistability condition is well-known to be an obstruction to the smoothability of a normal crossings variety in a one-parameter family with a smooth total space in the algebraic geometry category. We show that the direct analogue of this condition is the only obstruction to such smoothability in the symplectic topology category. Every smooth fiber of the families of smoothings we descr…
We show that the moduli spaces of sheaves on a projective K3 surface are irreducible symplectic varieties, and that the same holds for the fibers of the Albanese map of moduli spaces of sheaves on an Abelian surface.
We shall prove that any small deformation of a Q-factorial projective symplectic variety with terminal singularities is locally rigid; in other words, it preserves the singularity. In particular, many singular symplectic moduli of semi-stable sheaves on K3 have no smoothings via deformations. As an application of the result, we also prove that the smootheness is preserved under a flop in our symplectic case. We conjecture that a projective symplectic variety has a smoothing by a flat deformation if and only if it has a crepant (symplectic) resolution. This conjecture would be true if the minim…
We propose a general framework governing the intersection properties of extremal rays of irreducible holomorphic symplectic manifolds under the Beauville-Bogomolov form. Our main thesis is that extremal rays associated to Lagrangian projective subspaces control the behavior of the cone of curves. We explore implications of this philosophy for examples like Hilbert schemes of points on K3 surfaces and generalized Kummer varieties. We also collect evidence supporting our conjectures in specific cases.
We study smooth projective varieties with small dual variety using methods from symplectic topology. We prove the affine parts of such varieties are subcritical, and that the hyperplane class is invertible in their quantum cohomology. We derive several topological and algebraic geometric consequences from that. The main tool in our work is the Seidel representation associated to Hamiltonian fibrations.
We define the odd symplectic grassmannians and flag manifolds, which are smooth projective varieties equipped with an action of the odd symplectic group and generalizing the usual symplectic grassmannians and flag manifolds. Contrary to the latter, which are the flag manifolds of the symplectic group, the varieties we introduce are not homogeneous. We argue nevertheless that in many respects the odd symplectic grassmannians and flag manifolds behave like homogeneous varieties; in support of this claim, we compute the automorphism group of the odd symplectic grassmannians, and we prove a Borel-…
For any simple, simply connected algebraic group $G$ of type $B,C$ and $D$ and for any maximal parabolic subgroup $P$ of $G$, we provide a criterion for a Richardson variety in $G/P$ to admit semistable points for the action of a maximal torus $T$ with respect to an ample line bundle on $G/P$.
