We give explicit examples of Gorenstein surface singularities with integral homology sphere link, which are not complete intersections. Their existence was shown by Luengo-Velasco, Melle-Hernandez and Nemethi, thereby providing counterexamples to the Universal abelian covering conjecture of Neumann and Wahl.
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…
By using superisolated surface singularities whose link is a rational homology sphere we give counterexamples to some of the most important conjetures concernig invariants of normal surface singularities.
In this survey, we review part of the theory of superisolated surface singularities (SIS) and its applications including some new and recent developments. The class of SIS singularities is, in some sense, the simplest class of germs of normal surface singularities. Namely, their tangent cones are reduced curves and the geometry and topology of the SIS singularities can be deduced from them. Thus this class \emph{contains}, in a canonical way, all the complex projective plane curve theory, which gives a series of nice examples and counterexamples. They were introduced by I. Luengo to show the n…
For a double solid $V\to P_3(C)$ branched over a surface $B\subset P_3(C)$ with only ordinary nodes as singularities, we give a set of generators of the divisor class group $Pic(\tilde{V}})$ in terms of contact surfaces of $B$ with only superisolated singularities in the nodes of $B$. As an application we give a condition when the integral cohomology of $\tilde{V}$ has no 2-torsion. All possible cases are listed if $B$ is a quartic surface. Furthermore we give a new lower bound for the dimension of the code of $B$.
Let $(X,o)$ be a complex normal surface singularity. We fix one of its good resolutions $\widetilde{X}\to X$, an effective cycle $Z$ supported on the reduced exceptional curve, and any possible (first Chern) class $l'\in H^2(\widetilde{X},\mathbb{Z})$. With these data we define the variety ${\rm ECa}^{l'}(Z)$ of those effective Cartier divisors $D$ supported on $Z$ which determine a line bundles $\mathcal{O}_Z(D)$ with first Chern class $l'$. Furthermore, we consider the affine space ${\rm Pic}^{l'}(Z)\subset H^1(\mathcal{O}_Z^*)$ of isomorphism classes of holomorphic line bundles with Chern c…
Building on previous work of Kollar, Ein, Lazarsfeld, and Hacon, we show that ample divisors of low degree on an abelian variety have mild singularities in case the abelian variety is simple or the degree of the polarization is two.
We show a sufficient condition for Fujiki-Oka resolutions of Gorenstein abelian quotient singularities to be crepant in all dimensions by using Ashikaga's continuous fractions. Moreover, we prove that all three dimensional Gorenstein abelian quotient singularities possess a crepant resolution as a corollary. This alternative proof of existence needs only simple computations comparing with the results ever known.
It is known by results of Kollár, Ein, Lazarsfeld, Hacon and Debarre that divisors representing principal and other low degree polarizations on abelian varieties have mild singularities. In this note we extend such results to polarizations of degree $<g$ on simple $g$-dimensional abelian varieties, settling a conjecture of Debarre and Hacon.
In this paper we give a lower bound for the codimension of the Andreotti-Mayer loci in the moduli space of principally polarized complex abelian varieties. We also present a conjecture on this codimension.
In this paper we study the singularities of the invariant metric of the Poincaré bundle over a family of abelian varieties and their duals over a base of arbitrary dimension. As an application of this study we prove the effectiveness of the height jump divisors for families of pointed abelian varieties. The effectiveness of the height jump divisor was conjectured by Hain in the more general case of variations of polarized Hodge structures of weight $-1$.
In 2002, Alexeev provided a modular interpretation for the toroidal compactification of $A_g$ for the 2nd Voronoi fan. In this paper we show that pairs $(X,Θ)$ in the boundary of this moduli space are semi-log canonical, the analog of log canonical in the non-normal setting. This extends the result of Koll${á}$r stating that principally polarized abelian pairs $(X,Θ)$ are log canonical.
We discuss the evidence for and implications of a conjecture that the universal abelian cover of a Q-Gorenstein surface singularity with finite local homology (i.e., the singularity link is a Q-homology sphere) is a complete intersection singularity.
The quotient-cusp singularities are isolated complex surface singularities that are double-covered by cusp singularities. We show that the universal abelian cover of such a singularity, branched only at the singular point, is a complete intersection cusp singularity of embedding dimension 4. This supports a general conjecture that we make about the universal abelian cover of a $\Q$-Gorenstein singularity.
In previous papers, there were computed the Poincare series of some (multi-index) filtrations on the ring of germs of functions on a rational surface singularity. These Poincare series were written as the integer parts of certain fractional power series, an interpretation of whom was not given. Here we show that, up to a simple change of variables, these fractional power series are specializations of the equivariant Poincare series for filtrations on the ring of germs of functions on the universal abelian cover of the surface singularity. We compute these equivariant Poincare series.
We show that the Mordell Weil rank of an isotrivial abelian variety with a cyclic holonomy depends only on the fundamental group of the complement to the discriminant provided the discriminant has singularities in the introduced here CM class. This class of singularities includes all unibranched plane curves singularities. As a corollary we give a family of simple Jacobians over field of rational functions in two variable for which the Mordell Weil rank is arbitrary large.
In this paper we study the intersection theory on surfaces with abelian quotient singularities and we derive properties of quotients of weighted projective planes. We also use this theory to study weighted blow-ups in order to construct embedded $\mathbf{Q}$-resolutions of plane curve singularities and abstract $\mathbf{Q}$-resolutions of surfaces.
In this paper, we investigate the multiplicities and the log canonical thresholds of abelian quotient complete intersection singularities in term of the special datum. Moreover we give bounds of the multiplicity of abelian quotient complete intersection singularities.
It has long been known that every quasi-homogeneous normal complex surface singularity with Q-homology sphere link has universal abelian cover a Brieskorn complete intersection singularity. We describe a broad generalization: First, one has a class of complete intersection normal complex surface singularities called "splice type singularities", which generalize Brieskorn complete intersections. Second, these arise as universal abelian covers of a class of normal surface singularities with Q-homology sphere links, called "splice-quotient singularities". According to the Main Theorem, splice-quo…
Perfect quadratic forms give a toroidal compactification of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian g-folds that is Q-factorial and whose ample classes are characterized, over any base. In characteristic zero it has canonical singularities if g is at least 5, and is the canonical model (in the sense of Mori and Reid) if g is at least 12.
In earlier joint work with our collaborators Akhtar, Coates, Corti, Heuberger, Kasprzyk, Prince and Tveiten, we gave a conjectural classification of a broad class of orbifold del Pezzo surfaces, using Mirror Symmetry. We proposed that del Pezzo surfaces $X$ with isolated cyclic quotient singularities such that $X$ admits a $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein toric degeneration correspond under Mirror Symmetry to maximally mutable Laurent polynomials $f$ in two variables, and that the quantum period of such a surface $X$, which is a generating function for Gromov-Witten invariants of $X$, coincides with th…
This paper deals with singularities of genus 2 curves on a general (d_1,d_2)-polarized abelian surface (S,L). In analogy with Chen's results concerning rational curves on K3 surfaces [Ch1,Ch2], it is natural to ask whether all such curves are nodal. We prove that this holds true if and only if d_2 is not divisible by 4. In the cases where d_2 is a multiple of 4, we exhibit genus 2 curves in |L| that have a triple, 4-tuple or 6-tuple point. We show that these are the only possible types of unnodal singularities of a genus 2 curve in |L|. Furthermore, with no assumption on d_1 and d_2, we prove …
Given a quasi-projective variety X with only Kawamata log terminal singularities, we study the obstructions to extending finite étale covers from the smooth locus $X_{\mathrm{reg}}$ of $X$ to $X$ itself. A simplified version of our main results states that there exists a Galois cover $Y \rightarrow X$, ramified only over the singularities of $X$, such that the étale fundamental groups of $Y$ and of $Y_{\mathrm{reg}}$ agree. In particular, every étale cover of $Y_{\mathrm{reg}}$ extends to an étale cover of $Y$. As first major application, we show that every flat holomorphic bundle defined on $…
We show that Albanese varieties of abelian covers of projective plane are isogenous to product of isogeny components of abelian varieties associated with singularities of the ramification locus. In particular Albanese varieties of abelian covers of projective plane ramified over arrangements of lines and uniformized by unit ball are isogenous to a product of Jacobians of Fermat curves. Periodicity of the sequence of (semi-abelian) Albanese varieties of unramified cyclic covers of complements to a plane singular curve is shown.
The local invariants of a meromorphic Abelian differential on a Riemann surface of genus $g$ are the orders of zeros and poles, and the residues at the poles. The main result of this paper is that with few exceptions, every pattern of orders and residues can be obtain by an Abelian differential. These exceptions are two families in genus zero when the orders of the poles are either all simple or all nonsimple. Moreover, we even show that the pattern can be realized in each connected component of strata. Finally we give consequences of these results in algebraic and flat geometry. The main ingr…
For Gorenstein quotient spaces $C^d/G$, a direct generalization of the classical McKay correspondence in dimensions $d\geq 4$ would primarily demand the existence of projective, crepant desingularizations. Since this turned out to be not always possible, Reid asked about special classes of such quotient spaces which would satisfy the above property. We prove that the underlying spaces of all Gorenstein abelian quotient singularities, which are embeddable as complete intersections of hypersurfaces in an affine space, have torus-equivariant projective crepant resolutions in all dimensions. We us…
Consider the moduli space of pairs (C,w) where C is a smooth compact complex curve of a given genus and w is a holomorphic 1-form on C with a given list of multiplicities of zeroes. We describe connected components of this space. This classification is important in the study of dynamics of interval exchange transformations and billiards in rational polygons, and in the study of geometry of translation surfaces.
(1,d)-polarized abelian surfaces in P^(d-1) with two plane cubic curve fibrations lie in two elliptic P^2-scrolls. The union of these scrolls form a reducible Calabi-Yau 3-fold. In this paper we show that this occurs when d<10 and analyse the family of such surfaces and 3-folds in detail when d=6. In particular, the reducible Calabi-Yau 3-folds deform in that case to irreducible ones with non-normal singularities.
For which finite subgroups G of SL(r,C), r \geq 4, are there crepant desingularizations of the quotient space C^r/G? A complete answer to this question (also known as "Existence Problem" for such desingularizations) would classify all those groups for which the high-dimensional versions of McKay correspondence are valid. In the paper we consider this question in the case of abelian finite subgroups of SL(r,C) by using techniques from toric and discrete geometry. We give two necessary existence conditions, involving the Hilbert basis elements of the cone supporting the junior simplex, and an Up…
Given a rational homology sphere M, whose splice diagram satisfy the semigroup condition, Neumann and Wahl were able to define a complete intersection surface singularity called splice diagram singularity from the splice diagram of M. They were also able to show that under an additional hypothesis on M called the congruence condition, the link of the splice diagram singularity is the universal abelian cover of M. In this article we generalize the congruence condition to the class of orbifolds called graph orbifold. We show that under a small additional hypothesis, this orbifold congruence cond…
We investigate field theories on the worldvolume of a D3-brane transverse to partial resolutions of a $\Z_3\times\Z_3$ Calabi-Yau threefold quotient singularity. We deduce the field content and lagrangian of such theories and present a systematic method for mapping the moment map levels characterizing the partial resolutions of the singularity to the Fayet-Iliopoulos parameters of the D-brane worldvolume theory. As opposed to the simpler cases studied before, we find a complex web of partial resolutions and associated field-theoretic Fayet-Iliopoulos deformations. The analysis is performed by …
Moduli spaces of semistable sheaves on a K3 or abelian surface with respect to a general ample divisor are shown to be locally factorial, with the exception of symmetric products of a K3 or abelian surface and the class of moduli spaces found by O'Grady. Consequently, since singular moduli space that do not belong to these exceptional cases have singularities in codimension $\geq4$ they do no admit projective symplectic resolutions.
Esnault-Viehweg developed the theory of cyclic branched coverings $\tilde X\to X$ of smooth surfaces providing a very explicit formula for the decomposition of $H^1(\tilde X,\mathbb{C})$ in terms of a resolution of the ramification locus. Later, the first author applies this to the particular case of coverings of $\mathbb{P}^2$ reducing the problem to a combination of global and local conditions on projective curves. In this paper we extend the above results in three directions: first, the theory is extended to surfaces with quotient singularities, second the ramification locus can be partiall…
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 a…
In a previous work we have introduced and studied the notion of embedded $\mathbf{Q}$-resolution, which essentially consists in allowing the final ambient space to contain abelian quotient singularities. Here we explicitly compute an embedded $\mathbf{Q}$-resolution of a Yomdin-Lê surface singularity $(V,0)$ in terms of a (global) embedded $\mathbf{Q}$-resolution of their tangent cone by means of just weighted blow-ups at points. The generalized A'Campo's formula in this setting is applied so as to compute the characteristic polynomial. As a consequence, an exceptional divisor in the resolutio…
We study tori attached to the fundamental groups of plane curves with arbitrary singularities. These tori provide complete information about homology of finite abelian covers of the plane branched along the curve. We calculate these tori in terms of certain linear systems determined by the singularities of the curve. In the case of the complements to a union of lines they can be calculated from the lattice of the arrangement and are closely related to the components of the space of Aomoto complexes with prescribed homology.
The boundary chiral ring of a 2d gauged linear sigma model on a Kähler manifold $X$ classifies the topological D-brane sectors and the massless open strings between them. While it is determined at small volume by simple group theory, its continuation to generic volume provides highly non-trivial information about the $D$-branes on $X$, related to the derived category $D^\flat(X)$. We use this correspondence to elaborate on an extended notion of McKay correspondence that captures more general than orbifold singularities. As an illustration, we work out this new notion of McKay correspondence fo…
The purpose of this paper is to show how the generic vanishing theorems of M. Green and the second author can be used to settle several questions and conjectures concerning the geometry of irregular complex projective varieties. First, we prove a conjecture of Arbarello and DeConcini characterizing principally polarized abelian varieties whose theta divisors are singular in codimension one. Secondly, we study the holomorphic Euler characteristics of varieties of general type having maximal Albanese dimension: we verify a conjecture of Kollar for subvarieties of abelian varieties, but show that…
Similarly to the linear Harbourne constant recently defined, we study the elliptic $H$-constants of $\mathbb{P}^{2}$ and Abelian surfaces. We exhibit configurations of smooth plane cubic curves whose Harbourne index is arbitrarily close to $-4$. As a Corollary, we obtain that the global $H$-constant of any surface $X$ is less or equal to $-4$. Related to these problems, we moreover give a new inequality for the number and multiplicities of singularities of elliptic curves arrangements on Abelian surfaces, inequality which has a close similarity to the one of Hirzebruch for arrangements of line…
We survey some recent progress in the study of algebraic varieties X with log terminal singularities, especially, the uni-ruledness of the smooth locus X^0 of X, the fundamental group of X^0 and the automorphisms group on (smooth or singular) X when dim X = 2. The full automorphism groups of a few interesting types of K3 surfaces are described, mainly by Keum-Kondo. We conjecture that when X is Q-Fano then X^0 has a finite fundamental group, which had been proved if either dim X < 3 or the Fano index is bigger than dim X - 2. We also conjecture that when X is a log Enriques (e.g. a normal K3 o…
In this short note we prove two theorems, the first one is a sharpening of a result of Lange and Sernesi: the discriminant curve W of a general Abelian surface $A$ endowed with an irreducible polarization $D$ of type $(1,3)$ is an irreducible curve of degree $18$ whose singularities are exactly $36$ nodes and $72$ cusps. Moreover, we analyze the degeneration of the discriminant curve $W$ and its singularities as $A$ tends to the product of two equal elliptic curves. The second theorem, using the first one in order to prove a transversality assertion, shows that the general element of a family …
We prove that the ring of Siegel modular forms of weight divisible by g+n+1 is isomorphic to the ring of (log) pluricanonical forms on the n-fold Kuga family of abelian varieties and its certain compactifications, for every arithmetic group for a symplectic form of rank 2g>2. We also give applications to the Kodaira dimension of the Kuga variety. In most cases, the Kuga variety has canonical singularities.
It is known that the underlying spaces of all abelian quotient singularities which are embeddable as complete intersections of hypersurfaces in an affine space can be overall resolved by means of projective torus-equivariant crepant birational morphisms in all dimensions. In the present paper we extend this result to the entire class of toric l.c.i.-singularities. Our proof makes use of Nakajima's classification theorem and of some special techniques from toric and discrete geometry.
We construct a general class of Calabi--Yau threefolds from fiber products of rational elliptic surfaces with section, generalizing a construction of Schoen to include all Kodaira fiber types. The resulting threefolds each have two elliptic fibrations with section over rational elliptic surfaces and blowups thereof. These elliptic fibrations generally have nonzero Mordell--Weil rank. Each of the elliptic fibrations has a physical interpretation in terms of a six-dimensional F-theory model with one or more non-Higgsable abelian gauge fields. Many of the models in this class have mild singularit…
It is known (Stipsicz-Szabó-Wahl) that there are exactly three triply-infinite and seven singly-infinite families of weighted homogeneous normal surface singularities admitting a rational homology disk ($\mathbb{Q}$HD) smoothing, i.e., having a Milnor fibre with Milnor number zero. Some examples are found by an explicit "quotient construction", while others require the "Pinkham method". The fundamental group of the Milnor fibre has been known for all except the three exceptional families $\mathcal B_2^3(p), \mathcal C^3_2(p),$ and $\mathcal C^3_3(p)$. In this paper, we settle these cases. We p…
Recently L. Nicolaescu and the author formulated a conjecture which relates the geometric genus of a complex analytic normal surface singularity (whose link $M$ is a rational homology sphere) with the Seiberg-Witten invariant of $M$ associated with the ``canonical'' $spin^c$ structure of $M$. Since the Seiberg-Witten theory of the link $M$ provides a rational number for any $spin^c$ structure it was a natural challenge to search for a complete set of conjecturally valid identities, which involve all the Seiberg-Witten invariants (giving an analytic -- i.e. singularity theoretical -- interpreta…
A finite subgroup of ${\rm SL}_2(\CC)$ defines a (Kleinian) rational surface singularity. The McKay correspondence yields a relation between the Poincaré series of the algebra of invariants of such a group and the characteristic polynomials of certain Coxeter elements determined by the corresponding singularity. Here we consider some non-abelian finite subgroups $G$ of ${\rm SL}_3(\CC)$. They define non-isolated three-dimensional Gorenstein quotient singularities. We consider suitable hyperplane sections of such singularities which are Kleinian or Fuchsian surface singularities. We show that w…
Using analytic torsion associated to stable bundles, we introduce zeta functions for compact Riemann surfaces. To justify the well-definedness, we analyze the degenerations of analytic torsions at the boundaries of the moduli spaces, the singularities of analytic torsions at Brill-Noether loci, and the asymptotic behaviors of analytic torsions with respect to the degree. These new yet intrinsic zetas, both abelian and non-abelian, are expected to play key roles to understand global analysis and geometry of Riemann surfaces, such as the Tamagawa number conjecture for Riemann surfaces, searched …
We prove the "End Curve Theorem," which states that a normal surface singularity $(X,o)$ with rational homology sphere link $Σ$ is a splice-quotient singularity if and only if it has an end curve function for each leaf of a good resolution tree. An "end-curve function" is an analytic function $(X,o)\to (\C,0)$ whose zero set intersects $Σ$ in the knot given by a meridian curve of the exceptional curve corresponding to the given leaf. A "splice-quotient singularity" $(X,o)$ is described by giving an explicit set of equations describing its universal abelian cover as a complete intersection in $…