In this note we study the geometry of principally polarized abelian varieties (ppavs) with a vanishing theta-null (i.e. with a singular point of order two and even multiplicity lying on the theta divisor). We describe the locus within the theta-null divisor where this singularity is not an ordinary double point. By using theta function methods we first show that this locus does not equal the entire theta-null divisor (this was shown previously by O. Debarre). We then show that this locus is contained in the intersection of the theta-null divisor with the other irreducible components of the Andreotti-Mayer divisor N_0, and describe by using the geometry of the universal scheme of singularities of the theta divisor the components of this intersection that are contained in this locus.
Some of the intermediate results obtained along the way of our proof were concurrently obtained independently by C. Ciliberto and G. van der Geer, and by R. de Jong.
We introduce the notion of an effective Arakelov divisor for a number field and the arithmetical analogue of the dimension of the space of sections of a line bundle. We study the analogue of the theta divisor for a number field.
The classes of two theta divisors on an abelian variety in the naive Grothendieck ring of varieties need not be congruent modulo the class of the affine line.
We show that analytic torsion of smooth theta divisor is represented by a Siegel modular form characterizing the Andreotti-Mayer locus if its dimension is positive.
We show that the locus of stable rank four vector bundles without theta divisor over a smooth projective curve of genus two is in canonical bijection with the set of theta-characteristics. We give several descriptions of these bundles and compute the degree of the rational theta map.
The primitive cohomology of the theta divisor of a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g$ is a Hodge structure of level $g-3$. The Hodge conjecture predicts that it is contained in the image, under the Abel-Jacobi map, of the cohomology of a family of curves in the theta divisor. In this paper we use the Prym map to show that this version of the Hodge conjecture is true for the theta divisor of a general abelian fivefold.
We show that the gradient and the hessian of the Riemann theta function in dimension n can be combined to give a theta function of order n+1 and modular weight (n+5)/2 defined on the theta divisor. It can be seen that the zero locus of this theta function essentially gives the ramification locus of the Gauss map. For jacobians this leads to a description in terms of theta functions and their derivatives of the Weierstrass point locus on the associated Riemann surface.
A generic strictly semistable bundle of degree zero over a curve X has a reducible theta divisor, given by the sum of the theta divisors of the stable summands of the associated graded bundle. The converse is not true: Beauville and Raynaud have each constructed stable bundles with reducible theta divisors. For X of genus at least 5, we construct stable vector bundles over X of rank $r$ for all $r \geq 5$, with reducible and nonreduced theta divisors. We also adapt the construction to symplectic bundles. In the appendix, Raynaud's original example of a stable rank 2 vector bundle with reducibl…
We discuss variations of Hodge structures on abelian varieties that arise from intersecting translates of theta divisors with a special focus on the case of abelian varieties of dimension 4
In this paper we prove a strengthening of the generic vanishing result in characteristic $p>0$ given in [HP16]. As a consequence of this result, we show that irreducible $Θ$ divisors are strongly F-regular and we prove a related result for pluri-theta divisors.
We present a new class of examples of base points for the generalized theta divisor on the moduli space of semistable vector bundles of trivial determinant on a compact Riemann surface and we prove that for sufficiently large rank the base locus is positive dimensional.
In this paper we show that semistable vector bundles on a Castelnuovo curve of genus g >= 2 have theta divisors. As a corollary, we deduce that semistable vector bundles on a smooth, general curve of genus g >= 2 which extend to semistable vector bundles on any Castelnuovo degeneration of the general curve admit a theta divisor.
In this paper we give a birational model for the theta divisor of the intermediate Jacobian of a generic cubic threefold $X$. We use the standard realization of $X$ as a conic bundle and a $4-$dimensional family of plane quartics which are totally tangent to the discriminant quintic curve of such a conic bundle structure. The additional data of an even theta characteristic on the curves in the family gives us a model for the theta divisor.
We prove a motivic version of the Lefschetz hyperplane theorem for a smooth ample divisor $Θ$ on an Abelian variety. We use this to construct a motive $P$ that realizes the primitive cohomology of $Θ$.
Let $(A,Θ)$ be a complex principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g\geq 4$. Based on vanishing theorems, differentiation techniques and intersection theory, we show that whenever the theta divisor $Θ$ is irreducible, its multiplicity at any point is at most $g-2$. This improves work of Kollár, Smith-Varley, and Ein-Lazarsfeld. We also introduce some new ideas to study the same type of questions for pluri-theta divisors.
We study the loci of principally polarized abelian varieties with points of high multiplicity on the theta divisor. Using the heat equation and degeneration techniques, we relate these loci and their closures to each other, as well as to the singular set of the universal theta divisor. We obtain bounds on the dimensions of these loci and relations among their dimensions, and make further conjectures about their structure.
We produce a lower bound for the dimension of the base locus of the generalized theta divisor on the moduli space SU_C(r) of semistable vector bundles of rank r and trivial determinant on a smooth curve C of genus g > 1.
We study the theta divisor of the compactified jacobian of a nodal, possibly reducible, curve. We compute its irreducible components and give it a geometric interpretation consistent with the classical Brill-Noether theory of smooth curves. Some applications on hyperelliptic stable curves are appended.
We prove that the cotangent bundle of a complete intersection of two general translates of the theta divisor of the jacobian of a general curve of genus 4 is ample. From this the same result for a general principally polarized abelian variety of dimension 4 follows.
The singularities of theta divisors have played an important role in the study of algebraic varieties. This paper surveys some of the recent progress in this subject, using as motivation some well known results, especially those for Jacobians.
We give a bound on the number of points of order two on the theta divisor of a principally polarized abelian variety A. When A is the Jacobian of a curve C the result can be applied in estimating the number of effective square roots of a fixed line bundle on C.
We construct families of principally polarized abelian varieties whose theta divisor is irreducible and contains an abelian subvariety. These families are used to construct examples when the Gauss map of the theta divisor is only generically finite and not finite. That is, the Gauss map in these cases has at least one positive-dimensional fiber. We also obtain lower-bounds on the dimension of Andreotti-Mayer loci.
The Jacobian varieties of smooth curves fit together to form a family, the universal Jacobian, over the moduli space of smooth marked curves, and the theta divisors of these curves form a divisor in the universal Jacobian. In this paper we describe how to extend these families over the moduli space of stable marked curves (or rather an open subset thereof) using a stability parameter. We then prove a wall-crossing formula describing how the theta divisor varies with the stability parameter. We use that result to analyze a divisor on the moduli space of smooth marked curves that has recently be…
Raynaud has shown that over a general curve of genus $g \ge 2$, every semistable bundle of rank three and integral slope admits a theta divisor. We show that this can fail for special curves: Over any bielliptic curve of genus $g \ge 5$, we construct a stable rank three bundle of trivial determinant with no theta divisor. This gives a partial answer to a question of Beauville.
Given a smooth projective curve X, we give effective very ampleness bounds for generalized theta divisors on the moduli spaces $SU_X(r,d)$ and $U_X(r,d)$ of semistable vector bundles of rank r and degree d on X with fixed, respectively arbitrary, determinant.
In this note we prove a sharp bound for the number of 2-torsion points on a theta divisor and show that this is achieved only in the case of products of elliptic curves. This settles in the affirmative a conjecture of Marcucci and Pirola.
We generalize to $n$-torsion a result of Kempf's describing $2$-torsion points lying on a theta divisor. This is accomplished by means of certain semihomogeneous vector bundles introduced and studied by Mukai and Oprea. As an application, we prove a sharp upper bound for the number of $n$-torsion points on a theta divisor, and show that this is achieved only in the case of products of elliptic curves, settling in the affirmative a conjecture of Auffarth, Pirola and Salvati Manni.
The primitive cohomology of the theta divisor of a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g$ is a Hodge structure of level $g-3$. The Hodge conjecture predicts that it is contained in the image, under the Abel-Jacobi map, of the cohomology of a family of curves in the theta divisor. We survey some of the results known about this primitive cohomology, prove a few general facts and mention some interesting open problems.
Let C be a curve of genus g and L a line bundle of degree 2g on C . Let M be the kernel of the evaluation map from the trivial bundle with fibre H^0(C,L) into L . We show that when L is general enough, the rank g bundle M and its exterior powers are stable and admit a reducible theta divisor.
We compute the classes of universal theta divisors of degrees zero and g-1 over the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of curves, with various integer weights on the points, in particular reproving a recent result of Müller. We also obtain a formula for the class in the Chow ring of the moduli space of curves of compact type of the double ramification locus, given by the condition that a fixed linear combination of the marked points is a principal divisor, reproving a recent result of Hain. Our approach for computing the theta divisor is more direct, via test curves and the g…
For the Jacobian of a curve, the Riemann singularity theorem gives a geometric interpretation of the singularities of the theta divisor in terms of special linear series on the curve. This paper proves an analogous theorem for Prym varieties. Applications of this theorem to cubic threefolds, and Prym varieties of dimension five, are also considered.
In an earlier paper we constructed a Cartier divisor on the theta divisor of a principally polarised abelian variety whose support is precisely the ramification locus of the Gauss map. In this note we discuss a Green's function associated to this locus. For jacobians we relate this Green's function to the canonical Green's function of the corresponding Riemann surface.
Let $C$ be a Petri general curve of genus $g$ and $E$ a general stable vector bundle of rank $r$ and slope $g-1$ over $C$ with $h^0 (C, E) = r+1$. For $g > (2r+2)(2r+1)$, we show how the bundle $E$ can be recovered from the tangent cone to the theta divisor $Θ_E$ at ${\mathcal O}_C$. We use this to give a constructive proof and a sharpening of Brivio and Verra's theorem that the theta map $SU_C (r) -rightarrow |r Θ|$ is generically injective for large values of $g$.
In this text we prove that if an abelian variety $A$ admits of an embedding into the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve $C$, and if we consider $\Th_A$ to be the divisor $\Th_C\cap A$, where $\Th_C$ denotes the theta divisor of $J(C)$, then the embedding of $\Th_A$ into $A$ induces an injective push-forward homomorphism at the level of Chow groups. We show that this is the case for every principally polarized abelian varieties.
This paper shows that on the moduli space of semi-stable vector bundles of fixed rank and determinant (of any degree) on a smooth curve of genus at least two, the base locus of the generalized theta divisor is large provided the rank is sufficiently large. It also shows that the base locus is large for positive multiples of the theta divisor. This work extends results already known for the case where the determinant is of degree zero.
We compute all the top intersection numbers of divisors on the total space of the Poincare bundle restricted to the product of a curve and the abelian variety. We use these computations to find the class of the universal theta divisor and $m$-theta divisor inside the universal corank 1 semiabelian variety -- the boundary of the partial toroidal compactification of the moduli space of abelian varieties. We give two computational examples: we compute the boundary coefficient of the Andreotti-Mayer divisor (computed by Mumford but in a much harder and ad hoc way), and the analog of this for the u…
We study the birational geometry of irregular varieties and the singularities of Theta divisors of PPAV's in positive characteristic by applying recent generic vanishing results of Hacon and Patakfalvi. In particular, we prove that irreducible Theta divisors of principally polarized abelian varieties are strongly F-regular, which extends an old result of Ein and Lazarsfeld to fields of positive characteristic. In order to prove this, we formulate a positive characteristic analogue of another result of Ein and Lazarsfeld, to the effect that the Albanese image of a smooth projective variety of m…
We prove the following converse of Riemann's Theorem: let (A,Θ) be an indecomposable principally polarized abelian variety whose theta divisor can be written as a sum of a curve and a codimension two subvariety Θ=C+Y. Then C is smooth, A is the Jacobian of C, and Y is a translate of W_{g-2}(C). As applications, we determine all theta divisors that are dominated by a product of curves and characterize Jacobians by the existence of a d-dimensional subvariety with curve summand whose twisted ideal sheaf is a generic vanishing sheaf.
We study products of irreducible theta divisors from two points of view. On the one hand, we characterize them as normal subvarieties of abelian varieties such that a desingularization has holomorphic Euler characteristic 1. On the other hand, we identify them up to birational equivalence among all varieties of maximal Albanese dimension. We also describe the structure of maximal Albanese dimension varieties X with holomorphic Euler characteristic 1 and irregularity 2dim X-1.
We study the degree of the Gauss map of the theta divisor of principally polarised complex abelian varieties. We use this to obtain a bound on the multiplicity of the theta divisor along irreducible components of its singular locus, and apply this bound in examples, and to understand the local structure of isolated singular points. We further define a stratification of the moduli space of ppav's by the degree of the Gauss map. In dimension four, we show that this stratification gives a weak solution of the Schottky problem, and we conjecture that this is true in any dimension.
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.
We study base points of the generalized Theta-divisor on the moduli space of vector bundles on a smooth algebraic curve X of genus g defined over an algebraically closed field. To do so, we use the derived categories D(Pic(X)), D(Jac(X)), and the equivalence between them given by the Fourier-Mukai transform coming from the Poincaré bundle. The vector bundles P(m) on the curve X defined by Raynaud play a central role in this description. Indeed, we show that a vector bundle E is a base point of the generalized Theta-divisor, if and only if there exists a nontrivial homomorphism P(rk(E)g+1) --> …
We study the Albanese image of a compact Kähler manifold whose geometric genus is one. We prove that if the Albanese map is not surjective, then the manifold maps surjectively onto an ample divisor in some abelian variety, and in many cases the ample divisor is a theta divisor. With a further natural assumption on the topology of the manifold, we prove that the manifold is an algebraic fiber space over a genus two curve. Finally we apply these results to study the geometry of a compact Kähler manifold which has the same Hodge numbers as those of an abelian variety of the same dimension.
We show that if $(X,Θ)$ is a PPAV over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$ and $D\in |mΘ|$, then $(X,\frac 1 m D)$ is a limit of strongly $F$-regular pairs and in particular ${\rm mult}_x(D)\leq m\cdot \dim X$ for any $x\in X$.
Using the irreducibility of a natural irreducible representation of the theta group of an ample line bundle on an abelian variety, we derive a bound for the number of $n$-torsion points that lie on a given theta divisor. We present also two alternate approaches to attacking the case $n=2$.
We study ample divisors X with only rational singularities on abelian varieties that decompose into a sum of two lower dimensional subvarieties, X=V+W. For instance, we prove an optimal lower bound on the degree of the corresponding addition map, and show that the minimum can only be achieved if X is a theta divisor. Conjecturally, the latter happens only on Jacobians of curves and intermediate Jacobians of cubic threefolds. As an application, we prove that nondegenerate generic vanishing subschemes of indecomposable principally polarized abelian varieties are automatically reduced and irreduc…
We compute the class of a divisor on M_{g,n} given as the closure of the locus of smooth pointed curves [C; x_1,..., x_n] for which \sum d_j x_j has an effective representative, where d_j are integers summing up to g-1, not all positive. The techniques used are a vector bundle computation, a pushdown argument reducing the number of marked points, and the method of test curves.
We study the codimension two locus H in A_g consisting of principally polarized abelian varieties whose theta divisor has a singularity that is not an ordinary double point. We compute the class of H in A_g for every g. For g=4, this turns out to be the locus of Jacobians with a vanishing theta-null. For g=5, via the Prym map we show that H in A_5 has two components, both unirational, which we completely describe. This gives a geometric classification of 5-dimensional ppav whose theta-divisor has a quadratic singularity of non-maximal rank. We then determine the slope of the effective cone of …
We carry out a complete birational classification of the universal theta divisor Th_g over the moduli space of curves of genus g, and show that Th_g enjoys good rationality properties for g<12, and is a variety of general type for g\geq 12. The key ingredient is an intersection-theoretic study of the universal antiramification locus of the Gauss map. We also present a complete classification of the universal symmetric product of degree g-2 over M_g.
The primal cohomology $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}$ of the theta divisor $Θ$ of a principally polarized abelian fivefold (ppav) is the direct sum of its invariant and anti-invariant parts $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{+1}$, resp. $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{-1}$ under the action of $-1$. For smooth $Θ$, these have dimension $6$ and $72$ respectively. We show that $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{+1}$ consists of Hodge classes and, for a very general ppav, $\mathbb{K}_\mathbb{Q}^{-1}$ is a simple Hodge structure of level $2$.
In this paper we investigate generalized theta divisors $Θ_r$ in the moduli spaces $\mathcal{U}_C(r,r)$ of semistable vector bundles on a curve $C$ of genus $2$. We provide a desingularization $Φ$ of $Θ_r$ in terms of a projective bundle $π:\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})\to\mathcal{U}_C(r-1,r)$ which parametrizes extensions of stable vector bundles on the base by $\mathcal{O}_C$. Then, we study the composition of $Φ$ with the well known theta map $θ$. We prove that, when it is restricted to the general fiber of $π$, we obtain a linear embedding.
To any closed subvariety $Y$ of a complex abelian variety one can attach a reductive algebraic group $G$ which is determined by the decomposition of the convolution powers of $Y$ via a certain Tannakian formalism. For a theta divisor $Y$ on a principally polarized abelian variety, this group $G$ provides a new invariant that naturally endows the moduli space $A_g$ of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension $g$ with a finite constructible stratification. We determine $G$ for a generic principally polarized abelian variety, and for $g=4$ we show that the stratification detects the l…
We complete the proof of the fact that the moduli space of rank two bundles with trivial determinant embeds into the linear system of divisors on $Pic^{g-1}C$ which are linearly equivalent to $2Θ$. The embedded tangent space at a semi-stable non-stable bundle $ξ\oplusξ^{-1}$, where $ξ$ is a degree zero line bundle, is shown to consist of those divisors in $|2Θ|$ which contain $Sing(Θ_ξ)$ where $Θ_ξ$ is the translate of $Θ$ by $ξ$. We also obtain geometrical results on the structure of this tangent space.
The moduli space M_2 of rank four semistable symplectic vector bundles over a curve X of genus two is an irreducible projective variety of dimension ten. Its Picard group is generated by the determinantal line bundle Ξ. The base locus of the linear system |Ξ| consists of precisely those bundles without theta divisors, that is, admitting nonzero maps from every line bundle of degree -1 = 1-g over X. We show that this base locus consists of six distinct points, which are in canonical bijection with the Weierstrass points of the curve. We relate our construction of these bundles to another of Ray…
In this article we generalize the injectivity of the push-forward homomorphism at the level of Chow groups, induced by the closed embedding of $\Sym^m C$ into $\Sym^n C$ for $m\leq n$, where $C$ is a smooth projective curve, to symmetric powers of a smooth projective variety of higher dimension. We also prove the analog of this theorem for product of symmetric powers of smooth projective varieties. As an application we prove the injectivity of the push-forward homomorphism at the level of Chow groups, induced by the closed embedding of self product of theta divisor into the self product of the…
