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)
As is well known, the "usual discrepancy" is defined for a normal Q-Gorenstein variety. By using this discrepancy we can define a canonical singularity and a log canonical singularity. In the same way, by using a new notion, Mather-Jacobian discrepancy introduced in recent papers we can define a "canonical singularity" and a "log canonical singularity" for not necessarily normal or Q-Gorenstein varieties. In this paper, we show basic properties of these singularities, behavior of these singularities under deformations and determine all these singularities of dimension up to 2.
This paper shows the affirmative answer to the local Nash problem for a toric singularity and analytically pretoric singularity. As a corollary we obtain the affirmative answer to the local Nash problem for a quasi-ordinary singularity.
In this paper we shall prove that the singular locus of a symplectic singularity has no codimension 3 irreducible components. As a corollary, a symplectic singularity is terminal if and only if its singular locus has codimension $\geq 4$. It is hoped that a symplectic singularity has much stronger properties.
A boundary singularity is a singularity of a function on a manifold with boundary. The simple and unimodal boundary singularities were classified by V. I. Arnold and V. I. Matov. The McKay correspondence can be generalized to the simple boundary singularities. We consider the monodromy of the simple, parabolic, and exceptional unimodal boundary singularities. We show that the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy is related to the Poincaré series of the coordinate algebra of the ambient singularity.
We compute the motivic Milnor fiber of a complex plane curve singularity in an inductive and combinatoric way using the extended simplified resolution graph. The method introduced in this article has a consequence that one can study the Hodge-Steenbrink spectrum of such a singularity in terms of that of a quasi-homogeneous singularity.
We describe the generic singularity of a Schubert variety of type A on each irreducible component of its singular locus. This singularity is given either by a cone of rank one matrices, or a quadratic cone.
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.
In this paper, we study the Rouquier dimension of the singularity category of a variety with rational singularity. We construct an upper bound for the dimension of $\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{sg}}(X)$ if $X$ has at worst rational singularities and $\dim X_{\mathrm{sing}} \leq 1$.
We determine restrictions on the singularity content of a Fano polygon, or equivalently of certain orbifold del Pezzo surfaces. We establish bounds on the maximum number of 1/R(1,1) singularities in the basket of residual singularities. In particular, there are no Fano polygons without T-singularities and with a basket given by (i) {k x 1/R(1,1)} where k is a positive integer and R>4, or (ii) {1/R1(1,1), 1/R2(1,1), 1/R3(1,1)}.
We build two embedded resolution procedures of a quasi-ordinary singularity of complex analytic hypersurface, by using toric morphisms which depend only on the characteristic monomials associated to a quasi-ordinary projection of the singularity. This result answers an open problem of Lipman in Equisingularity and simultaneous resolution of singularities, Resolution of Singularities, Progress in Mathematics No. 181, 2000, 485-503. In the first procedure the singularity is embedded as hypersurface. In the second procedure, which is inspired by a work of Goldin and Teissier for plane curves (see…
The dual complex associated to a resolution of singularities generalizes the notion of a resolution graph of a surface singularity to any dimension. We show that homotopy type of the dual complex is an invariant of an isolated singularity.
We explore the connection between the rank of a polynomial and the singularities of its vanishing locus. We first describe the singularity of generic polynomials of fixed rank. We then focus on cubic surfaces. Cubic surfaces with isolated singularities are known to fall into 22 singularity types. We compute the rank of a cubic surface of each singularity type. This enables us to find the possible singular loci of a cubic surface of fixed rank. Finally, we study connections to the Hessian discriminant. We show that a cubic surface with singularities that are not ordinary double points lies on t…
In this article we study the triangulated category of singularities associated with a non-commutative resolution of singularities. In particular, we give a complete description of this category in the case of a curve with nodal singularities, classifying its indecomposable objects and computing its Auslander-Reiten quiver and K-group.
This note shows that the orbifold Jacobian algebra associated to each invertible polynomial defining an exceptional unimodal singularity is isomorphic to the (usual) Jacobian algebra of the Berglund-Hübsch transform of an invertible polynomial defining the strange dual singularity in the sense of Arnold.
This paper studies hypersurface exceptional singularities in $\mathbb C^n$ defined by non-degenerate function. For each canonical hypersurface singularity, there exists a weighted homogeneous singularity such that the former is exceptional if and only if the latter is exceptional. So we study the weighted homogeneous case and prove that the number of weights of weighted homogeneous exceptional singularities are finite. Then we determine all exceptional singularities of the Brieskorn type of dimension 3.
We consider symplectic singularities in the sense of A. Beauville as examples of Poisson schemes. Using Poisson methods, we prove that a symplectic singularity admits a finite stratification with smooth symplectic strata. We also prove that in the formal neighborhood of a closed point in some stratum, the singularity is a product of the stratum and a transversal slice. The transversal slice is also a symplectic singularity, and the product decomposition is compatible with natural Poisson structures. Moreover, we prove that the transversal slice admits a $C^*$-action dilating the symplectic for…
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.
We investigate some coboundary map associated to a $3$-dimensional terminal singularity which is important in the study of deformations of singular $3$-folds. We prove that this map vanishes only for quotient singularities and a $A_{1,2}/4$-singularity, that is, a terminal singularity analytically isomorphic to a $\mathbb{Z}_4$-quotient of the singularity $ (x^2+y^2 +z^3+u^2=0)$. As an application, we prove that a $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano $3$-fold with terminal singularities can be deformed to one with only quotient singularities and $A_{1,2}/4$-singularities. We also treat the $\mathbb{Q}$-smoothabi…
For a weighted quasihomogeneous two dimensional hypersurface singularity, we define a smoothing with unipotent monodromy and an isolated graded normal singularity. We study the natural weighted blow up of both the smoothing and the surface. In particular, we describe our construction for the quasihomogeneous singularities of type I, the 14 unimodal exceptional singularities and we relate it to their stable replacement.
We give formulas for the degrees of the spaces of foliations in P2 with a dicritical singularity of prescribed order. Blowing up such singularity induces, generically, a foliation with all but finitely many leaves transversal to the exceptional line; we also find the degree of the locus defined by imposing a leaf of total contact with the exceptional line.
We consider families of curve-to-curve maps that have no singularities except those of genus 0 stable maps and that satisfy a versality condition at each singularity. We provide a universal expression for the cohomology class Poincaré dual to the locus of any given singularity. Our expressions hold for any family of curve-to-curve maps satisfying the above properties.
We show that the derived category of any singularity over a field of characteristic 0 can be embedded fully and faithfully into a smooth triangulated category which has a semiorthogonal decomposition with components equivalent to derived categories of smooth varieties. This provides a categorical resolution of the singularity.
Let $X$ be a cubic fourfold that has only simple singularities and does not contain a plane. We prove that the Fano variety of lines on $X$ has the same analytic type of singularity as the Hilbert scheme of two points on a surface with only ADE-singularities. This is shown as a corollary to the characterization of a singularity that is obtained as a $K3^{[2]}$-type contraction and has a unique symplectic resolution.
Let $C$ be an isolated plane curve singularity, and $(C,l)$ be a decorated curve. In this article we compare the equisingular deformations of $C$ and the sandwiched singularity $X(C,l)$. We will prove that for $l \gg 0$ the functor of equisingular deformations of $C$ and $(C,l)$ are equivalent. From this we deduce a proof of a formula for the dimension of the equisingular stratum. Furthermore we will show how compute the equisingularity ideal of the curve singularity $C$, given the minimal (good) resolution of $C$.
We give a conceptual proof that the Poincaré series of the coordinate algebra of a Kleinian singularity and of a Fuchsian singularity of genus 0 is the quotient of the characteristic polynomials of two Coxeter elements. These Coxeter elements are interpreted geometrically, using triangulated categories and spherical twist functors.
For an isolated hypersurface singularity which is neither simple nor simple elliptic, it is shown that there exists a distinguished basis of vanishing cycles which contains two basis elements with an arbitrary intersection number. This implies that the set of Coxeter-Dynkin diagrams of such a singularity is infinite, whereas it is finite for the simple and simple elliptic singularities. For the simple elliptic singularities, it is shown that the set of distinguished bases of vanishing cycles is also infinite. We also show that some of the hyperbolic unimodal singularities have Coxeter-Dynkin d…
We study Serre duality in the singularity category of an isolated Gorenstein singularity and find an explicit formula for the duality pairing in terms of generalised fractions and residues. For hypersurfaces we recover the residue formula of the string theorists Kapustin and Li. These results are obtained from an explicit construction of complete injective resolutions of maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules.
For quasihomogeneous isolated hypersurface singularities, the logarithmic comparison theorem has been characterized explicitly by Holland and Mond. In the non quasihomogeneous case, we give a necessary condition for the logarithmic comparison theorem in terms of the Gauss-Manin system of the singularity. It shows in particular that the logarithmic comparison theorem can hold for a non quasihomogeneous singularity only if 1 is an eigenvalue of the monodromy.
We introduce two generalizations of Newton-non-degenerate (Nnd) singularities of hypersurfaces. Roughly speaking, an isolated hypersurface singularity is called topologically Newton-non-degenerate (tNnd) if the local embedded topological singularity type can be restored from a collection of Newton diagrams (for some coordinate choices). A singularity that is not tNnd is called essentially Newton-degenerate. For plane curves we give an explicit characterization of tNnd singularities; for hypersurfaces we provide several examples. Next, we treat the question: whether Nnd or tNnd is a property of…
This is the abstract prepared for Workshop on Topology and Geometry (Zhang jiang, China, October 1994), and is a review of my recent works. What kinds of combinations of singularities can appear in small deformation fibers of a fixed singularity? We consider this problem for hypersurface singularities on complex analytic spaces of dimension 2. For all singularities in the beginning par t of Arnold's classification list, the answer to this problem is given by a unique principle described by Dynkin graphs. This article contains several figures. I will send the hard copy containin g figures by ma…
We show that a cyclic quotient surface singularity S can be decomposed, in a precise sense, into a number of elementary T-singularities together with a cyclic quotient surface singularity called the residue of S. A normal surface X with isolated cyclic quotient singularities {S_i} admits a Q-Gorenstein partial smoothing to a surface with singularities given by the residues of the S_i. We define the singularity content of a Fano lattice polygon P: this records the total number of elementary T-singularities and the residues of the corresponding toric Fano surface X_P. We express the degree of X_…
According to a well-known theorem of Brieskorn and Slodowy, the intersection of the nilpotent cone of a simple Lie algebra with a transverse slice to the subregular nilpotent orbit is a simple surface singularity. At the opposite extremity of the nilpotent cone, the closure of the minimal nilpotent orbit is also an isolated symplectic singularity, called a minimal singularity. For classical Lie algebras, Kraft and Procesi showed that these two types of singularities suffice to describe all generic singularities of nilpotent orbit closures: specifically, any such singularity is either a simple …
A generalised Thurston-Bennequin invariant for a Q-singularity of a real algebraic variety is defined as a linking form on the homologies of the real link of the singularity. The main goal of this paper is to present a method to calculate the linking form in terms of the very good resolution graph of a real normal unibranch surface singularity. For such singularities, the value of the linking form is the Thurston-Bennequin number of the real link of the singularity. As a special case of unibranch surface singularities, the behaviour of the linking form is investigated on the Brieskorn double p…
We prove that the link of a complex normal surface singularity is an L--space if and only if the singularity is rational. This via a recent result of Hanselman, J. Rasmussen, S. D. Rasmussen and Watson (proving the conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson), shows that a singularity link is not rational if and only if its fundamental group is left-orderable if and only if it admits a coorientable taut foliation.
In 1978 Durfee conjectured various inequalities between the signature and the geometric genus of a normal surface singularity. Since then a few counter examples have been found and positive results established in some special cases. We prove a `strong' Durfee--type inequality for any smoothing of a Gorenstein singularity, provided that the intersection form the resolution is unimodular, and the conjectured `weak' inequality for all hypersurface singularities and for sufficiently large multiplicity strict complete intersections. The proofs establish general inequalities valid for any normal sur…
We compute the image of the Milnor lattice of an ADE singularity under a period map. We also prove that the Milnor latticecan be identified with an appropriate relative $K$-group defined through the Berglund-Hübsch dual of the corresponding singularity.
In this paper we study Schlichting's K-theory groups of the Buchweitz-Orlov singularity category $\mathcal{D}^{sg}(X)$ of a quasi-projective algebraic scheme $X/k$ with applications to Algebraic K-theory. We prove that for isolated quotient singularities $\mathrm{K}_0(\mathcal{D}^{sg}(X))$ is finite torsion, and that $\mathrm{K}_1(\mathcal{D}^{sg}(X)) = 0$. One of the main applications is that algebraic varieties with isolated quotient singularities satisfy rational Poincare duality on the level of the Grothendieck group; this allows computing the Grothendieck group of such varieties in terms …
The blow-up of a singularity at the module of derivations
Instituto de Matemáticas, Unidad Cuernavaca, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(墨西哥国立自治大学库埃纳瓦卡数学研究所);Instituto de Ingeniería y Tecnología, UACJ(奇瓦瓦自治科技大学工程与技术研究所)
Thom polynomials of singularities express the cohomology classes dual to singularity submanifolds. A stabilization property of Thom polynomials is known classically, namely that trivial unfolding does not change the Thom polynomial. In this paper we show that this is a special case of a product rule. The product rule enables us to calculate the Thom polynomials of singularities if we know the Thom polynomial of the product singularity. As a special case of the product rule we define a formal power series (Thom series, Ts_Q) associated with a commutative, complex, finite dimensional local algeb…
This is a continuation of our paper math.AG/0111298. We prove an explicit formula for the geometric genus p_g of a quasihomogeneous isolated surface singularity in terms of the Seiberg-Witten invariant of the link and other topological data which can be read from a resolution graph of the singularity. Moreover, we also determine all the Reidemeister-Turaev sign-refined torsion of the link (associated with any spin^c structure) in terms of the Seifert invariants.
We study the relationship between singularity categories and relative singularity categories and discuss constructions of differential graded algebras of relative singularity categories. As consequences, we obtain structural results, which are known or generalise known results, on singularity categories of algebras with radical square zero, of non-commutative deformations of Kleinian singularities, of $SL_3(\mathbb{C})$-quotient singularities and of Gorenstein toric threefolds.
Given an irreducible hypersurface singularity of dimension $d$ (defined by a polynomial $f\in K[[ {\bf x} ]][z]$) and the projection to the affine space defined by $K[[ {\bf x} ]]$, we construct an invariant which detects whether the singularity is quasi-ordinary with respect to the projection. The construction uses a weighted version of Hironaka's characteristic polyhedron and successive embeddings of the singularity in affine spaces of higher dimensions. When $ f $ is quasi-ordinary, our invariant determines the semigroup of the singularity and hence it encodes the embedded topology of the s…
We give a criterion for the existence of non-commutative crepant resolutions (NCCR's) for certain toric singularities. In particular we recover Broomhead's result that a 3-dimensional toric Gorenstein singularity has a NCCR. Our result also yields the existence of a NCCR for a 4-dimensional toric Gorenstein singularity which is known to have no toric NCCR.
We construct Knörrer type equivalences outside of the hypersurface case, namely, between singularity categories of cyclic quotient surface singularities and certain finite dimensional local algebras. This generalises Knörrer's equivalence for singularities of Dynkin type A (between Krull dimensions $2$ and $0$) and yields many new equivalences between singularity categories of finite dimensional algebras. Our construction uses noncommutative resolutions of singularities, relative singularity categories, and an idea of Hille & Ploog yielding strongly quasi-hereditary algebras which we describe …
We classify three dimensional isolated weighted homogeneous rational complete intersection singularities, which define many new four dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories. We also determine the mini-versal deformation of these singularities, and therefore solve the Coulomb branch spectrum and Seiberg-Witten solution.
The geometric monodromy of a plane curve singularity is a quasi-finite diffeomorphism. In this paper we locate the reduction curves of the geometric monodromy and the quadratic vanishing cycles of the singularity. An application to the geometric monodromy group is given.
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 study the following generalization of singularity categories. Let X be a quasi-projective Gorenstein scheme with isolated singularities and A a non-commutative resolution of singularities of X in the sense of Van den Bergh. We introduce the relative singularity category as the Verdier quotient of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on A modulo the category of perfect complexes on X. We view it as a measure for the difference between X and A. The main results of this thesis are the following. (i) We prove an analogue of Orlov's localization result in our setup. If X has isolated…
In this article, we study the fundamental groups of low-dimensional log canonical singularities, i.e., log canonical singularities of dimension at most $4$. In dimension $2$, we show that the fundamental group of an lc singularity is a finite extension of a solvable group of length at most $2$. In dimension $3$, we show that every surface group appears as the fundamental group of a $3$-fold log canonical singularity. In contrast, we show that for $r\geq 2$ the free group $F_r$ is not the fundamental group of a $3$-dimensional lc singularity. In dimension $4$, we show that the fundamental group…
We continue the development of the study of the equisingularity of isolated singularities, in the determinantal case. This version of the paper includes a substantial amount of new material (76% larger). The new material introduces the idea of the landscape of singularity, which includes the allowable deformations of the singularity and associated structure useful for equisingularity questions. Fixing a presentation matrix M of a determinantal singularity means viewing the singularity as a section via M of the set of matrices of a given or smaller rank. Varying M gives the allowable deformatio…
We collect some classical results about holomorphic 1-forms of a reduced complex curve singularity. They are used to study the pull-back of holomorphic 1-forms on an isolated complete intersection curve singularity under the normalization morphism. We wonder whether the Milnor number $μ$ and the Tjurina number $τ$ of any isolated plane curve singularity satisfy the inequality $3μ<4τ$.