We prove a new bound for the Arakelov-Faltings height of an abelian variety over a function field of characteristic zero and relate it to inequalities of ABC-type as conjectured by Buium and Vojta.
Bidouble covers $π: S \mapsto Q$ of the quadric Q are parametrized by connected families depending on four positive integers a,b,c,d. In the special case where b=d we call them abc-surfaces. Such a Galois covering $π$ admits a small perturbation yielding a general 4-tuple covering of Q with branch curve $\De$, and a natural Lefschetz fibration obtained from a small perturbation of the composition of $ π$ with the first projection. We prove a more general result implying that the braid monodromy factorization corresponding to $\De$ determines the three integers a,b,c in the case of abc-surfaces…
Let (X,H) be a polarized, smooth, complex projective surface, and let v be a Chern character on X with positive rank and sufficiently large discriminant. In this paper, we compute the Gieseker wall for v in a slice of the stability manifold of X. We construct explicit curves parameterizing non-isomorphic Gieseker stable sheaves that become S-equivalent along the wall. As a corollary, we conclude that if there are no strictly semistable sheaves of character v, the Bayer-Macri divisor associated to the wall is a boundary nef divisor on the moduli space of sheaves M_H(v). We recover previous resu…
This paper is a survey of the authors' recent results on "abc-surfaces" and the monodromy of their natural Lefschetz fibrations and projections to P^1 x P^1, see (arXiv:0910.2142). The results being surveyed explore various fundamental questions about complex deformation vs. symplectomorphism vs. diffeomorphism from the perspective of one explicit family of examples; the paper also contains some remarks which were not in earlier papers.
We study moduli of semistable twisted sheaves on smooth proper morphisms of algebraic spaces. In the case of a relative curve or surface, we prove results on the structure of these spaces. For curves, they are essentially isomorphic to spaces of semistable vector bundles. In the case of surfaces, we show (under a mild hypothesis on the twisting class) that the spaces are asympotically geometrically irreducible, normal, generically smooth, and l.c.i. over the base. We also develop general tools necessary for these results: the theory of associated points and purity of sheaves on Artin stacks, t…
In this paper normal functions (in the sense of Griffiths) are used to solve and refine geometric questions about moduli spaces of curves. The first application is to a problem posed by Eliashberg: compute the class in the cohomology of M_{g,n}^c of the pullback of the zero section of the universal jacobian along the section that takes [C;x_1,...,x_n] to Sum d_j x_j in Jac (C), where d_1 + ... + d_n = 0. The second application is to slope inequalities of the type discovered by Moriwaki. There is also a discussion of height jumping and its relevance to slope inequalilties.
In this paper we study the $\mathbb{C}^*$-fixed points in moduli spaces of Higgs bundles over a compact Riemann surface for a complex semisimple Lie group and its real forms. These fixed points are called Hodge bundles and correspond to complex variations of Hodge structure. We introduce a topological invariant for Hodge bundles that generalizes the Toledo invariant appearing for Hermitian Lie groups. A main result of this paper is a bound on this invariant which generalizes both the Milnor-Wood inequality of the Hermitian case and the Arakelov inequalities of classical variations of Hodge str…
By a result of Klyachko the Euler characteristic of moduli spaces of stable bundles of rank two on the projective plane is determined. Using similar methods we extend this result to bundles of rank three. The fixed point components correspond to moduli spaces of the subspace quiver. Moreover, the stability condition is given by a certain system of linear inequalities so that the generating function of the Euler characteristic can be determined explicitly.
We extend fundamental inequalities related to the canonical map of surfaces of general type to positive characteristic. Next, we classify surfaces on the Noether lines, i.e., even and odd Horikawa surfaces, in positive characteristic. We describe their moduli spaces and the subspaces formed by surfaces whose canonical maps are inseparable. Moreover, we compute their Betti-, deRham- and crystalline cohomology. Finally, we prove lifting to characteristic zero and show that the moduli spaces are topologically flat over the integers.
We bound the slope of sweeping curves in the fourgonal locus of the moduli space of genus g algebraic curves. Our results follow from some Bogomolov-type inequalities for weakly positive rank two vector bundles on ruled surfaces.
The moduli space of flat SU(2) connections on a punctured surface, having prescribed holonomy around the punctures, is a compact smooth manifold if the prescription is generic. This paper gives a direct, elementary proof that the trace of the holonomy around a certain loop determines a Bott-Morse function on the moduli space which is perfect, meaning that the Morse inequalities are equalities. This leads to an attractive recursion for the Betti numbers of the moduli space, which agrees with the Harder-Narasimhan formula in the case of one puncture with holonomy -1.
We study the cone of Moriwaki divisors on \bar{M}_g by means of augmented base loci. Using a result of Moriwaki, we prove that an R-divisor D satisfies the strict Moriwaki inequalities if and only if the augmented base locus of D is contained in the boundary of \bar{M}_g. Then we draw some interesting consequences on the Zariski decomposition of divisors on \bar{M}_g, on the minimal model program of \bar{M}_g and on the log canonical models \bar{M}_g(α).
Let f:X-->Y be a semi-stable family of complex abelian varieties over a curve Y of genus q, and smooth over the complement of s points. If F(1,0) denotes the non-flat (1,0) part of the corresponding variation of Hodge structures, the Arakelov inequalities say that 2deg(F(1,0)) is bounded from above by g=rank(F(1,0))(2q-2+s). We show that for s>0 families reaching this bound are isogenous to the g-fold product of a modular family of elliptic curves, and a constant abelian variety. For s=0, if the flat part of the VHS is defined over the rational numbers, the family is isogeneous to the g-fold p…
As a result of our study of the hyperbolicity of the moduli space of polarized manifold, we give a general big Picard theorem for a holomorphic curve on a log-smooth pair $(X,D)$ such that $W=X\setminus D$ admits a Finsler pseudometric that is strongly negatively curved when pulled back to the curve. We show, by some refinements of the classical Viehweg-Zuo construction, that this latter condition holds for the base space $W$, if nonsingular, of any algebraic family of polarized complex projective manifolds with semi-ample canonical bundles whose induced moduli map $ϕ$ to the moduli space of s…
We discuss and extend some of the results obtained in "Arakelov inequalities and the uniformization of certain rigid Shimura varieties" (math.AG/0503339), restricting ourselves to the two dimensional case, i.e. to surfaces Y mapping generically finite to the moduli stack of Abelian varieties. In particular we show that Y is a Hilber modular surfaces if and only if the dergee of the Hodge bundle satisfies the Arakelov equality. In the revised version, we corrected some minor mistakes, pointed out by the referee, and we tried to improve the presentation of the text.
We settle the first step for the classification of surfaces of general type with K^2 = 8, p_g = 4 and q = 0, classifying the even surfaces (K is 2-divisible). The first even surfaces of general type with $K^2=8$, $p_g=4$ and $q=0$ were found by Oliverio as complete intersections of bidegree (6,6) in a weighted projective space P(1,1,2,3,3). In this article we prove that the moduli space of even surfaces of general type with K^2 = 8, p_g = 4 and q = 0 consists of two 35 -dimensional irreducible components intersecting in a codimension one subset (the first of these components is the closure of …
Looking at the finite étale congruence covers $X(p)$ of a complex algebraic variety $X$ equipped with a variation of integral polarized Hodge structures whose period map is quasi-finite, we show that both the minimal gonality among all curves contained in $X(p)$ and the minimal volume among all subvarieties of $X(p)$ tend to infinity with $p$. This applies for example to Shimura varieties, moduli spaces of curves, moduli spaces of abelian varieties, moduli spaces of Calabi-Yau varieties, and can be made effective in many cases. The proof goes roughly as follows. We first prove a generalization…
Let $S$ be a minimal surface of general type with irregularity $q(S) = 1$. Well-known inequalities between characteristic numbers imply that $3 p_g(S) \le c_2(S) \le 10 p_g(S)$, where $p_g(S)$ is the geometric genus and $c_2(S)$ the topological Euler characteristic. Surfaces achieving equality for the upper bound are classified, starting with work of Debarre. We study equality in the lower bound, showing that for each $n \ge 1$ there exists a surface with $q = 1$, $p_g = n$, and $c_2 = 3n$. The moduli space $\mathcal{M}_n$ of such surfaces is a finite set of points, and we prove that $\#\mathc…