The purpose of this paper is to prove dimension formulas for $T^1$ and $T^2$ for rational surface singularities. These modules play an important role in the deformation theory of isolated singularities in analytic and algebraic geometry. The first may be identified as the Zariski tangent space of the versal deformation of the singularity; i.e. it is the space of infinitesimal deformations. The second contains the obstruction space -- in all known cases it is the whole obstruction space for rational surface singularities.
We identify dglas that control infinitesimal deformations of the pairs (manifold, Higgs bundle) and of Hitchin pairs. As a consequence, we recover known descriptions of first order deformations and we refine known results on obstructions. Secondly we prove that the Hitchin map is induced by a natural L-infinity morphism and, by standard facts about L-infinity algebras, we obtain new conditions on obstructions to deform Hitchin pairs.
We give a new definition of an obstruction theory for infinitesimal deformation theory and relate it to earlier definitions of Artin, Fantechi-Manetti, Li-Tian, and Behrend-Fantechi.
We study the Euler obstruction of essentially isolated determinantal singularities (EIDS). The EIDS were defined by W. Ebeling and S. Gusein-Zade, as a generalization of isolated singularity. We obtain some formulas to calculate the Euler obstruction for the determinantal varieties with singular set an ICIS.
In this paper we collect some results on the obstruction spaces for rational surface singularities and minimally elliptic surface singularities. Based on the known results we calculate higher obstruction spaces for such surface singularities. The results imply that in general the higher obstruction spaces of deforming semi-log-canonical surfaces do not vanish. We apply the calculation result to show that there is no Li-Tian and Behrend-Fantechi style virtual fundamental class on such moduli space of semi-log-canonical surfaces.
In this article, we study the Hilbert scheme of generically non-reduced curves in $\mathbb{P}^3$. We prove the existence of generically non-reduced curves in $\mathbb{P}^3$ for which there exist infinitesimal deformations of the curve that do not induce deformations of the associated reduced scheme. We show that such infinitesimal deformations contribute to the non-reducedness of the corresponding Hilbert scheme. We introduce the notion of extension of curves and prove that such infinitesimal deformations (such that the associated reduced scheme does not deform) are inherited by the extended c…
Given a smooth, projective variety $X$ and an effective divisor $D\,\subseteq\, X$, it is well-known that the (topological) obstruction to the deformation of the fundamental class of $D$ as a Hodge class, lies in $H^2(\mathcal{O}_X)$. In this article, we replace $H^2(\mathcal{O}_X)$ by $H^2_D(\mathcal{O}_X)$ and give an analogous topological obstruction theory. We compare the resulting local topological obstruction theory with the geometric obstruction theory (i.e., the obstruction to the deformation of $D$ as an effective Cartier divisor of a first order infinitesimal deformations of $X$). We…
We study a double solid X branched along a nodal sextic surface in a projective space and the 2-torsion subgroup in the third integer cohomology group of a resolution of singularities of X. This group can be considered as an obstruction to rationality of X. Studying this group we conclude that all sextic double solids admitting non-trivial obstructions to rationality are branched along determinantal surfaces of very specific type and we provide an explicit list of them.
In this paper we study the deformation and Q-Gorenstein deformation theory of schemes with non-isolated singularities. We obtain obstruction spaces for the existence of deformations and also for local deformations to exist globally. Finally we obtain explicit criteria in order for a pure and reduced scheme of finite type over a field $k$ to have smoothings and Q-Gorenstein smoothings.
In this article, we show that if $X$ is an excellent surface with rational singularities, the constant sheaf $\mathbb{Q}_{\ell}$ is a dualizing complex. In coefficient $\mathbb{Z}_{\ell}$, we also prove that the obstruction for $\mathbb{Z}_{\ell}$ to become a dualizing complex lying on the divisor class groups at singular points. As applications, we study the perverse sheaves and the weights of $\ell$-adic cohomology groups on such surfaces.
We apply Heegaard Floer homology to study deformations of singularities of plane algebraic curves. Our main result provides an obstruction to the existence of a deformation between two singularities. Generalizations include the case of multiple singularities. The obstruction is formulated in terms of a semicontinuity property for semigroups associated to the singularities.
We explicitly describe infintesimal deformations of cyclic quotient singularities that satisfy one of the deformation conditions introduced by Wahl, Kollár-Shepherd-Barron and Viehweg. The conclusion is that in many cases these three notions are different from each other. In particular, we see that while the KSB and the Viehweg versions of the moduli space of surfaces of general type have the same underlying reduced subscheme, their infinitesimal structures are different.
We use the Thom-Whitney construction to show that infinitesimal deformations of a coherent sheaf F are controlled by the differential graded Lie algebra of global sections of an acyclic resolution of the sheaf End(E), where E is any locally free resolution of F. In particular, one recovers the well known fact that the tangent space to deformations of F is Ext^1(F,F), and obstructions are contained in Ext^2(F,F). The main tool is the identification of the deformation functor associated with the Thom-Whitney DGLA of a semicosimplicial DGLA whose cohomology is concentrated in nonnegative degrees …
The cotangent cohomology groups T^1 and T^2 play an important role in deformation theory, the first as space of infinitesimal deformations, while the obstructions land in the second. Much work has been done to compute their dimension for rational surface singularities. For such singularities we give explicit dimension formulas for the groups T^i with i>2.
For affine toric varieties, the vector space T1 (containing the infinitesimal deformations) will be interpreted via Minkowski summands of cross cuts of the defining polyhedral cone. This result will be applied to study the deformation theory of (in particular non-isolated) three-dimensional Gorenstein singularities.
We compare the deformation theory and the analytic structure of the Seiberg-Witten moduli spaces of a Kähler surface to the corresponding components of the Hilbert scheme, and show that they are isomorphic. Next we show how to compute the invariant in case the moduli space is smooth but not of the expected dimension, and apply this study to elliptic surfaces. Finally we discuss ruled surfaces, both products and more general ruled surfaces. For product ruled surfaces we relate the infinitesimal structure of the moduli spaces to Brill-Noether theory and compute the invariant in special cases. Fo…
The goal of this paper is to give a method to compute the space of infinitesimal deformations of a double cover of a smooth algebraic variety. The space of all infinitesimal deformations has a representation as a direct sum of two subspaces. One is isomorphic to the space of simultaneous deformations of the branch locus and the base of the double covering. The second summand is the subspace of deformations of the double covering which induce trivial deformations of the branch divisor. The main result of the paper is a description of the effect of imposing singularities in the branch locus. As …
The main message of the paper is that for Gorenstein singularities, whose (real) link is rational homology sphere, the Artin--Laufer program can be continued. Here we give the complete answer in the case of elliptic singularities. The main result of the paper says that in the case of an elliptic Gorenstein singularity whose link is rational homology sphere, the geometric genus is a topological invariant. Actually, it is exactly the length of the elliptic sequence in the minimal resolution (or, equivalently, in S. S.-T. Yau's terminology: these singularities are maximally elliptic). In the pape…
We study the deformations of a smooth curve $C$ on a smooth projective threefold $V$, assuming the presence of a smooth surface $S$ satisfying $C \subset S \subset V$. Generalizing a result of Mukai and Nasu, we give a new sufficient condition for a first order infinitesimal deformation of $C$ in $V$ to be primarily obstructed. In particular, when $V$ is Fano and $S$ is $K3$, we give a sufficient condition for $C$ to be (un)obstructed in $V$, in terms of $(-2)$-curves and elliptic curves on $S$. Applying this result, we prove that the Hilbert scheme $\operatorname{Hilb}^{sc} V_4$ of smooth con…
We study a topological obstruction of a very stringy nature concerned with deforming the target space of an $N=2$ non-linear \sm. This target space has a singularity which may be smoothed away according to the conventional rules of geometry but when one studies the associated conformal field theory one sees that such a deformation is not possible without a discontinuous change in some of the correlation functions. This obstruction appears to come from torsion in the homology of the target space (which is seen by deforming the theory by an irrelevant operator). We discuss the link between this …
We use Poonen's closed point sieve to prove two independent results. First, we show that the obvious obstruction to embedding a curve in a smooth surface is the only obstruction over a perfect field, by proving the finite field analogue of a Bertini-type result of Altman and Kleiman. Second, we prove a conjecture of Vakil and Wood on the asymptotic probability of hypersurface sections having a prescribed number of singularities.
The singularity space consists of all germs $(X,x)$, with $X$ a Noetherian scheme and $x$ a point, where we identify two such germs if they become the same after an analytic extension of scalars. This is a Polish space for the metric given by the order to which infinitesimal neighborhoods, or jets, agree after base change. In other words, the classification of singularities up to analytic extensions of scalars is a smooth problem in the sense of descriptive set-theory. Over $\mathbb C$, the following two classification problems up to isomorphism are now smooth: (i) analytic germs; and (ii) pol…
We develop an approach that allows to construct semiorthogonal decompositions of derived categories of surfaces with cyclic quotient singularities whose components are equivalent to derived categories of local finite dimensional algebras. We first explain how to induce a semiorthogonal decomposition of a surface $X$ with rational singularities from a semiorthogonal decomposition of its resolution. In the case when $X$ has cyclic quotient singularities, we introduce the condition of adherence for the components of the semiorthogonal decomposition of the resolution that allows to identify the co…
Let S be a split family of del Pezzo surfaces over a discrete valuation ring such that the general fiber is smooth and the special fiber has ADE-singularities. Let G be the reductive group given by the root system of these singularities. We construct a G-torsor over S whose restriction to the generic fiber is the extension of structure group of the universal torsor. This extends a construction of Friedman and Morgan for individual singular del Pezzo surfaces. In case of very good residue characteristic, this torsor is unique and infinitesimally rigid.
For an affine, toric Q-Gorenstein variety Y (given by a lattice polytope Q) the vector space T^1 of infinitesimal deformations is related to the complexified vector spaces of rational Minkowski summands of faces of Q. Moreover, assuming Y to be an isolated, at least 3-dimensional singularity, Y will be rigid unless it is even Gorenstein and dim Y=3 (dim Q=2). For this particular case, so-called toric deformations of Y correspond to Minkowski decompositions of Q into a sum of lattice polygons. Their Kodaira-Spencer-map can be interpreted in a very natural way. We regard the projective variety P…
This is the third installment in our series of articles (dg-ga/9712005, dg-ga/9710032) on the application of the PU(2) monopole equations to prove Witten's conjecture (hep-th/9411102) concerning the relation between the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten invariants of smooth four-manifolds. The moduli space of solutions to the PU(2) monopole equations provides a noncompact cobordism between links of compact moduli spaces of U(1) monopoles of Seiberg-Witten type and the moduli space of anti-self-dual SO(3) connections, which appear as singularities in this larger moduli space. In this paper we prove …
