Twelve points on the projective line, branched covers, and rational elliptic fibrations

The following divisors in the space of twelve points on are actually the same: the possible locus of the twelve nodal fibers in a rational elliptic fibration (i.e. a pencil of plane cubic curves); degree 12 binary forms that can be expressed as a cube plus a square; the locus of the twelve tangents to a smooth plane quartic from a general point of the plane; the branch locus of a degree 4 map from a hyperelliptic genus 3 curve to ; the branch locus of a degree 3 map from a genus 4 curve to induced by a theta-characteristic; and several more. The corresponding moduli spaces are smooth, but they are not all isomorphic; some are finite étale covers of others. We describe the web of interconnections among these spaces, and give monodromy, rationality, and Prym-related consequences. Enumerative consequences include: (i) the degree of this locus is 3762 (e.g. there are 3762 rational elliptic fibrations with nodes above 11 given general points of the base); (ii) if is a cover as in , then there are 135 different such covers branched at the same points; (iii) the general set of 12 tangent lines that arise in turn up in 120 essentially different ways. Some parts of this story are well known, and some other parts were known classically (to Zeuthen, Zariski, Coble, Mumford, and others). The unified picture is surprisingly intricate and connects many beautiful constructions, including Recillas' trigonal construction and Shioda's -Mordell-Weil lattice. Received November 3, 1999 / Published online February 5, 2001     

Compactification of the universal Picard over the moduli of stable curves

This article provides two different, but closely related, moduli problems, which in characteristic zero provide a type of compactification of the universal Picard over the moduli of stable curves. Although neither is of finite type, both are limits of a sequence of stacks, each of which is a separated algebraic stack of finite type. We discuss relations to previous compactifications and partial compactifications, give a number of examples related to this compactification, and work out the structure of its fibres over certain fixed curves. Some applications are also discussed. Received January 5, 1998; in final form April 1, 1999 / Published online July 3, 2000     

Finding rational points on bielliptic genus 2 curves

We discuss a technique for trying to find all rational points on curves of the form Y ²=f ₃ X ⁶+f ₂ X ⁴+f ₁ X ²+f ₀, where the sextic has nonzero discriminant. This is a bielliptic curve of genus 2. When the rank of the Jacobian is 0 or 1, Chabauty's Theorem may be applied. However, we shall concentrate on the situation when the rank is at least 2. In this case, we shall derive an associated family of elliptic curves, defined over a number field ℚα. If each of these elliptic curves has rank less than the degree of ℚα : ℚ, then we shall describe a Chabauty-like technique which may be applied to try to find all the points (x,y) defined over ℚα) on the elliptic curves, for which x∈ℚ. This in turn allows us to find all ℚ-rational points on the original genus 2 curve. We apply this to give a solution to a problem of Diophantus (where the sextic in X is irreducible over ℚ), which simplifies the recent solution of Wetherell. We also present two examples where the sextic in X is reducible over ℚ. Received: 27 November 1998 / Revised version: 4 June 1999     

Rational cuspidal plane curves of type (d,d-4) with

In the present paper we classify rational cuspidal plane curves with maximal multiplicity deg C - 4 and at least three cusps and where (V,D) is the minimal (SNC) resolution of (ℙ²,C). Received: 28 August 1998     

Singular hyperelliptic curves

Singular curves with a morphism of degree two onto a projective line should be classified into two types according as the equipped morphism is separable or not; we call a curve with a separable one a hyperelliptic curve of separable type, and the other a hyperelliptic curve of inseparable type. We give concrete expressions of a hyperelliptic curve of separable type by means of its global “equation” and a hyperelliptic curve of inseparable type by means of its local rings. Furthermore, we discuss about Weierstrass points of a hyperelliptic curve of inseparable type. Received: 26 March 1997 / Revised version: 21 May 1998     

Asymptotic behaviour of families of real curves

We consider the family of fibres of a polynomial function f on a smooth noncompact algebraic real surface and we characterise the regular fibres of f which are atypical due to their asymptotic behaviour at infinity. We compare to the similar problem in the complex case. Received: 5 May 1998 / Revised version: 20 March 1999     

Pentes en cohomologie rigide et F-isocristaux unipotents

We study the slopes of Frobenius on the rigid cohomology and the rigid cohomology with compact support of an algebraic variety over a perfect field of positive characteristic. We then prove that any unipotent overconvergent F-isocrystal on a smooth variety has a slope filtration whose graded parts are pure. Received: 23 December 1998 / Revised version: 5 July 1999     

Fonction L unité d'un groupe de Barsotti-Tate

The purpose of this article is to give a cohomological formula for the unit-root part of the L-function associated to a Barsotti-Tate group G on a scheme S over a field of characteristic p when G extends to some compactification of S. This is an analogue of a part of a conjecture of Katz according to wich the L-function of an F-crystal should be expressed in terms of the p-adic etale sheaf corresponding to the unit-root part of the crystal. In order to carry out this project, we use the technics of [E-LS II] wich require in our case an extension of the Dieudonné crystalline theory ([B-B-M]) to “crystal of level mG” in the sense of Berthelot. We show that the unit-root L-function of the Dieudonné crystal associated to G can be expressed in terms of the syntomic cohomology of the Ext group of G by the constant sheaf.

Received: 24 March 1997 / Revised version: 6 January 1998     

Rational curves and ampleness properties¶of the tangent bundle of algebraic varieties

Let X be a projective manifold, a locally free ample subsheaf of the tangent bundle T _X . If and or n, we prove that . Furthermore we investigate ampleness properties of T _X on large families of curves and the relation to rational connectedness. Received: 2 July 1996     

Cohomologies of a double covering of a non-singular algebraic 3-fold

In this paper we study the Hodge numbers of a branched double covering of a smooth, complete algebraic threefold. The involution on the double covering gives a splitting of the Hodge groups into symmetric and skew-symmetric parts. Since the symmetric part is naturally isomorphic to the corresponding Hodge group of the base we study only the skew-symmetric parts and prove that in many cases it can be computed explicitly. Received: 6 March 2001 / in final form: 4 September 2001/ Published online: 4 April 2002     

The generalized Hodge conjecture for the quadratic complex of lines in projective four–space

We verify the generalized Hodge conjecture GHC(X,5,2) for the quadratic complex of lines in projective four–space. Received: 27 February 1998 / Revised version: 13 May 1998