Toroidalization of locally toroidal morphisms from N-folds to surfaces

The toroidalization conjecture of D. Abramovich, K. Karu, K. Matsuki, and J. Wlodarczyk asks whether any given morphism of nonsingular varieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero can be modified into a toroidal morphism. Following a suggestion by Dale Cutkosky, we define the notion of locally toroidal morphisms and ask whether any locally toroidal morphism can be modified into a toroidal morphism. In this paper, we answer the question in the affirmative when the morphism is between any arbitrary variety and a surface.     

Pesenti-Szpiro inequality for optimal elliptic curves

We study Pesenti-Szpiro inequality in the case of elliptic curves over F_q(t) which occur as subvarieties of Jacobian varieties of Drinfeld modular curves. In general, we obtain an upper-bound on the degrees of minimal discriminants of such elliptic curves in terms of the degrees of their conductors and q. In the special case when the level is prime, we bound the degrees of discriminants only in terms of the degrees of conductors. As a preliminary step in the proof of this latter result we generalize a construction (due to Gekeler and Reversat) of 1-dimensional optimal quotients of Drinfeld Jacobians.     

Compact Kähler quotients of algebraic varieties and Geometric Invariant Theory

Given an action of a complex reductive Lie group G on a normal variety X, we show that every analytically Zariski-open subset of X admitting an analytic Hilbert quotient with projective quotient space is given as the set of semistable points with respect to some G-linearised Weil divisor on X. Applying this result to Hamiltonian actions on algebraic varieties, we prove that semistability with respect to a momentum map is equivalent to GIT-semistability in the sense of Mumford and Hausen. It follows that the number of compact momentum map quotients of a given algebraic Hamiltonian G-variety is finite. As further corollary we derive a projectivity criterion for varieties with compact Kähler quotient.     

2-Adic valuations of certain ratios of products of factorials and applications

We prove the conjecture of Falikman-Friedland-Loewy on the parity of the degrees of projective varieties of n×n complex symmetric matrices of rank at most k. We also characterize the parity of the degrees of projective varieties of n×n complex skew symmetric matrices of rank at most 2p. We give recursive relations which determine the parity of the degrees of projective varieties of m×n complex matrices of rank at most k. In the case the degrees of these varieties are odd, we characterize the minimal dimensions of subspaces of n×n skew symmetric real matrices and of m×n real matrices containing a nonzero matrix of rank at most k. The parity questions studied here are also of combinatorial interest since they concern the parity of the number of plane partitions contained in a given box, on the one hand, and the parity of the number of symplectic tableaux of rectangular shape, on the other hand.     

On the geometry of generalized quadrics

Let {f₀,…,f_n;g₀,…,g_n} be a sequence of homogeneous polynomials in 2n+2 variables with no common zeros in P²ⁿ⁺¹ and suppose that the degrees of the polynomials are such that is a homogeneous polynomial. We shall refer to the hypersurface X defined by Q as a generalized quadric. In this note, we prove that generalized quadrics in for n≥1 are reduced.     

Zero cycles on homogeneous varieties

In this paper we study the group A₀(X) of zero-dimensional cycles of degree 0 modulo rational equivalence on a projective homogeneous algebraic variety X. To do this we translate rational equivalence of 0-cycles on a projective variety into R-equivalence on symmetric powers of the variety. For certain homogeneous varieties, we then relate these symmetric powers to moduli spaces of étale subalgebras of central simple algebras which we construct. This allows us to show A₀(X)=0 for certain classes of homogeneous varieties for groups of each of the classical types, extending previous results of Swan/Karpenko, of Merkurjev, and of Panin.     

A note on the Jacobian Conjecture

In this note, we show that, if the Druzkowski mappings F(X)=X+(AX)^∗3, i.e. F(X)=(x₁+(a₁₁x₁+?+a_1nx_n)³,…,x_n+(a_n1x₁+?+a_nnx_n)³), satisfies TrJ((AX)^∗3)=0, then where δ is the number of diagonal elements of A which are equal to zero. Furthermore, we show the Jacobian Conjecture is true for the Druzkowski mappings in dimension ?9 in the case .     

Monodromy for principal bundles

Given a strongly semistable principal bundle E_G over a curve, in Biswas et al. (2006) [4], a group-scheme for it was constructed, which was named as the monodromy group-scheme. Here we extend the construction of the monodromy group-scheme to principal bundles over higher dimensional varieties.     

The recursive nature of cominuscule Schubert calculus

The necessary and sufficient Horn inequalities which determine the non-vanishing Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in the cohomology of a Grassmannian are recursive in that they are naturally indexed by non-vanishing Littlewood-Richardson coefficients on smaller Grassmannians. We show how non-vanishing in the Schubert calculus for cominuscule flag varieties is similarly recursive. For these varieties, the non-vanishing of products of Schubert classes is controlled by the non-vanishing products on smaller cominuscule flag varieties. In particular, we show that the lists of Schubert classes whose product is non-zero naturally correspond to the integer points in the feasibility polytope, which is defined by inequalities coming from non-vanishing products of Schubert classes on smaller cominuscule flag varieties. While the Grassmannian is cominuscule, our necessary and sufficient inequalities are different than the classical Horn inequalities.     

Power series extensions of half-factorial domains

An integral domain is said to be a half-factorial domain (HFD) if every non-zero element a that is not a unit may be factored into a finite product of irreducible elements, while any other such factorization of a has the same number of irreducible factors. While it is known that a power series extension of a factorial domain need not be factorial, the corresponding question for HFD has been open. In this paper we show that the answer is also negative. In the process we answer in the negative, for HFD, an open question of Samuel for factorial domains by showing that for certain quadratic domains R, and independent variables, Y and T, R[[Y]][[T]] is not HFD even when R[[Y]] is HFD. The proof hinges on Samuel’s theorem to the effect that a power series, in finitely many variables, over a regular factorial domain is factorial.     

The negative answer to Kameko's conjecture on the hit problem

The goal of this paper is to give a negative answer to Kameko's conjecture on the hit problem stating that the cardinal of a minimal set of generators for the polynomial algebra Pk, considered as a module over the Steenrod algebra A, is dominated by an explicit quantity depending on the number of the polynomial algebra's variables k. The conjecture was shown by Kameko himself for k?3 in his PhD thesis in the Johns Hopkins University in 1990, and recently proved by us and Kameko for k=4. However, we claim that it turns out to be wrong for any k>4.In order to deny Kameko's conjecture we study a minimal set of generators for A-module Pk in some so-call generic degrees. What we mean by generic degrees is a bit different from that of other authors in the fields such as Crabb-Hubbuck, Nam, Repka-Selick, Wood …We prove an inductive formula for the cardinal of the minimal set of generators in these generic degrees when the number of the variables, k, increases. As an immediate consequence of this inductive formula, we recognize that Kameko's conjecture is no longer true for any k>4.     

On globally generated vector bundles on projective spaces

A classification is given for globally generated vector bundles E of rank k on Pⁿ having first Chern class c₁(E)=2. In particular, we get that they split if k<n unless E is a twisted null-correlation bundle on P³. In view of the well-known correspondence between globally generated vector bundles and maps to Grassmannians, we obtain, as a corollary, a classification of double Veronese embeddings of Pⁿ into a Grassmannian G(k−1,N) of (k−1)-planes in P^N.     

Birational maps between generalized Severi-Brauer varieties

A conjecture of Amitsur states that two Severi-Brauer varieties V(A) and V(B) are birationally isomorphic if and only if the underlying algebras A and B are the same degree and generate the same cyclic subgroup of the Brauer group. We examine the question of finding birational isomorphisms between generalized Severi-Brauer varieties. As a first step, we exhibit a birational isomorphism between the generalized Severi-Brauer variety of an algebra and its opposite. We also extend a theorem of P. Roquette to generalized Severi-Brauer varieties and use this to show that one may often reduce the problem of finding birational isomorphisms to the case where each of the separable subfields of the corresponding algebras are maximal, and therefore to the case where the algebras have prime power degree. We observe that this fact allows us to verify Amitsur’s conjecture for many particular cases.     

Extensions of abelian varieties defined over a number field

We study the arithmetic aspects of the finite group of extensions of abelian varieties defined over a number field. In particular, we establish relations with congruences between modular forms and special values of L-functions.     

Rational points and cohomology of discriminant varieties

Let G be a finite unitary reflection group acting in a complex vector space . The discriminant varietyX_G of G is defined as the space of regular orbits of G on V. Classical examples include the varieties of complex polynomials of degree n with distinct (resp. non-zero distinct) roots. The normaliser of G in GL(V) acts on X_G; in this work we determine the action of on the cohomology of X_G. In the classical cases this amounts to computing the cohomology of X_G with certain local coefficient systems. Our methods are to compute equivariant weight polynomials by means of explicit counting of the rational points of certain varieties over finite fields, and then to exploit the weight purity of the relevant varieties. We obtain some power series identities as a byproduct.     

Discriminant loci of ample and spanned line bundles

Let (X,L,V) be a triplet where X is an irreducible smooth complex projective variety, L is an ample and spanned line bundle on X and V⊆H⁰(X,L) spans L. The discriminant locus D(X,V)⊂|V| is the algebraic subset of singular elements of |V|. We study the components of D(X,V) in connection with the jumping sets of (X,V), generalizing the classical biduality theorem. We also deal with the degree of the discriminant (codegree of (X,L,V)) giving some bounds on it and classifying curves and surfaces of codegree 2 and 3. We exclude the possibility for the codegree to be 1. Significant examples are provided.     

On the sectional invariants of polarized manifolds

Let (X,L) be a polarized manifold of dimension n. In this paper, for any integer i with 0≤i≤n we introduce the notion of the ith sectional invariant of (X,L). We define the ith sectional Euler number e_i(X,L), the ith sectional Betti number b_i(X,L), and the ith sectional Hodge number of type (j,i−j) of (X,L) and we will study some properties of these.     

The effect of points fattening on postulation

We classify sets Z of points in the projective plane, for which the difference between the minimal degrees of curves containing 2Z and Z respectively is small.