Hyperellipticity of offsets to rational plane curves

In this paper, we prove irreducible offsets to rational plane curves are hyperelliptic in general and compute the genus of them. We also give a criterion for deciding the irreducibility of offsets to rational plane curves.     

On a class of rational cuspidal plane curves

We obtain new examples and the complete list of the rational cuspidal plane curvesC with at least three cusps, one of which has multiplicitydegC-2. It occurs that these curves are projectively rigid. We also discuss the general problem of projective rigidity of rational cuspidal plane curves.     

Self-adjoint determinantal representations of real plane curves

Research supported by a Chaim Weizmann Fellowship, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.     

Projectivities between bundles of plane higher order curves

In [5] we give a theorem about projectivities between three line bundles in the projective plane with an almost trivial proof, and with a lot of special cases among which the theorems of Desargues, Pappus-Pascal, Pascal and many other lesser known results. In this paper we retake this idea, but now for projectivities between bundles of higher order curves in the plane.     

Serre-Taubes duality for pseudoholomorphic curves

According to Taubes, the Gromov invariants of a symplectic four-manifold X with b₊>1 satisfy the duality Gr(α)=±Gr(κ−α), where κ is Poincaré dual to the canonical class. Extending joint work with Simon Donaldson, we interpret this result in terms of Serre duality on the fibres of a Lefschetz pencil on X, by proving an analogous symmetry for invariants counting sections of associated bundles of symmetric products. Using similar methods, we give a new proof of an existence theorem for symplectic surfaces in four-manifolds with b₊=1 and b₁=0. This reproves another theorem due to Taubes: two symplectic homology projective planes with negative canonical class and equal volume are symplectomorphic.     

The boundary of higher rank numerical ranges

The rank-k-numerical range of an n×n matrix A is defined as

     

Homology representations arising from the half cube

We construct a CW decomposition Cn of the n-dimensional half cube in a manner compatible with its structure as a polytope. For each 3?k?n, the complex Cn has a subcomplex Cn,k, which coincides with the clique complex of the half cube graph if k=4. The homology of Cn,k is concentrated in degree k−1 and furthermore, the (k−1)st Betti number of Cn,k is equal to the (k−2)nd Betti number of the complement of the k-equal real hyperplane arrangement. These Betti numbers, which also appear in theoretical computer science, numerical analysis and engineering, are the coefficients of a certain Pascal-like triangle (Sloane's sequence A119258). The Coxeter groups of type Dn act naturally on the complexes Cn,k, and thus on the associated homology groups.     

Space curves with the expected postulation

The postulation of a space curve is a classifying invariant which computes for any integer n the dimension of the family of surfaces of degree n containing the curve. We prove that for any integers d and g satisfying d−3?g?2d−9, there exists a smooth connected curve of degree d and genus g with the minimal postulation expected by the Riemann-Roch theorem.     

Deformations of algebraic curves and integrable nonlinear evolution equations

A brief exposition of applications of the methods of algebraic geometry to systems integrable by the IST method with variable spectral parameters is presented. Usually, theta-functional solutions for these systems are generated by some deformations of algebraic curves. The deformations of algebraic curves are also related with theta-functional solutions of Yang-Mills self-duality equations which contain special systems with a variable spectral parameter as a special reduction. Another important situation in which the deformations of algebraic curves naturally occur is the KdV equation with string-like boundary conditions. Most important concrete examples of systems integrable by the IST method with variable spectral parameter having different properties within a framework of the behavior of moduli of underlying curves, analytic properties of the Baker-Akhiezer functions, and the qualitative behavior of the solutions, are vacuum axially symmetric Einstein equations, the Heisenberg cylindrical magnet equation, the deformed Maxwell-Bloch system, and the cylindrical KP equation.Dedicated to the memory of J.-L. Verdier     

Motivic Serre invariants of curves

In this article, we generalize the theory of motivic integration on formal schemes topologically of finite type and the notion of motivic Serre invariant, to a relative point of view. We compute the relative motivic Serre invariant for curves defined over the field of fractions of a complete discrete valuation ring R of equicharacteristic zero. One aim of this study is to understand the behavior of motivic Serre invariants under ramified extension of the ring R. Thanks to our constructions, we obtain, in particular, an expression for the generating power series, whose coefficients are the motivic Serre invariant associated to a curve, computed on a tower of ramified extensions of R. We give an interpretation of this series in terms of the motivic zeta function of Denef and Loeser.     

Homotopy groups of moduli spaces of representations

We calculate certain homotopy groups of the moduli spaces for representations of a compact oriented surface in the Lie groups and . Our approach relies on the interpretation of these representations in terms of Higgs bundles and uses Bott-Morse theory on the corresponding moduli spaces.     

Construction of determinantal representation of trigonometric polynomials

For a pair of n×n Hermitian matrices H and K, a real ternary homogeneous polynomial defined by F(t,x,y)=det(tI_n+xH+yK) is hyperbolic with respect to (1,0,0). The Fiedler conjecture (or Lax conjecture) is recently affirmed, namely, for any real ternary hyperbolic polynomial F(t,x,y), there exist real symmetric matrices S₁ and S₂ such that F(t,x,y)=det(tI_n+xS₁+yS₂). In this paper, we give a constructive proof of the existence of symmetric matrices for the ternary forms associated with trigonometric polynomials.     

Computing complex and real tropical curves using monodromy

Tropical varieties capture combinatorial information about how coordinates of points in a classical variety approach zero or infinity. We present algorithms for computing the rays of a complex and real tropical curve defined by polynomials with constant coefficients. These algorithms rely on homotopy continuation, monodromy loops, and Cauchy integrals. Several examples are presented which are computed using an implementation that builds on the numerical algebraic geometry software Bertini.     

The Thurston boundary of Teichmüller space and complex of curves

Let S be a closed orientable surface with genus g?2. For a sequence σi in the Teichmüller space of S, which converges to a projective measured lamination [λ] in the Thurston boundary, we obtain a relation between λ and the geometric limit of pants decompositions whose lengths are uniformly bounded by a Bers constant L. We also show that this bounded pants decomposition is related to the Gromov boundary of complex of curves.     

Generators for the tautological algebra of the moduli space of curves

In this paper, we prove that the tautological algebra in cohomology of the moduli space M_g of smooth projective curves of genus g is generated by the first [g/3] Mumford-Morita-Miller classes. This solves a part of Faber's conjecture (Moduli of Curves and Abelian Varieties Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1999) concerning the structure of the tautological algebra affirmatively. More precisely, for any k we express the kth Mumford-Morita-Miller class e_k as an explicit polynomial in the lower classes for all genera g=3k−1,3k−2,…,2.