Surfaces with many solitary points

It is classically known that a real cubic surface in cannot have more than one solitary point (or -singularity, locally given by x ² + y ² + z ² = 0) whereas it can have up to four nodes (or -singularity, locally given by x ² + y ² − z ² = 0). We show that on any surface of degree d ≥ 3 in the maximum possible number of solitary points is strictly smaller than the maximum possible number of nodes. Conversely, we adapt a construction of Chmutov to obtain surfaces with many solitary points by using a refined version of Brusotti’s Theorem. Combining lower and upper bounds, we deduce: , where denotes the maximum possible number of solitary points on a real surface of degree d in . Finally, we adapt this construction to get real algebraic surfaces in with many singular points of type for all k ≥ 1.      

An asymptotic version of Dumnicki’s algorithm for linear systems in $${\mathbb{CP}^2}$$

Using Dumnicki’s approach to showing non-specialty of linear systems consisting of plane curves with prescribed multiplicities in sufficiently general points on we develop an asymptotic method to determine lower bounds for Seshadri constants of general points on . With this method we prove the lower bound for 10 general points on .      

Non-free isometric immersions of Riemannian manifolds

Let (V, g) be a Riemannian manifold and let be the isometric immersion operator which, to a map , associates the induced metric on V, where denotes the Euclidean scalar product in . By Nash–Gromov implicit function theorem is infinitesimally invertible over the space of free maps. In this paper we study non-free isometric immersions . We show that the operator (where denotes the space of C ^∞- smooth quadratic forms on ) is infinitesimally invertible over a non-empty open subset of and therefore is an open map in the respective fine topologies.      

Ranks of abelian varieties over infinite extensions of the rationals

Let S be an infinite set of rational primes and, for some p ∈ S, let be the compositum of all extensions unramified outside S of the form , for . If , let be the intersection of the fixed fields by , for i = 1, . . , n. We provide a wide family of elliptic curves such that the rank of is infinite for all n ≥ 0 and all , subject to the parity conjecture. Similarly, let be a polarized abelian variety, let K be a quadratic number field fixed by , let S be an infinite set of primes of and let be the maximal abelian p-elementary extension of K unramified outside primes of K lying over S and dihedral over . We show that, under certain hypotheses, the -corank of sel _p ∞(A/F) is unbounded over finite extensions F/K contained in . As a consequence, we prove a strengthened version of a conjecture of M. Larsen in a large number of cases.     

A conic bundle degenerating on the Kummer surface

Let C be a genus 2 curve and the moduli space of semi-stable rank 2 vector bundles on C with trivial determinant. In Bolognesi (Adv Geom 7(1):113–144, 2007) we described the parameter space of non stable extension classes of the canonical sheaf ω of C by ω⁻¹. In this paper, we study the classifying rational map that sends an extension class to the corresponding rank two vector bundle. Moreover, we prove that, if we blow up along a certain cubic surface S and at the point p corresponding to the bundle , then the induced morphism defines a conic bundle that degenerates on the blow up (at p) of the Kummer surface naturally contained in . Furthermore we construct the -bundle that contains the conic bundle and we discuss the stability and deformations of one of its components.     

A new family of maximal curves over a finite field

It has been known for a long time that the Deligne–Lusztig curves associated to the algebraic groups of type and defined over the finite field all have the maximum number of -rational points allowed by the Weil “explicit formulas”, and that these curves are -maximal curves over infinitely many algebraic extensions of . Serre showed that an -rational curve which is -covered by an -maximal curve is also -maximal. This has posed the problem of the existence of -maximal curves other than the Deligne–Lusztig curves and their -subcovers, see for instance Garcia (On curves with many rational points over finite fields. In: Finite Fields with Applications to Coding Theory, Cryptography and Related Areas, pp. 152–163. Springer, Berlin, 2002) and Garcia and Stichtenoth (A maximal curve which is not a Galois subcover of the Hermitan curve. Bull. Braz. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 37, 139–152, 2006). In this paper, a positive answer to this problem is obtained. For every q = n ³ with n = p ^r  > 2, p ≥ 2 prime, we give a simple, explicit construction of an -maximal curve that is not -covered by any -maximal Deligne–Lusztig curve. Furthermore, the -automorphism group Aut has size n ³(n ³ + 1)(n ² − 1)(n ² − n + 1). Interestingly, has a very large -automorphism group with respect to its genus . Research supported by the Italian Ministry MURST, Strutture geometriche, combinatoria e loro applicazioni, PRIN 2006–2007.     

Arboreal Galois representations

Let be the absolute Galois group of , and let T be the complete rooted d-ary tree, where d ≥ 2. In this article, we study “arboreal” representations of into the automorphism group of T, particularly in the case d = 2. In doing so, we propose a parallel to the well-developed and powerful theory of linear p-adic representations of . We first give some methods of constructing arboreal representations and discuss a few results of other authors concerning their size in certain special cases. We then discuss the analogy between arboreal and linear representations of . Finally, we present some new examples and conjectures, particularly relating to the question of which subgroups of Aut(T) can occur as the image of an arboreal representation of .      

Quasilinearization and curvature of Aleksandrov spaces

We present a new distance characterization of Aleksandrov spaces of non-positive curvature. By introducing a quasilinearization for abstract metric spaces we draw an analogy between characterization of Aleksandrov spaces and inner product spaces; the quasi-inner product is defined by means of the quadrilateral cosine—a metric substitute for the angular measure between two directions at different points. Our main result states that a geodesically connected metric space is an Aleksandrov domain (also known as a CAT(0) space) if and only if the quadrilateral cosine does not exceed one for every two pairs of distinct points in . We also observe that a geodesically connected metric space is an domain if and only if, for every quadruple of points in , the quadrilateral inequality (known as Euler’s inequality in ) holds. As a corollary of our main result we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a semimetric space to be an domain. Our results provide a complete solution to the Curvature Problem posed by Gromov in the context of metric spaces of non-positive curvature.      

The symplectomorphism group of a blow up

We study the relation between the symplectomorphism group Symp M of a closed connected symplectic manifold M and the symplectomorphism and diffeomorphism groups Symp and Diff of its one point blow up . There are three main arguments. The first shows that for any oriented M the natural map from to is often injective. The second argument applies when M is simply connected and detects nontrivial elements in the homotopy group that persist into the space of self-homotopy equivalences of . Since it uses purely homological arguments, it applies to c-symplectic manifolds (M, a), that is, to manifolds of dimension 2n that support a class such that . The third argument uses the symplectic structure on M and detects nontrivial elements in the (higher) homology of BSymp, M using characteristic classes defined by parametric Gromov–Witten invariants. Some results about many point blow ups are also obtained. For example we show that if M is the four-torus with k-fold blow up (where k > 0) then is not generated by the groups as ranges over the set of all symplectic forms on . Partially supported by NSF grants DMS 0305939 and 0604769.     

The Poisson boundary of lamplighter random walks on trees

Let be the homogeneous tree with degree q + 1 ≥ 3 and a finitely generated group whose Cayley graph is . The associated lamplighter group is the wreath product , where is a finite group. For a large class of random walks on this group, we prove almost sure convergence to a natural geometric boundary. If the probability law governing the random walk has finite first moment, then the probability space formed by this geometric boundary together with the limit distribution of the random walk is proved to be maximal, that is, the Poisson boundary. We also prove that the Dirichlet problem at infinity is solvable for continuous functions on the active part of the boundary, if the lamplighter “operates at bounded range”. Supported by ESF program RDSES and by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) P15577.     

A perfect stratification of $${\mathcal M_ g}$$ for g ≤ 5

We find for g ≤ 5 a stratification of depth g − 2 of the moduli space of curves with the property that its strata are affine and the classes of their closures provide a -basis for the Chow ring of . The first property confirms a conjecture of one of us. The way we establish the second property yields new (and simpler) proofs of theorems of Faber and Izadi which, taken together, amount to the statement that in this range the Chow ring is generated by the λ-class.      

Dy namic of Abelia n Subgroups of GL( n, $$\mathbb{C}$$): A Structure Theorem

In this paper, we characterize the dynamic of every Abelian subgroups of , or . We show that there exists a -invariant, dense open set U in saturated by minimal orbits with a union of at most n -invariant vector subspaces of of dimension n−1 or n−2 over . As a consequence, has height at most n and in particular it admits a minimal set in . This work is supported by the research unit: systèmes dynamiques et combinatoire: 99UR15-15     

On tight projective designs

It is shown that among all tight designs in , where is or , or (quaternions), only 5-designs in (Lyubich, Shatalora Geom Dedicata 86: 169–178, 2001) have irrational angle set. This is the only case of equal ranks of the first and the last irreducible idempotent in the corresponding Bose-Mesner algebra.      

Morse theory and conjugacy classes of finite subgroups

We construct a CAT(0) group containing a finitely presented subgroup with infinitely many conjugacy classes of finite-order elements. Unlike previous examples (which were based on right-angled Artin groups) our ambient CAT(0) group does not contain any rank 3 free abelian subgroups. We also construct examples of groups of type F _n inside mapping class groups, Aut(), and Out() which have infinitely many conjugacy classes of finite-order elements.      

A group-theoretical finiteness theorem

We start with the universal covering space of a closed n-manifold and with a tree of fundamental domains which zips it . Our result is that, between T and , is an intermediary object, , obtained by zipping, such that each fiber of p is finite and admits a section.      

Dynamics of the Mapping Class Group on the Moduli of a Punctured Sphere with Rational Holonomy

Let M be a four-holed sphere and Γ the mapping class group of M fixing the boundary ∂M. The group Γ acts on which is the space of completely reducible SL (2, -gauge equivalence classes of flat SL -connections on M with fixed holonomy on ∂M. Let and be the compact component of the real points of . These points correspond to SU(2)-representations or SL(2, -representations. The Γ-action preserves and we study the topological dynamics of the Γ-action on and show that for a dense set of holonomy , the Γ-orbits are dense in . We also produce a class of representations such that the Γ-orbit of [ρ] is finite in the compact component of , but is dense in SL(2, .Mathematics Subject Classiffications (2000). 57M05, 54H20, 11D99     

The $${\overline{\partial}}$$-equation on homogeneous varieties with an isolated singularity

Let X be a regular irreducible variety in , Y the associated homogeneous variety in , and N the restriction of the universal bundle of to X. In the present paper, we compute the obstructions to solving the -equation in the L ^p -sense on Y for 1 ≤  p ≤  ∞ in terms of cohomology groups . That allows to identify obstructions explicitly if X is specified more precisely, for example if it is equivalent to or an elliptic curve.      

Compact Differences of Weighted Composition Operators on Weighted Banach Spaces of Analytic Functions

Let be the weighted Banach space of analytic functions with a topology generated by weighted sup-norm. In the present article, we investigate the analytic mappings and which characterize the compactness of differences of two weighted composition operators on the space . As a consequence we characterize the compactness of differences of composition operators on weighted Bloch spaces.      

Constant mean curvature graphs in a class of warped product spaces

We introduce a new existence result for compact normal geodesic graphs with constant mean curvature and boundary in a class of warped product spaces. In particular, our result includes that of normal geodesic graphs with constant mean curvature in hyperbolic space over a bounded domain in a totally geodesic .