Iitaka's fibrations via multiplier ideals

We give a new characterization of Iitaka's fibration of algebraic varieties associated to line bundles. Introducing an ``intersection number' of line bundles and curves by using the notion of multiplier ideal sheaves, Iitaka's fibration can be regarded as a ``numerically trivial fibration' in terms of this intersection theory.

     

A stability condition for line bundles on reducible varieties

Over a family of varieties with singular special fiber, the relative Picard functor (i.e. the moduli space of line bundles) may fail to be compact. We propose a stability condition for line bundles on reducible varieties that is aimed at compactifying it. This stability condition generalizes the notion of ‘balanced multidegree’ used by Caporaso in compactifying the relative Picard functor over families of curves. Unlike the latter, it is defined ‘asymptotically’; an important theme of this paper is that although line bundles on higher-dimensional varieties are more complicated than those on curves, their behavior in terms of stability asymptotically approaches that of line bundles on curves.Using this definition of stability, we prove that over a one-parameter family of varieties having smooth total space, any line bundle on the generic fiber can be extended to a unique semistable line bundle on the (possibly reducible) special fiber, provided the special fiber is not too complicated in a combinatorial sense.     

Oriented matroids, complex manifolds, and a combinatorial model for BU

We introduce a new notion of complex oriented matroid and develop some basic properties of this object. Our definition of complex oriented matroids bears the same relationship to classical oriented matroids that the stratification of the complex plane into nine components corresponding to the signs of the complex and real parts has with the three-component sign stratification of the real line. We then use these complex oriented matroids to set up the foundations of a combinatorial version of complex geometry analogous to MacPherson's combinatorial differential manifolds; in this world, the representing object for the functor of (combinatorial) complex vector bundles is the nerve of a poset of complex oriented matroids. We conclude by showing that this space is homotopy equivalent to the complex Grassmannian, thus deducing that our combinatorial world is able to completely capture the notion of complex vector bundles.     

A note on Torelli‐type theorems for Gorenstein curves

Using the notion of generalized divisors introduced by Hartshorne (see 16 ), we adapt the theory of adjoint forms to the case of Gorenstein curves. We show an infinitesimal Torelli‐type theorem for line bundles on Gorenstein curves. We also construct explicit counterexamples to the infinitesimal Torelli claim in the case of a reduced reducible Gorenstein curve.     

Ample subvarieties and q-ample divisors

We introduce a notion of ampleness for subschemes of any codimension using the theory of q-ample line bundles. We also investigate certain geometric properties satisfied by ample subvarieties, e.g. the Lefschetz hyperplane theorems and numerical positivity. Using these properties, we also construct a counterexample to the converse of the Andreotti–Grauert vanishing theorem.     

A Combination Theorem for Metric Bundles

We introduce the notion of metric (graph) bundles which provide a coarse-geometric generalization of the notion of trees of metric spaces a la Bestvina?CFeighn in the special case that the inclusions of the edge spaces into the vertex spaces are uniform coarsely surjective quasi-isometries. We prove the existence of quasi-isometric sections in this generality. Then we prove a combination theorem for metric (graph) bundles that establishes sufficient conditions, particularly flaring, under which the metric bundles are hyperbolic. We use this to give examples of surface bundles over hyperbolic disks, whose universal cover is Gromov-hyperbolic. We also show that in typical situations, flaring is also a necessary condition.     

Semistable and numerically effective principal (Higgs) bundles

We study Miyaoka-type semistability criteria for principal Higgs G-bundles E on complex projective manifolds of any dimension. We prove that E has the property of being semistable after pullback to any projective curve if and only if certain line bundles, obtained from some characters of the parabolic subgroups of G, are numerically effective. One also proves that these conditions are met for semistable principal Higgs bundles whose adjoint bundle has vanishing second Chern class.In a second part of the paper, we introduce notions of numerical effectiveness and numerical flatness for principal (Higgs) bundles, discussing their main properties. For (non-Higgs) principal bundles, we show that a numerically flat principal bundle admits a reduction to a Levi factor which has a flat Hermitian–Yang–Mills connection, and, as a consequence, that the cohomology ring of a numerically flat principal bundle with coefficients in R is trivial. To our knowledge this notion of numerical effectiveness is new even in the case of (non-Higgs) principal bundles.     

Admissible metrics for line bundles on curves and abelian varieties over non-archimedean local fields

Following the approach in the archimedean case, we introduce the notion of admissible metrics for line bundles on curves and abelian varieties over non-archimedean local fields. Several properties of admissible metrics are considered and we show that this approach yields the same notion of admissible metrics over curves as doing harmonic analysis on the reduction graph of the curve. Received: 9 September 2002     

The geometry of the space of Cauchy data of nonlinear PDEs

First-order jet bundles can be put at the foundations of the modern geometric approach to nonlinear PDEs, since higher-order jet bundles can be seen as constrained iterated jet bundles. The definition of first-order jet bundles can be given in many equivalent ways — for instance, by means of Grassmann bundles. In this paper we generalize it by means of flag bundles, and develop the corresponding theory for higher-oder and infinite-order jet bundles. We show that this is a natural geometric framework for the space of Cauchy data for nonlinear PDEs. As an example, we derive a general notion of transversality conditions in the Calculus of Variations.     

Relative connections on principal bundles and relative equivariant structures

We investigate relative holomorphic connections on a principal bundle over a family of compact complex manifolds. A sufficient condition is given for the existence of a relative holomorphic connection on a holomorphic principal bundle over a complex analytic family. We also introduce the notion of relative equivariant bundles and establish its relation with relative holomorphic connections on principal bundles.     

Line-bundle-valued ternary quadratic forms over schemes

We study degenerations of rank 3 quadratic forms and of rank 4 Azumaya algebras, and extend what is known for good forms and Azumaya algebras. By considering line-bundle-valued forms, we extend the theorem of Max-Albert Knus that the Witt-invariant—the even Clifford algebra of a form—suffices for classification. An algebra Zariski-locally the even Clifford algebra of a ternary form is so globally up to twisting by square roots of line bundles. The general, usual and special orthogonal groups of a form are determined in terms of automorphism groups of its Witt-invariant. Martin Kneser’s characteristic-free notion of semiregular form is used.     

Fell bundles over groupoids

We study the C*-algebras associated to Fell bundles over groupoids and give a notion of equivalence for Fell bundles which guarantees that the associated C*-algebras are strongly Morita equivalent. As a corollary we show that any saturated Fell bundle is equivalent to a semi-direct product arising from the action of the groupoid on a C*-bundle.

     

Approximate Hermitian–Yang–Mills structures and semistability for Higgs bundles. I: generalities and the one-dimensional case

We review the notions of (weak) Hermitian–Yang–Mills structure and approximate Hermitian–Yang–Mills structure for Higgs bundles. Then, we construct the Donaldson functional for Higgs bundles over compact K?hler manifolds and we present some basic properties of it. In particular, we show that its gradient flow can be written in terms of the mean curvature of the Hitchin–Simpson connection. We also study some properties of the solutions of the evolution equation associated with that functional. Next, we study the problem of the existence of approximate Hermitian–Yang–Mills structures and its relation with the algebro-geometric notion of semistability and we show that for a compact Riemann surface, the notion of approximate Hermitian–Yang–Mills structure is in fact the differential- geometric counterpart of the notion of semistability. Finally, we review the notion of admissible Hermitian structure on a torsion-free Higgs sheaf and define the Donaldson functional for such an object.     

On vanishing theorems for Higgs bundles

We introduce the notion of Hermitian Higgs bundle as a natural generalization of the notion of Hermitian vector bundle and we study some vanishing theorems concerning Hermitian Higgs bundles when the base manifold is a compact complex manifold. We show that a first vanishing result, proved for these objects when the base manifold was Kähler, also holds when the manifold is compact complex. From this fact and some basic properties of Hermitian Higgs bundles, we conclude several results. In particular we show that, in analogy to the classical case, there are vanishing theorems for invariant sections of tensor products of Higgs bundles. Then, we prove that a Higgs bundle admits no nonzero invariant sections if there is a condition of negativity on the greatest eigenvalue of the Hitchin–Simpson mean curvature. Finally, we prove that the invariant sections of certain tensor products of a weak Hermitian–Yang–Mills Higgs bundle are all parallel in the classical sense.     

A Frobenius variant of Seshadri constants

We define and study a version of Seshadri constant for ample line bundles in positive characteristic. We prove that lower bounds for this constant imply the global generation or very ampleness of the corresponding adjoint line bundle. As a consequence, we deduce that the criterion for global generation and very ampleness of adjoint line bundles in terms of usual Seshadri constants holds also in positive characteristic.     

Semistability of Lazarsfeld–Mukai bundles via parabolic structures

Our aim in this article is to produce new examples of semistable Lazarsfeld–Mukai bundles on smooth projective surfaces X using the notion of parabolic vector bundles. In particular, we associate natural parabolic structures to any rank two (dual) Lazarsfeld–Mukai bundle and study the parabolic stability of these parabolic bundles. We also show that the orbifold bundles on Kawamata coverings of X corresponding to the above parabolic bundles are themselves certain (dual) Lazarsfeld–Mukai bundles. This gives semistable Lazarsfeld–Mukai bundles on Kawamata covers of the projective plane and of certain K3 surfaces.     

Non-Hermitian Yang-Mills connections

We study Yang-Mills connections on holomorphic bundles over complex K?hler manifolds of arbitrary dimension, in the spirit of Hitchin's and Simpson's study of flat connections. The space of non-Hermitian Yang-Mills (NHYM) connections has dimension twice the space of Hermitian Yang-Mills connections, and is locally isomorphic to the complexification of the space of Hermitian Yang-Mills connections (which is, by Uhlenbeck and Yau, the same as the space of stable bundles). Further, we study the NHYM connections over hyperk?hler manifolds. We construct direct and inverse twistor transform from NHYM bundles on a hyperk?hler manifold to holomorphic bundles over its twistor space. We study the stability and the modular properties of holomorphic bundles over twistor spaces, and prove that work of Li and Yau, giving the notion of stability for bundles over non-K?hler manifolds, can be applied to the twistors. We identify locally the following two spaces: the space of stable holomorphic bundles on a twistor space of a hyperk?hler manifold and the space of rational curves in the twistor space of the ‘Mukai’ dual hyperk?hler manifold.     

On the L 2-extension of twisted holomorphic sections of singular hermitian line bundles

We prove a sharp Ohsawa–Takegoshi–Manivel type L ²-extension result for twisted holomorphic sections of singular hermitian line bundles over almost Stein manifolds. We establish as corollaries some extension results for pluri-twisted holomorphic sections of singular hermitian line bundles over projective manifolds.     

Sub-bundles of the complexified tangent bundle

We study embeddings of complex vector bundles, especially line bundles, in the complexification of the tangent bundle of a manifold. The aim is to understand implications of properties of interest in partial differential equations.

     

Moduli of roots of line bundles on curves

We treat the problem of completing the moduli space for roots of line bundles on curves. Special attention is devoted to higher spin curves within the universal Picard scheme. Two new different constructions, both using line bundles on nodal curves as boundary points, are carried out and compared with pre-existing ones.