π1-classification of real arrangements with up to eight lines

One of the open questions in the geometry of line arrangements is to what extent does the incidence lattice of an arrangement determine its fundamental group. Line arrangements of up to 6 lines were recently classified by K.M. Fan (Michigan Math. J. 44(2) (1997) 283), and it turns out that the incidence lattice of such arrangements determines the projective fundamental group. We use actions on the set of wiring diagrams, introduced in (Garber et al. (J. Knot Theory Ramf.), to classify real arrangements of up to 8 lines. In particular, we show that the incidence lattice of such arrangements determines both the affine and the projective fundamental groups.     

Moduli spaces of arrangements of 10 projective lines with quadruple points

We classify moduli spaces of arrangements of 10 lines with quadruple points. We show that moduli spaces of arrangements of 10 lines with quadruple points may consist of more than 2 disconnected components, namely 3 or 4 distinct points. We also present defining equations to those arrangements whose moduli spaces are still reducible after taking quotients of complex conjugations.     

A New Algorithm for Solving the Word Problem in Braid Groups

One of the most interesting questions about a group is whether its word problem can be solved and how. The word problem in the braid group is of particular interest to topologists, algebraists, and geometers, and is the target of intensive current research. We look at the braid group from a topological point of view (rather than a geometric one). The braid group is defined by the action of diffeomorphisms on the fundamental group of a punctured disk. We exploit the topological definition in order to give a new approach for solving its word problem. Our algorithm, although not better in complexity, is faster in comparison with known algorithms for short braid words, and it is almost independent of the number of strings in the braids. Moreover, the algorithm is based on a new computer presentation of the elements of the fundamental group of a punctured disk. This presentation can be used also for other algorithms.     

Trisecant lemma for nonequidimensional varieties

Let X be an irreducible projective variety over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. For ≥ 3, if every (r−2)-plane , where the x _i are generic points, also meets X in a point x _r different from x ₁,..., x _r−1, then X is contained in a linear subspace L such that codim _L X ≥ r − 2. In this paper, our purpose is to present another derivation of this result for r = 3 and then to introduce a generalization to nonequidimensional varieties. For the sake of clarity, we shall reformulate our problem as follows. Let Z be an equidimensional variety (maybe singular and/or reducible) of dimension n, other than a linear space, embedded into ℙ^r, where r ≥ n + 1. The variety of trisecant lines of Z, say V _1,3(Z), has dimension strictly less than 2n, unless Z is included in an (n + 1)-dimensional linear space and has degree at least 3, in which case dim V _1,3(Z) = 2n. This also implies that if dim V _1,3(Z) = 2n, then Z can be embedded in ℙ ^{n + 1}. Then we inquire the more general case, where Z is not required to be equidimensional. In that case, let Z be a possibly singular variety of dimension n, which may be neither irreducible nor equidimensional, embedded into ℙ^r, where r ≥ n + 1, and let Y be a proper subvariety of dimension k ≥ 1. Consider now S being a component of maximal dimension of the closure of . We show that S has dimension strictly less than n + k, unless the union of lines in S has dimension n + 1, in which case dim S = n + k. In the latter case, if the dimension of the space is strictly greater than n + 1, then the union of lines in S cannot cover the whole space. This is the main result of our paper. We also introduce some examples showing that our bound is strict. __________ Translated from Fundamentalnaya i Prikladnaya Matematika, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 71–87, 2006.     

On the Degeneration, Regeneration and Braid Monodromy of T×T

This paper is the first in a series of three papers concerning the surface T×T. Here we study the degeneration of T×T and the regeneration of its degenerated object. We also study the braid monodromy and its regeneration.     

Distribution and moment convergence of martingales

Summary If where {X _{n j} ,ℱ _{n j} 1≦j≦m _n ↑∞, n≧1} is a martingale difference array, conditions are given for the distribution and moment convergence of S _n,k to the distribution and moments of where H _k is the Hermite polynomial of degree k and Z is a standard normal variable. This is intimately related to an identity (*) for multiple Wiener integrals. Under alternative conditions, similar results hold for S _{n, k} /U _n ^k and S _{n, k} /V _n ^k where and V _n ² V _n ² is the conditional variance. Research supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DMS-8601346     

Moments of randomly stopped sums-revisited

Conditions are obtained for (*)E|S _T |^γ<∞, γ>2 whereT is a stopping time and {S _n=∑ ₁ ⁿ ,X _j ℱ _n ,n⩾1} is a martingale and these ensure when (**)X _n ,n≥1 are independent, mean zero random variables that (*) holds wheneverET ^γ/2<∞, sup _n≥1 E|X _n |^γ<∞. This, in turn, is applied to obtain conditions for the validity ofE|S _k,T |^γ<∞ and of the second moment equationES _k,T ² =σ ² EΣ _j=k ^T S _k−1,j−1 ² where and {X _n , n≥1} satisfies (**) and ,n≥1. The latter is utilized to elicit information about a moment of a stopping rule. It is also shown for i.i.d. {X _n , n≥1} withEX=0,EX ²=1 that the a.s. limit set of {(n log logn)^−k/2 S _k,n ,n≥k} is [0,2 ^k/2/k!] or [−2 ^k/2/k!] according ask is even or odd and this can readily be reformulated in terms of the corresponding (degenerate kernel)U-statistic .     

Multi-secant lemma

We present a new generalization of the classical trisecant lemma. Our approach is quite different from previous generalizations [8, 10, 1, 2, 4, 7]. Let X be an equidimensional projective variety of dimension d. For a given k ≤ d + 1, we are interested in the study of the variety of k-secants. The classical trisecant lemma just considers the case where k = 3 while in [10] the case k = d + 2 is considered. Secants of order from 4 to d + 1 provide service for our main result. In this paper, we prove that if the variety of k-secants (k ≤ d +1) satisfies the following three conditions: (i) through every point in X, there passes at least one k-secant, (ii) the variety of k-secants satisfies a strong connectivity property that we define in the sequel, (iii) every k-secant is also a (k +1)-secant; then the variety X can be embedded into ℙ ^d+1. The new assumption, introduced here, that we call strong connectivity, is essential because a naive generalization that does not incorporate this assumption fails, as we show in an example. The paper concludes with some conjectures concerning the essence of the strong connectivity assumption.