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Alan Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to Alan Thompson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

Degenerations and Fibrations of K3 Surfaces: Lattice Polarisations and Mirror Symmetry

Tyurin degenerations of K3 surfaces are degenerations whose central fibre consists of a pair of rational surfaces glued along a smooth elliptic curve. We study the lattice theory of such Tyurin degenerations, establishing a notion of lattice polarisation that is compatible with existing definitions for the general fibre and the rational surfaces comprising the central fibre. We separately consider elliptically fibred K3 surfaces, where the base of the fibration admits a splitting into a pair of discs with specified monodromy around the boundary. In this setting we establish a notion of lattice polarisation for the induced elliptic fibrations over discs, which is compatible with the existing definition for K3 surfaces. Finally, we discuss the mirror symmetric correspondence between these two settings.

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arXiv2023

Normal Forms and Tyurin Degenerations of K3 Surfaces Polarised by a Rank 18 Lattice

We study projective Type II degenerations of K3 surfaces polarised by a certain rank 18 lattice, where the central fibre consists of a pair of rational surfaces glued along a smooth elliptic curve. Given such a degeneration, one may construct other degenerations of the same kind by flopping curves on the central fibre, but the degenerations obtained from this process are not usually projective. We construct a series of examples which are all projective and which are all related by flopping single curves from one component of the central fibre to the other. Moreover, we show that this list is complete, in the sense that no other flops are possible. The components of the central fibres obtained include weak del Pezzo surfaces of all possible degrees. This shows that projectivity need not impose any meaningful constraints on the surfaces that can arise as components in Type II degenerations.

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arXiv2021

The Mirror Clemens-Schmid Sequence

We introduce a four-term long exact sequence that relates the cohomology of a smooth variety admitting a projective morphism onto a projective base to the cohomology of the open set obtained by removing the preimage of a general linear section. We show that this sequence respects the perverse Leray filtration and induces exact sequences of mixed Hodge structures on its graded pieces. We conjecture that this exact sequence should be thought of as mirror to the Clemens-Schmid sequence, which describes the cohomology of degenerations. We exhibit this mirror relationship explicitly for all Type II and many Type III degenerations of K3 surfaces. In three dimensions, we show that for Tyurin degenerations of Calabi-Yau threefolds our conjecture is a consequence of existing mirror conjectures, and we explicitly verify our conjecture for a more complicated degeneration of the quintic threefold.

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arXiv2019

Threefolds Fibred by Mirror Sextic Double Planes

We present a systematic study of threefolds fibred by K3 surfaces that are mirror to sextic double planes. There are many parallels between this theory and the theory of elliptic surfaces. We show that the geometry of such threefolds is controlled by a pair of invariants, called the generalized functional and generalized homological invariants, and we derive an explicit birational model for them, which we call the Weierstrass form. We then describe how to resolve the singularities of the Weierstrass form to obtain the "minimal form", which has mild singularities and is unique up to birational maps in codimension 2. Finally we describe some of the geometric properties of threefolds in minimal form, including their singular fibres, canonical divisor, and Betti numbers.

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arXiv2019

Stable pair compactification of moduli of K3 surfaces of degree 2

We prove that the universal family of polarized K3 surfaces of degree 2 can be extended to a flat family of stable slc pairs $(X,\epsilon R)$ over the toroidal compactification associated to the Coxeter fan. One-parameter degenerations of K3 surfaces in this family are described by integral-affine structures on a sphere with 24 singularities.

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arXiv2018

Pseudolattices, del Pezzo surfaces, and Lefschetz fibrations

Motivated by the relationship between numerical Grothendieck groups induced by the embedding of a smooth anticanonical elliptic curve into a del Pezzo surface, we define the notion of a quasi del Pezzo homomorphism between pseudolattices and establish its basic properties. The primary aim of the paper is then to prove a classification theorem for quasi del Pezzo homomorphisms, using a pseudolattice variant of the minimal model program. Finally, this result is applied to the classification of a certain class of genus one Lefschetz fibrations over discs.

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arXiv2017

ADE surfaces and their moduli

We define a class of surfaces corresponding to the ADE root lattices and construct compactifications of their moduli spaces as quotients of projective varieties for Coxeter fans, generalizing Losev-Manin spaces of curves. We exhibit modular families over these moduli spaces, which extend to families of stable pairs over the compactifications. One simple application is a geometric compactification of the moduli of rational elliptic surfaces that is a finite quotient of a projective toric variety.

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arXiv2017

Mirror Symmetry for Lattice Polarized del Pezzo Surfaces

We describe a notion of lattice polarization for rational elliptic surfaces and weak del Pezzo surfaces, and describe the complex moduli of the former and the K\"{a}hler cone of the latter. We then propose a version of mirror symmetry relating these two objects, which should be thought of as a form of Fano-LG correspondence. Finally, we relate this notion to other forms of mirror symmetry, including Dolgachev-Nikulin-Pinkham mirror symmetry for lattice polarized K3 surfaces and the Gross-Siebert program.

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arXiv2017

Calabi-Yau threefolds fibred by high rank lattice polarized K3 surfaces

We study threefolds fibred by K3 surfaces admitting a lattice polarization by a certain class of rank 19 lattices. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the appropriate K3 moduli space, which we call the generalized functional invariant. Then we show that if the threefold total space is a smooth Calabi-Yau, there are only finitely many possibilities for the polarizing lattice and the form of the generalized functional invariant. Finally, we construct explicit examples of Calabi-Yau threefolds realizing each case and compute their Hodge numbers.

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arXiv2016

Hodge Numbers from Picard-Fuchs Equations

Given a variation of Hodge structure over $\mathbb{P}^1$ with Hodge numbers $(1,1,\dots,1)$, we show how to compute the degrees of the Deligne extension of its Hodge bundles, following Eskin-Kontsevich-M\"oller-Zorich, by using the local exponents of the corresponding Picard-Fuchs equation. This allows us to compute the Hodge numbers of Zucker's Hodge structure on the corresponding parabolic cohomology groups. We also apply this to families of elliptic curves, K3 surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds.

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arXiv2016

Mirror symmetry, Tyurin degenerations and fibrations on Calabi-Yau manifolds

We investigate a potential relationship between mirror symmetry for Calabi-Yau manifolds and the mirror duality between quasi-Fano varieties and Landau-Ginzburg models. More precisely, we show that if a Calabi-Yau admits a so-called Tyurin degeneration to a union of two Fano varieties, then one should be able to construct a mirror to that Calabi-Yau by gluing together the Landau-Ginzburg models of those two Fano varieties. We provide evidence for this correspondence in a number of different settings, including Batyrev-Borisov mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds, Dolgachev-Nikulin mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces, and an explicit family of threefolds that are not realized as complete intersections in toric varieties.

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arXiv2015

The Geometry and Moduli of K3 Surfaces

These notes will give an introduction to the theory of K3 surfaces. We begin with some general results on K3 surfaces, including the construction of their moduli space and some of its properties. We then move on to focus on the theory of polarized K3 surfaces, studying their moduli, degenerations and the compactification problem. This theory is then further enhanced to a discussion of lattice polarized K3 surfaces, which provide a rich source of explicit examples, including a large class of lattice polarizations coming from elliptic fibrations. Finally, we conclude by discussing the ample and Kahler cones of K3 surfaces, and give some of their applications.

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arXiv2015

Calabi-Yau Threefolds Fibred by Mirror Quartic K3 Surfaces

We study threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the moduli space of mirror quartic K3 surfaces. This is then used to give a complete explicit description of all Calabi-Yau threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We conclude by studying the properties of such Calabi-Yau threefolds, including their Hodge numbers and deformation theory.

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arXiv2015

Calabi-Yau Threefolds Fibred by Kummer Surfaces Associated to Products of Elliptic Curves

We study threefolds fibred by Kummer surfaces associated to products of elliptic curves, that arise as resolved quotients of threefolds fibred by certain lattice polarized K3 surfaces under a fibrewise Nikulin involution. We present a general construction for such surfaces, before specializing our results to study Calabi-Yau threefolds arising as resolved quotients of threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. Finally, we give some geometric properties of the Calabi-Yau threefolds that we have constructed, including expressions for Hodge numbers.

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arXiv2014

An Introduction to Hodge Structures

We begin by introducing the concept of a Hodge structure and give some of its basic properties, including the Hodge and Lefschetz decompositions. We then define the period map, which relates families of Kahler manifolds to the families of Hodge structures defined on their cohomology, and discuss its properties. This will lead us to the more general definition of a variation of Hodge structure and the Gauss-Manin connection. We then review the basics about mixed Hodge structures with a view towards degenerations of Hodge structures; including the canonical extension of a vector bundle with connection, Schmid's limiting mixed Hodge structure and Steenbrink's work in the geometric setting. Finally, we give an outlook about Hodge theory in the Gross-Siebert program.

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arXiv2013

The 14th case VHS via K3 fibrations

We present a study of certain singular one-parameter subfamilies of Calabi-Yau threefolds realized as anticanonical hypersurfaces or complete intersections in toric varieties. Our attention to these families is motivated by the Doran-Morgan classification of variations of Hodge structure which can underlie families of Calabi-Yau threefolds with $h^{2,1} = 1$ over the thrice-punctured sphere. We explore their torically induced fibrations by $M$-polarized K3 surfaces and use these fibrations to construct an explicit geometric transition between an anticanonical hypersurface and a nef complete intersection through a singular subfamily of hypersurfaces. Moreover, we show that another singular subfamily provides a geometric realization of the missing "14th case" variation of Hodge structure from the Doran-Morgan list.

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arXiv2013

Families of lattice polarized K3 surfaces with monodromy

We extend the notion of lattice polarization for K3 surfaces to families over a (not necessarily simply connected) base, in a way that gives control over the action of monodromy on the algebraic cycles, and discuss the uses of this new theory in the study of families of K3 surfaces admitting fibrewise symplectic automorphisms. We then give an application of these ideas to the study of Calabi-Yau threefolds admitting fibrations by lattice polarized K3 surfaces.

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