arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Snowden.
Let V be a complex representation of a finite group G of order g. Derksen conjectured that the pth syzygies of the invariant ring Sym(V)^G are generated in degrees at most (p+1)g. We point out that a simple application of the theory of twisted commutative algebras -- using an idea due to Weyl -- gives the bound pg^3.
This article is an expository account of the theory of twisted commutative algebras, which simply put, can be thought of as a theory for handling commutative algebras with large groups of linear symmetries. Examples include the coordinate rings of determinantal varieties, Segre-Veronese embeddings, and Grassmannians. The article is meant to serve as a gentle introduction to the papers of the two authors on the subject, and also to point out some literature in which these algebras appear. The first part reviews the representation theory of the symmetric groups and general linear groups. The second part introduces a related category and develops its basic properties. The third part develops some basic properties of twisted commutative algebras from the perspective of classical commutative algebra and summarizes some of the results of the authors. We have tried to keep the prerequisites to this article at a minimum. The article is aimed at graduate students interested in commutative algebra, algebraic combinatorics, or representation theory, and the interactions between these subjects.
Let R^univ be the universal deformation ring of a residual representation of a local Galois group. Kisin showed that many loci in MaxSpec(R^univ[1/p]) of interest are Zariski closed, and gave a way to study the generic fiber of the corresponding quotient of R^univ. However, his method gives little information about the quotient ring before inverting p. We give a method for studying this quotient in certain cases, and carry it out in the simplest non-trivial case. Precisely, suppose that V_0 is the trivial two dimensional representation and let R be the unique Z_p-flat and reduced quotient of R^univ such that MaxSpec(R[1/p]) consists of ordinary representations with Hodge--Tate weights 0 and 1. We describe the functor of points of (a slightly modified version of) R and show that the irreducile components of Spec(R) are normal, Cohen--Macaulay and not Gorenstein. This has two well-known applications to global deformation rings: first, a global deformation ring employing these local conditions is torsion-free; and second, Kisin's R[1/p]=T[1/p] theorem can be upgraded in this setting to an R=T theorem.
We study the real components of modular curves. Our main result is an abstract group-theoretic description of the real components of a modular curve defined by a congruence subgroup of level N in terms of the corresponding subgroup of SL_2(Z/NZ). We apply this result to several families of modular curves (such as X_0(N), X_1(N), etc.) to obtain formulas for the number of real components. Somewhat surprisingly, the multiplicative order of 2 modulo N has a strong influence in many cases: for instance, if N is an odd prime then the real locus of X_1(N) is connected if and only if -1 and 2 generate (Z/NZ)^*.
We study syzygies of the Segre embedding of P(V_1) x ... x P(V_n), and prove two finiteness results. First, for fixed p but varying n and V_i, there is a finite list of "master p-syzygies" from which all other p-syzygies can be derived by simple substitutions. Second, we define a power series f_p with coefficients in something like the Schur algebra, which contains essentially all the information of p-syzygies of Segre embeddings (for all n and V_i), and show that it is a rational function. The list of master p-syzygies and the numerator and denominator of f_p can be computed algorithmically (in theory). The central observation of this paper is that by considering all Segre embeddings at once (i.e., letting n and the V_i vary) certain structure on the space of p-syzygies emerges. We formalize this structure in the concept of a Delta-module. Many of our results on syzygies are specializations of general results on Delta-modules that we establish. Our theory also applies to certain other families of varieties, such as tangent and secant varieties of Segre embeddings.
This paper deals with the geometry of the space (GIT quotient) M_8 of 8 points in P^1, and the Gale-quotient N'_8 of the GIT quotient of 8 points in P^3. The space M_8 comes with a natural embedding in P^{13}, or more precisely, the projectivization of the S_8-representation V_{4,4}. There is a single S_8-skew cubic C in P^{13}. The fact that M_8 lies on the skew cubic C is a consequence of Thomae's formula for hyperelliptic curves, but more is true: M_8 is the singular locus of C. These constructions yield the free resolution of M_8, and are used in the determination of the "single" equation cutting out the GIT quotient of n points in P^1 in general. The space N'_8 comes with a natural embedding in P^{13}, or more precisely, PV_{2,2,2,2}. There is a single skew quintic Q containing N'_8, and N'_8 is the singular locus of the skew quintic Q. The skew cubic C and skew quintic Q are projectively dual. (In particular, they are surprisingly singular, in the sense of having a dual of remarkably low degree.) The divisor on the skew cubic blown down by the dual map is the secant variety Sec(M_8), and the contraction Sec(M_8) - - > N'_8 factors through N_8 via the space of 8 points on a quadric surface. We conjecture that the divisor on the skew quintic blown down by the dual map is the quadrisecant variety of N'_8 (the closure of the union of quadrisecant *lines*), and that the quintic Q is the trisecant variety. The resulting picture extends the classical duality in the 6-point case between the Segre cubic threefold and the Igusa quartic threefold. We note that there are a number of geometrically natural varieties that are (related to) the singular loci of remarkably singular cubic hypersurfaces. Some of the content of this paper appeared in arXiv/0809.1233.
Clozel, Harris and Taylor have recently proved a modularity lifting theorem of the following general form: if rho is an l-adic representation of the absolute Galois group of a number field for which the residual representation rho-bar comes from a modular form then so does rho. This theorem has numerous hypotheses; a crucial one is that the image of rho-bar must be "big," a technical condition on subgroups of GL(n). In this paper we investigate this condition in compatible systems. Our main result is that in a sufficiently irreducible compatible system the residual images are big at a density one set of primes. This result should make some of the work of Clozel, Harris and Taylor easier to apply in the setting of compatible systems.
The study of the projective coordinate ring of the (geometric invariant theory) moduli space of n ordered points on P^1 up to automorphisms began with Kempe in 1894, who proved that the ring is generated in degree one in the main (n even, unit weight) case. We describe the relations among the invariants for all possible weights. In the main case, we show that up to the symmetric group symmetry, there is a single equation. For n not 6, it is a simple quadratic binomial relation. (For n=6, it is the classical Segre cubic relation.) For general weights, the ideal of relations is generated by quadratics inherited from the case of 8 points. This paper completes the program set out in [HMSV1].
Consider the projective coordinate ring of the GIT quotient (P^1)^n//SL(2), with the usual linearization, where n is even. In 1894, Kempe proved that this ring is generated in degree one. In [HMSV2] we showed that, over the rationals, the relations between degree one invariants are generated by a class of quadratic relations -- the simplest binomial relations -- with the exception of n=6, where there is a single cubic relation. The purpose of this paper is to show that these results hold over Z[1/12!], and to suggest why they may be true over Z[1/6].
We consider the ring of invariants of n points on the projective line. The space (P^1)^n // PGL_2 is perhaps the first nontrivial example of a Geometry Invariant Theory quotient. The construction depends on the weighting of the n points. Kempe discovered a beautiful set of generators (at least in the case of unit weights) in 1894. We describe the full ideal of relations for all possible weightings. In some sense, there is only one equation, which is quadric except for the classical case of the Segre cubic primal, for n=6 and weight 1^6. The cases of up to 6 points are long known to relate to beautiful familiar geometry. The case of 8 points turns out to be richer still.
We say that a two dimensional p-adic Galois representation of a number field F is weight two if it is de Rham with Hodge-Tate weights 0 and -1 equally distributed at each place above p; for example, the Tate module of an elliptic curve has this property. The purpose of this paper is to establish a variety of results concerning odd weight two representations of totally real fields in as great a generality as we are able. Most of these results are improvements upon existing results. Three of our main results are as follows. (1) We prove a modularity lifting theorem for odd weight two representations, extending a theorem of Kisin to include representations which are not potentially crystalline. (2) We show that essentially any odd weight two representation is potentially modular, following the ideas of Taylor. (3) We show that one can lift essentially any odd residual representation to a minimally ramified weight two p-adic representation, using some ideas of Khare-Wintenberger. As an application of these results we show that if rho is a sufficiently irreducible odd weight two p-adic representation of a totally real field F and either F has odd degree or rho is indecomposable at some finite place away from p then rho occurs as the Tate module of a GL_2-type abelian variety. This establishes some new cases of the Fontaine-Mazur conjecture.
The ring of projective invariants of eight ordered points on the line is a quotient of the polynomial ring on V, where V is a fourteen-dimensional representation of S_8, by an ideal I_8, so the modular fivefold (P^1)^8 // GL(2) is Proj(Sym* (V)/I_8). We show that there is a unique cubic hypersurface S in PV whose equation s is skew-invariant, and that the singular locus of S is the modular fivefold. In particular, over Z[1/3], the modular fivefold is cut out by the 14 partial derivatives of s. Better: these equations generate I_8. In characteristic 3, the cubic s is needed to generate the ideal. The existence of such a cubic was predicted by Dolgachev. Over Q, we recover the 14 quadrics found by computer calculation by Koike, and our approach yields a conceptual representation-theoretic description of the presentation. Additionally we find the graded Betti numbers of a minimal free resolution in any characteristic. The proof over Q is by pure thought, using Lie theory and commutative algebra. Over Z, the assistance of a computer was necessary. This result will be used as the base case describing the equations of the moduli space of an arbitrary number of points on P^1, with arbitrary weighting, in a later paper, completing the program of our previous paper (Duke Math. J.). The modular fivefold, and corresponding ring, are known to have a number of special incarnations, due to Deligne-Mostow, Kondo, and Freitag-Salvati Manni, for example as ball quotients or ring of modular forms respectively.
We use a simple description of the outer automorphism of S_6 to cleanly describe the invariant theory of six points in P^1, P^2, and P^3.
The space of n (ordered) points on the projective line, modulo automorphisms of the line, is one of the most important and classical examples of an invariant theory quotient, and is one of the first examples given in any course. Generators for the ring of invariants have been known since the end of the nineteenth century, but the question of the relations has remained surprisingly open, and it was not even known that the relations have bounded degree. We show that the ideal of relations is generated in degree at most four, and give an explicit description of the generators. The result holds for arbitrary weighting of the points. If all the weights are even (e.g. in the case of equal weight for odd n), we show that the ideal of relations is generated by quadrics. The proof is by degenerating the moduli space to a toric variety, and following an enlarged set of generators through this degeneration.
A central question in invariant theory is that of determining the relations among invariants. Geometric invariant theory quotients come with a natural ample line bundle, and hence often a natural projective embedding. This question translates to determining the equations of the moduli space under this embedding. This note deals with one of the most classical quotients, the space of ordered points on the projective line. We show that under any linearization, this quotient is cut out (scheme-theoretically) by a particularly simple set of quadric relations, with the single exception of the Segre cubic threefold (the space of six points with equal weight). Unlike many facts in geometric invariant theory, these results (at least for the stable locus) are field-independent, and indeed work over the integers.