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Eva Elduque

Publications and source records attributed to Eva Elduque.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Homotopy type of complements of fiber-type curves

In this note we study the homotopy type of the complement of a plane projective curve of fiber-type. Roughly speaking, a curve of fiber-type is a finite union of fibers of a pencil. Under some restrictions, a full description of their homotopy type is given. In the context of fiber-type curves, we also partially answer in the positive a question originally posed by Libgober on the homotopy type of complements of plane curves, namely, whether or not the homotopy type of a curve complement is determined by the fundamental group and its Euler characteristic.

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arXiv2025

The fundamental group of the complement of a generic fiber-type curve

In this paper we describe and characterize the fundamental group of the complement to generic fiber-type curves, i.e. unions of (the closure of) finitely many generic fibers of a component-free pencil $F=[f:g]:\mathbb C\mathbb P^2\dashrightarrow \mathbb C\mathbb P^1$. We also observe that these groups have already appeared in the literature in examples by Eyral and Oka associated with curves of fiber-type. As a byproduct of our techniques we obtain a criterion to address Zariski's Problem on the commutativity of the fundamental group of the complement of a plane curve.

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arXiv2025

Geometric realizability of epimorphisms to curve orbifold groups

Given a connected dense Zariski open set of a compact K\"ahler manifold $U$, we address the general problem of the existence of surjective holomorphic maps ${F:U\to C}$ to smooth complex quasi-projective curves from properties of $\pi_1(U)$. It is known that, if such $F$ exists, then there exists a finitely generated normal subgroup $K\trianglelefteq\pi_1(U)$ such that $\pi_1(U)/K$ is isomorphic to a curve orbifold group $G$ (i.e. the orbifold fundamental group of a smooth complex quasi-projective curve endowed with an orbifold structure). In this paper, we address the converse of that statement in the case where the orbifold Euler characteristic of $G$ is negative, finding a (unique) surjective holomorphic map $F:U\to C$ which realizes the quotient $\pi_1(U)\twoheadrightarrow \pi_1(U)/K\cong G$ at the level of (orbifold) fundamental groups. We also prove that our theorem is sharp, meaning that the result does not hold for any curve orbifold group with non-negative orbifold Euler characteristic. Furthermore, we apply our main theorem to address Serre's question of which orbifold fundamental groups of smooth quasi-projective curves can be realized as fundamental groups of complements of curves in $\mathbb{P}^2$.

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arXiv2024

Compatibility of Hodge Theory on Alexander Modules

Let $U$ be a smooth connected complex algebraic variety, and let $f\colon U\to \mathbb C^*$ be an algebraic map. To the pair $(U,f)$ one can associate an infinite cyclic cover $U^f$, and (homology) Alexander modules are defined as the homology groups of this cover. In two recent works, the first of which is joint with Geske, Maxim and Wang, we developed two different ways to put a mixed Hodge structure on Alexander modules. Since they are not finite dimensional in general, each approach replaces the Alexander module by a different finite dimensional module: one of them takes the torsion submodule, the other takes finite dimensional quotients, and the constructions are not directly comparable. In this note, we show that both constructions are compatible, in the sense that the map from the torsion to the quotients is a mixed Hodge structure morphism.

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arXiv2023

Hodge Theory of Abelian Covers

Motivated by classical Alexander invariants of affine hypersurface complements, we endow certain finite dimensional quotients of the homology of abelian covers of complex algebraic varieties with a canonical and functorial mixed Hodge structure (MHS). More precisely, we focus on covers which arise algebraically in the following way: if $U$ is a smooth connected complex algebraic variety and $G$ is a complex semiabelian variety, the pullback of the exponential map by an algebraic morphism $f:U\to G$ yields a covering space $\pi:U^f\to U$ whose group of deck transformations is $\pi_1(G)$. The new MHSs are compatible with Deligne's MHS on the homology of $U$ through the covering map $\pi$ and satisfy a direct sum decomposition as MHSs into generalized eigenspaces by the action of deck transformations. This provides a vast generalization of the previous results regarding univariable Alexander modules by Geske, Maxim, Wang and the authors. Lastly, we reduce the problem of whether the first Betti number of the Milnor fiber of a central hyperplane arrangement complement is combinatorial to a question about the Hodge filtration of certain MHSs defined in this paper, providing evidence that the new structures contain interesting information.

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arXiv2023

On the topology of fiber-type curves: a Zariski pair of affine nodal curves

In this paper we explore conditions for a curve in a smooth projective surface to have a free product of cyclic groups as the fundamental group of its complement. It is known that if the surface is $\mathbb P^2$, then such curves must be of fiber type, i.e. a finite union of fibers of an admissible map onto a complex curve. In this setting, we exhibit an infinite family of Zariski pairs of fiber-type curves, that is, pairs of plane projective fiber-type curves whose tubular neighborhoods are homeomorphic, but whose embeddings in $\mathbb P^2$ are not. This includes a Zariski pair of curves in $\mathbb C^2$ with only nodes as singularities (and the same singularities at infinity) whose complements have non-isomorphic fundamental groups, one of them being free. Our examples show that the position of nodes also affects the topology of the embedding of projective curves. Twisted Alexander polynomials with respect to finite $SU(2)$ representations show to be useful for this purpose, since all their abelian invariants are the same for both fundamental groups.

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arXiv2022

Quasi-projective varieties whose fundamental group is a free product of cyclic groups

In this work we study smooth complex quasi-projective surfaces whose fundamental group is a free product of cyclic groups. In particular, we prove the existence of an admissible map from the quasi-projective surface to a smooth complex quasi-projective curve. Associated with this result, we prove addition-deletion Lemmas for fibers of the admissible map which describe how these operations affect the fundamental group of the quasi-projective surface. Our methods also allow us to produce curves in smooth projective surfaces whose fundamental groups of their complements are free products of cyclic groups, generalizing classical results on $C_{p,q}$ curves and torus type projective sextics, and showing how general this phenomenon is.

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arXiv2021

Eigenspace Decomposition of Mixed Hodge Structures on Alexander Modules

In previous work jointly with Geske, Maxim and Wang, we constructed a mixed Hodge structure (MHS) on the torsion part of Alexander modules, which generalizes the MHS on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber for weighted homogeneous polynomials. The cohomology of a Milnor fiber carries a monodromy action, whose semisimple part is an isomorphism of MHS. The natural question of whether this result still holds for Alexander modules was then posed. In this paper, we give a positive answer to that question, which implies that the direct sum decomposition of the torsion part of Alexander modules into generalized eigenspaces is in fact a decomposition of MHS. We also show that the MHS on the generalized eigenspace of eigenvalue 1 can be constructed without passing to a suitable finite cover (as is the case for the MHS on the torsion part of the Alexander modules), and compute it under some purity assumptions on the base space.

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arXiv2021

Alexander modules, Mellin transformation and variations of mixed Hodge structures

To any complex algebraic variety endowed with a morphism to a complex affine torus we associate multivariable cohomological Alexander modules, and define natural mixed Hodge structures on their maximal Artinian submodules. The key ingredients of our construction are Gabber-Loeser's Mellin transformation and Hain-Zucker's work on unipotent variations of mixed Hodge structures. As applications, we prove the quasi-unipotence of monodromy, we obtain upper bounds on the sizes of the Jordan blocks of monodromy, and we explore the change in the Alexander modules after removing fibers of the map. We also give an example of a variety whose Alexander module has non-semisimple torsion.

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arXiv2020

On a conjecture of Teissier: the case of log canonical thresholds

For a smooth germ of algebraic variety $(X,0)$ and a hypersurface $(f=0)$ in $X$, with an isolated singularity at $0$, Teissier conjectured a lower bound for the Arnold exponent of $f$ in terms of the Arnold exponent of a hyperplane section $f\vert_H$ and the invariant $\theta_0(f)$ of the hypersurface. By building on an approach due to Loeser, we prove the conjecture in the case of log canonical thresholds.

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arXiv2020

Vanishing of Higher Order Alexander-type Invariants of Plane Curves

The higher order degrees are Alexander-type invariants of complements to an affine plane curve. In this paper we characterize the vanishing of such invariants for transversal unions of plane curves $C'$ and $C''$ in terms of the finiteness, the vanishing properties of the invariants of $C'$ and $C''$, and whether they are irreducible or not. As a consequence, we characterize which of these types of curves have trivial multivariable Alexander polynomial in terms of their defining equations. Our results impose obstructions on the class of groups that can be realized as fundamental groups of complements of a transversal union of curves.

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arXiv2020

Mixed Hodge Structures on Alexander Modules

Motivated by the limit mixed Hodge structure on the Milnor fiber of a hypersurface singularity germ, we construct a natural mixed Hodge structure on the torsion part of the Alexander modules of a smooth connected complex algebraic variety. More precisely, let $U$ be a smooth connected complex algebraic variety and let $f\colon U\to \mathbb{C}^*$ be an algebraic map inducing an epimorphism in fundamental groups. The pullback of the universal cover of $\mathbb{C}^*$ by $f$ gives rise to an infinite cyclic cover $U^f$ of $U$. The action of the deck group $\mathbb{Z}$ on $U^f$ induces a $\mathbb{Q}[t^{\pm 1}]$-module structure on $H_*(U^f;\mathbb{Q})$. We show that the torsion parts $A_*(U^f;\mathbb{Q})$ of the Alexander modules $H_*(U^f;\mathbb{Q})$ carry canonical $\mathbb{Q}$-mixed Hodge structures. We also prove that the covering map $U^f \to U$ induces a mixed Hodge structure morphism on the torsion parts of the Alexander modules. As applications, we investigate the semisimplicity of $A_*(U^f;\mathbb{Q})$, as well as possible weights of the constructed mixed Hodge structures. Finally, in the case when $f\colon U\to \mathbb{C}^*$ is proper, we prove the semisimplicity and purity of $A_*(U^f;\mathbb{Q})$, and we compare our mixed Hodge structure on $A_*(U^f;\mathbb{Q})$ with the limit mixed Hodge structure on the generic fiber of $f$.

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arXiv2018

Higher Order Degrees of Affine Plane Curve Complements

We study finiteness (and vanishing) properties of the higher order degrees associated to complements of complex affine plane curves with mild singularities at infinity. Our results impose new obstructions on the class of groups that can be realized as fundamental groups of affine plane curve complements. We also clarify the relationship between the higher order degrees and the multivariable Alexander polynomial of a non-irreducible plane curve.

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arXiv2018

On the signed Euler characteristic property for subvarieties of abelian varieties

We give an elementary proof of the fact that a pure-dimensional closed subvariety of a complex abelian variety has a signed intersection homology Euler characteristic. We also show that such subvarieties which, moreover, are local complete intersections, have a signed Euler-Poincare characteristic. Our arguments rely on the construction of circle-valued Morse functions on such spaces, and use in an essential way the stratified Morse theory of Goresky-MacPherson. Our approach also applies (with only minor modifications) for proving similar statements in the analytic context, i.e., for subvarieties of compact complex tori. Alternative proofs of our results can be given by using the general theory of perverse sheaves.

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arXiv2017

Twisted Alexander Modules of Hyperplane Arrangement Complements

We study torsion properties of the twisted Alexander modules of the affine complement $M$ of a complex essential hyperplane arrangement, as well as those of punctured stratified tubular neighborhoods of complex essential hyperplane arrangements. We investigate divisibility properties between the twisted Alexander polynomials of the two spaces, compute the (first) twisted Alexander polynomial of a punctured stratified tubular neighborhood of an essential line arrangement, and study the possible roots of the twisted Alexander polynomials of both the complement and the punctured stratified tubular neighborhood of an essential hyperplane arrangement in higher dimensions. We apply our results to distinguish non-homeomorphic homotopy equivalent arrangement complements. We also relate the twisted Alexander polynomials of $M$ with the corresponding twisted homology jump loci.

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