Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Frances Kirwan

Publications and source records attributed to Frances Kirwan.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2014

Surjectivity of the hyperkähler Kirwan map

We study a class of group actions on hyperkähler manifolds which we call actions of linear type. If $M$ is a hyperkähler manifold possessing such a $G$-action, the hyperkähler Kirwan map is surjective if and only if the natural restriction $H^\ast(M / G) \to H^\ast(M / G)$ is surjective. We prove that this restriction is an isomorphism below middle degree and an injection in middle degree. As a consequence, the hyperkähler Kirwan map is surjective except possibly in middle degree, and its kernel may be determined from the kernel of the ordinary Kirwan map. These results apply in particular to hypertoric varieties, hyperpolygon spaces, and Nakajima quiver varieties.

math.AG↗
arXiv2014

Invariants for non-reductive group actions

We prove finite generation of the algebras of invariants for a class of linear actions of suitable non-reductive groups on projective and affine varieties, and give a geometric construction for their GIT quotients.

math.AG↗
arXiv2014

Implosions and hypertoric geometry

The geometry of the universal hyperKaehler implosion for SU(n) is explored. In particular, we show that the universal hyperKaehler implosion naturally contains a hypertoric variety described in terms of quivers. Furthermore, we discuss a gauge theoretic approach to hyperKaehler implosion.

math.SG↗
arXiv2012

Implosion for hyperkahler manifolds

We introduce an analogue in hyperkahler geometry of the symplectic implosion, in the case of SU(n) actions. Our space is a stratified hyperkahler space which can be defined in terms of quiver diagrams. It also has a description as a non-reductive geometric invariant theory quotient.

math.SG↗
arXiv2012

A geometric construction for invariant jet differentials

Motivated by Demailly's strategy towards the Kobayashi hyperbolicity conjecture, we study the action on the k-jets of germs of holomorphic discs in a complex manifold X of the reparametrization group of k-jets of germs of biholomorphisms of the source. This reparametrization group is a subgroup of the general linear group GL(k) which is not reductive, but nonetheless we show that its invariants for any linear action which extends to GL(k) form a finitely generated algebra, and give a new geometric description of the Demailly-Semple algebra of invariant jet differentials.

math.AG↗
arXiv2012

Quotients of unstable subvarieties and moduli spaces of sheaves of fixed Harder-Narasimhan type

When a reductive group $G$ acts linearly on a complex projective scheme $X$ there is a stratification of $X$ into $G$-invariant locally closed subschemes, with an open stratum $X^{ss}$ formed by the semistable points in the sense of Mumford's geometric invariant theory which has a categorical quotient $X^{ss} \to X//G$. In this article we describe a method for constructing quotients of the unstable strata. As an application, we construct moduli spaces of sheaves of fixed Harder-Narasimhan type with some extra data (an '$n$-rigidification') on a projective base.

math.AG↗
arXiv2009

On the cohomology of hyperkahler quotients

This paper gives a partial desingularisation construction for hyperkähler quotients and a criterion for the surjectivity of an analogue of the Kirwan map to the cohomology of hyperkähler quotients. This criterion is applied to some linear actions on hyperkähler vector spaces.

math.SG↗
arXiv2008

Quotients by non-reductive algebraic group actions

Given a suitable action on a complex projective variety X of a non-reductive affine algebraic group H, this paper considers how to choose a reductive group G containing H and a projective completion of G x_H X which is a reductive envelope in the sense of math.AG/0703131. In particular it studies the family of examples given by moduli spaces of hypersurfaces in the weighted projective plane P(1,1,2) obtained as quotients by linear actions of the (non-reductive) automorphism group of P(1,1,2).

math.AG↗
arXiv2008

Symplectic implosion and non-reductive quotients

The symplectic implosion construction of Guillemin, Jeffrey and Sjamaar associates to a Hamiltonian action of a compact group K on a symplectic manifold X its 'imploded cross section'. When X is a complex projective variety and K acts linearly on X, this construction is closely related to geometric invariant theory (GIT) for the action on X of a maximal unipotent subgroup U of the complexification G of K. The aim of this paper is to generalise symplectic implosion to give a symplectic construction for GIT-like quotients by unipotent radicals U of arbitrary parabolic subgroups P of the complex reductive group G acting linearly on the projective variety X.

math.AG↗
arXiv2008

Yang-Mills theory and Tamagawa numbers

Atiyah and Bott used equivariant Morse theory applied to the Yang-Mills functional to calculate the Betti numbers of moduli spaces of vector bundles over a Riemann surface, rederiving inductive formulae obtained from an arithmetic approach which involved the Tamagawa number of SL_n. This article surveys this link between Yang-Mills theory and Tamagawa numbers, and explains how methods used over the last three decades to study the singular cohomology of moduli spaces of bundles on a smooth complex projective curve can be adapted to the setting of A^1-homotopy theory to study the motivic cohomology of these moduli spaces.

math.AG↗
arXiv2007

Towards non-reductive geometric invariant theory

We study linear actions of algebraic groups on smooth projective varieties X. A guiding goal for us is to understand the cohomology of "quotients" under such actions, by generalizing (from reductive to non-reductive group actions) existing methods involving Mumford's geometric invariant theory (GIT). We concentrate on actions of unipotent groups H, and define sets of stable points X^s and semistable points X^{ss}, often explicitly computable via the methods of reductive GIT, which reduce to the standard definitions due to Mumford in the case of reductive actions. We compare these with definitions in the literature. Results include (1) a geometric criterion determining whether or not a ring of invariants is finitely generated, (2) the existence of a geometric quotient of X^s, and (3) the existence of a canonical "enveloping quotient" variety of X^{ss}, denoted X//H, which (4) has a projective completion given by a reductive GIT quotient and (5) is itself projective and isomorphic to Proj(k[X]^H) when k[X]^H is finitely generated.

math.AG↗
arXiv2005

Cohomology pairings on singular quotients in geometric invariant theory

In this paper we shall give formulas for the pairings of intersection cohomology classes of complementary dimensions in the intersection cohomology of geometric invariant theoretic quotients for which semistability is not necessarily the same as stability (although we make some weaker assumptions on the action). We also give formulas for intersection pairings on resolutions of singularities (or more precisely partial resolutions, since orbifold singularities are allowed) of the quotients.

math.AG↗
arXiv2003

Cohomology of moduli spaces

Some recent progress towards understanding the cohomology of moduli spaces of curves is described. Madsen and Weiss have given a proof of a generalisation of Mumford's conjecture on the stable cohomology of these moduli spaces M_g, and other contributors have made advances related to Faber's conjectures on the tautological ring of M_g.

math.AG↗
arXiv2003

Complete sets of relations in the cohomology rings of moduli spaces of holomorphic bundles and parabolic bundles over a Riemann surface

The cohomology ring of the moduli space of stable holomorphic vector bundles of rank n and degree d over a Riemann surface of genus g>1 has a standard set of generators when n and d are coprime. When n=2 the relations between these generators are well understood, and in particular a conjecture of Mumford, that a certain set of relations is a complete set, is known to be true. In this article generalisations are given of Mumford's relations to the cases when n>2 and also when the bundles are parabolic bundles, and these are shown to form complete sets of relations.

math.AG↗
arXiv2003

Refinements of the Morse stratification of the normsquare of the moment map

Let X be any nonsingular complex projective variety on which a complex reductive group G acts linearly, and let X^{ss} and X^s be the sets of semistable and stable points of X in the sense of Mumford's geometric invariant theory. Then X has a G-equivariantly perfect stratification by locally closed nonsingular G-invariant subvarieties with X^{ss} as an open stratum, which can be obtained as the Morse stratification of the normsquare of a moment map for the action of a maximal compact subgroup K of G. In this note this stratification is refined to obtain stratifications of X by locally closed nonsingular G-invariant subvarieties with X^s as an open stratum. The strata can be defined inductively in terms of the sets of stable points of closed nonsingular subvarieties of X acted on by reductive subgroups of G, and their projectivised normal bundles. When G is abelian another way to obtain a refined stratification is by perturbing the moment map; the refinement is then itself equivariantly perfect, and its strata can be described in terms of the sets of stable points of linear actions of reductive subgroups of G for which semistability and stability coincide. This is useful even when G is nonabelian, since important questions about the cohomology of the GIT quotient (or Marsden-Weinstein reduction) X//G can be reduced to questions about the quotient of X by a maximal torus of G.

math.AG↗
arXiv2000

The Hodge Numbers of the Moduli Spaces of Vector Bundles over a Riemann surface

Inductive formulas for the Betti numbers of the moduli spaces of stable holomorphic vector bundles of coprime rank and degree over a fixed Riemann surface of genus at least two were obtained by Harder, Narasimhan, Desale and Ramanan using number theoretic methods and the Weil conjectures and were rederived by Atiyah and Bott using gauge theory. In this note we observe that there are similar inductive formulas for determining the Hodge numbers of these moduli spaces.

math.AG↗
arXiv1997

The Pontryagin rings of moduli spaces of arbitrary rank holomorphic bundles over a Riemann surface

The cohomology of the moduli spaces of stable bundles M(n,d), of coprime rank n and degree d, over a Riemann surface (of genus g > 1) have been intensely studied over the past three decades. We prove in this paper that the Pontryagin ring of M(n,d) vanishes in degrees above 2n(n-1)(g-1) and that this bound is strict (i.e. there exists a non-zero element of degree 2n(n-1)(g-1) in Pont(M(n,d)).) This result is a generalisation of a 1967 Newstead conjecture that Pont(M(2,1)) vanished above 4(g-1) (or equivalently that β^g =0.) These results have been independently proved by Lisa Jeffrey and Jonathan Weitsman.

alg-geom↗