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Gian Pietro Pirola

Publications and source records attributed to Gian Pietro Pirola.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

Vanishing cohomology on a double cover

In this paper, we prove the irreducibility of the monodromy action on the anti-invariant part of the vanishing cohomology on a double cover of a very general element in an ample hypersurface of a complex smooth projective variety branched at an ample divisor. As an application, we study dominant rational maps from a double cover of a very general surface $S$ of degree$\geq 7$ in ${\mathbb P}^3$ branched at a very general quadric surface to smooth projective surfaces $Z$. Our method combines the classification theory of algebraic surfaces, deformation theory, and Hodge theory.

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arXiv2020

Alternating Catalan numbers and curves with triple ramification

It is known that the monodromy group of each cover of a general curve of genus g>3 equals either the symmetric or the alternating group. The classical Catalan numbers count the minimal degree covers (with symmetric monodromy) of a general curve of even genus. We solve the analogous problem for the alternating group and we determine the number of alternating covers of minimal degree 2g+1 of a general curve of genus g.

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arXiv2019

Degree of irrationality of a very general abelian variety

Consider a very general abelian variety $A$ of dimension at least $3$ and an integer $0<d\leq \dim A$. We show that if the map $A^k\to CH_0(A)$ has a $d$-dimensional fiber then $k\geq d+(\dim A+1)/2$. This extends results of the second-named author which covered the cases $d=1,2$. As a geometric application, we obtain that any dominant rational map from a very general abelian $g$-fold to $\mathbb{P}^g$ has degree at least $(3\dim A+1)/2$ for $g\geq 3$. This improves results of Alzati and the last-named author in the case of a very general abelian variety.

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arXiv2019

Totally geodesic subvarieties in the moduli space of curves

In this paper we study totally geodesic subvarieties $Y \subset \mathsf{A}_g$ of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties with respect to the Siegel metric, for $g\geq 4$. We prove that if $Y$ is generically contained in the Torelli locus, then $\dim Y \leq (7g -2)/3$.

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arXiv2018

Trigonal deformations of rank one and Jacobians

In this paper we study the infinitesimal deformations of a trigonal curve that preserve the trigonal series and such that the associate infinitesimal variation of Hodge structure (IVHS) is of rank 1. We show that if the genus g is greater or equal to 8 or g=6,7 and the curve is Maroni general, this locus is zero dimensional. Moreover, we complete a result of Naranjo and Pirola. We show in fact that if the genus g is greater or equal to 6, the hyperelliptic locus is the only 2g-1-dimensional sub-locus Y of the moduli space of curves of genus g, such that for the general element [C] in Y, its Jacobian J(C) is dominated by a hyperelliptic Jacobian of genus g' greater or equal to g.

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arXiv2018

Massey Products and Fujita decompositions on fibrations of curves

Let $f:S\to B$ be a fibration of curves and let $f_\astω_{S/B}=\cU\oplus \cA$ be the second Fujita decomposition of $f.$ In this paper we study a kind of Massey products, which are defined as infinitesimal invariants by the cohomology of a curve, in relation to the monodromy of certain subbundles of $\cU$. The main result states that their vanishing on a general fibre of $f$ implies that the monodromy group acts faithfully on a finite set of morphisms and is therefore finite. In the last part we apply our result in terms of the normal function induced by the Ceresa cycle. On the one hand, we prove that the monodromy group of the whole $\cU$ of hyperelliptic fibrations is finite (giving another proof of a result due to Luo and Zuo). On the other hand, we show that the normal function is non torsion if the monodromy is infinite (this happens e.g. in the examples shown by Catanese and Dettweiler).

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arXiv2018

Fujita decomposition and Hodge loci

This paper contains two results on Hodge loci in the moduli space of curves. The first concerns fibrations over curves with a non-trivial flat part in the Fujita decomposition. If local Torelli theorem holds for the fibres and the fibration is non-trivial, an appropriate exterior power of the cohomology of the fiber admits a Hodge substructure. In the case of curves it follows that the moduli image of the fibers is contained in a proper Hodge locus. The second result deals with divisors in the moduli space of curves. It is proved that the image of a divisor in the moduli of principally polarized abelian varieties is not contained in a proper totally geodesic subvariety. It follows that a Hodge locus in the moduli space of curves has codimension at least 2.

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arXiv2018

Hyperelliptic Jacobians and isogenies

Motivated by results of Mestre and Voisin, in this note we mainly consider abelian varieties isogenous to hyperelliptic Jacobians In the first part we prove that a very general hyperelliptic Jacobian of genus $g\ge 4$ is not isogenous to a non-hyperelliptic Jacobian. As a consequence we obtain that the Intermediate Jacobian of a very general cubic threefold is not isogenous to a Jacobian. Another corollary tells that the Jacobian of a very general $d$-gonal curve of genus $g \ge 4$ is not isogenous to a different Jacobian. In the second part we consider a closed subvariety $\mathcal Y \subset \mathcal A_g$ of the moduli space of principally polarized varieties of dimension $g\ge 3$. We show that if a very general element of $\mathcal Y$ is dominated by a hyperelliptic Jacobian, then $\dim \mathcal Y\ge 2g$. In particular, if the general element in $\mathcal Y$ is simple, its Kummer variety does not contain rational curves. Finally we show that a closed subvariety $\mathcal Y\subset \mathcal M_g$ of dimension $2g-1$ such that the Jacobian of a very general element of $\mathcal Y$ is dominated by a hyperelliptic Jacobian is contained either in the hyperelliptic or in the trigonal locus.

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arXiv2017

On the Xiao conjecture for plane curves

Let $f: S\longrightarrow B$ be a non-trivial fibration from a complex projective smooth surface $S$ to a smooth curve $B$ of genus $b$. Let $c_f$ the Clifford index of the generic fibre $F$ of $f$. In [arXiv:1401.7502v4] it is proved that the relative irregularity of $f$, $q_f=h^{1,0}(S)-b$ is less than or equal to $g(F)-c_f$. In particular this proves the (modified) Xiao's conjecture: $q_f\le 1+g(F)/2$ for fibrations of general Clifford index. In this short note we assume that the generic fiber of $f$ is a plane curve of degree $d\ge 5$ and we prove that $q_f\le g(F)-c_f-1$. In particular we obtain the conjecture for families of quintic plane curves. This theorem is implied for the following result on infinitesimal deformations: let $F$ a smooth plane curve of degree $d\ge 5$ and let $ξ$ be an infinitesimal deformation of $F$ preserving the planarity of the curve. Then the rank of the cup-product map $\cdot ξ: H^0(F,ω_F) \rightarrow H^1(F,O_F)$ is at least $d-3$. We also show that this bound is sharp.

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arXiv2017

Torsion points on theta divisors

Using the irreducibility of a natural irreducible representation of the theta group of an ample line bundle on an abelian variety, we derive a bound for the number of $n$-torsion points that lie on a given theta divisor. We present also two alternate approaches to attacking the case $n=2$.

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arXiv2016

Hurwitz spaces and liftings to the Valentiner group

We study the components of the Hurwitz scheme of ramified coverings of $\mathbb{P}^1$ with monodromy given by the alternating group $A_6$ and elements in the conjugacy class of product of two disjoint cycles. In order to detect the connected components of the Hurwitz scheme, inspired by the case of the spin structures studied by Fried for the $3$-cycles, we use as invariant the lifting to the Valentiner group, triple covering of $A_6$. We prove that the Hurwitz scheme has two irreducible components when the genus of the covering is greater than zero, in accordance with the asymptotic solution found by Bogomolov and Kulikov.

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arXiv2016

Some results on deformations of sections of vector bundles

Let $E$ be a vector bundle on a smooth complex projective variety $X$. We study the family of sections $s_t\in H^0(E\otimes L_t)$ where $L_t\in Pic^0(X)$ is a family of topologically trivial line bundle and $L_0=\mathcal O_X,$ that is, we study deformations of $s=s_0$. By applying the approximation theorem of Artin [2] we give a transversality condition that generalizes the semi-regularity of an effective Cartier divisor. Moreover, we obtain another proof of the Severi-Kodaira-Spencer theorem [4]. We apply our results to give a lower bound to the continuous rank of a vector bundle as defined by Miguel Barja [3] and a proof of a piece of the generic vanishing theorems [6] and [7] for the canonical bundle. We extend also to higher dimension a result given in [8] on the base locus of the paracanonical base locus for surfaces.

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arXiv2015

Subcanonical points on projective curves and triply periodic minimal surfaces in the Euclidean space

A point $p$ on a smooth complex projective curve $C$ of genus $g>3$ is subcanonical if the divisor $(2g-2)p$ is canonical. In the moduli space of pointed curves, the subcanonical locus is described by pairs $(C,p)$ as above, and it consists of three irreducible components of dimension $2g-1$. Apart from the hyperelliptic component $\mathcal{G}_g^{hyp}$, the other components $\mathcal{G}_g^{odd}$ and $\mathcal{G}_g^{even}$ depend on the parity of $h^0(C,(g-1)p)$, and their general points satisfy $h^0(C,(g-1)p)=1$ and $2$, respectively. In this paper, we study the subloci of pairs $(C,p)$ such that $h^0(C,(g-1)p)$ is at least $r+1$ and it has the same parity as $r+1$. In particular, we provide a lower bound on their dimension, and we prove its sharpness for $r<4$. As an application, we further give an existence result for triply periodic minimal surfaces immersed in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space, completing a previous result of the second author.

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arXiv2015

Connectedness Bertini Theorem via numerical equivalence

Let $X$ be an irreducible projective variety and $f$ a morphism $X \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^n$. We give a new proof of the fact that the preimage of any linear variety of dimension $k\ge n+1-\dim f(X)$ is connected. We prove that the statement is a consequence of the Generalized Hodge Index Theorem using easy numerical arguments that hold in any characteristic. We also prove the connectedness Theorem of Fulton and Hansen as application of our main theorem.

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arXiv2015

On rational maps from the product of two general curves

This paper treats the dominant rational maps from the product of two very general curves to nonsingular projective surfaces. Combining the result by Bastianelli and Pirola, we prove that the product of two very general curves of genus $g\geq 7$ and $g'\geq 3$ does not admit dominant rational maps of degree $> 1$ if the image surface is non-ruled. We also treat the case of the 2-symmetric product of a curve.

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arXiv2015

Dihedral Monodromy and Xiao Fibrations

We construct three new families of fibrations $π: S \to B$ where $S$ is an algebraic complex surface and $B$ a curve that violate Xiao's conjecture relating the relative irregularity and the genus of the general fiber. The fibers of $π$ are certain étale cyclic covers of hyperelliptic curves that give coverings of $P^1$ with dihedral monodromy. As an application, we also show the existence of big and nef effective divisors in the Brill-Noether range.

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arXiv2015

On subfields of the function field of a general surface in ${\mathbb P}^3$

In this paper we study birational immersions from a very general smooth plane curve to a non-rational surface with $p_g=q=0$ to treat dominant rational maps from a very general surface $X$ of degree$\geq 5$ in ${\mathbb P}^3$ to smooth projective surfaces $Y$. Based on the classification theory of algebraic surfaces, Hodge theory, and deformation theory, we prove that there is no dominant rational map from $X$ to $Y$ unless $Y$ is rational or $Y$ is birational to $X$.

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