A birational description of the minimal exponent
We give a description of the minimal exponent of a hypersurface using higher direct images of suitably twisted sheaves of log forms on a log resolution.
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Publications and source records attributed to Mircea Mustaţă.
We give a description of the minimal exponent of a hypersurface using higher direct images of suitably twisted sheaves of log forms on a log resolution.
Given a hypersurface defined by $f$ in a smooth complex algebraic variety $X$, and a point $P$ on this hypersurface, we consider the invariant $β_P(f)$ given by the log canonical threshold at $P$ of ${\mathfrak m}_P\cdot J_f$, where ${\mathfrak m}_P$ is the ideal defining $P$ and $J_f$ is the Jacobian ideal of $f$. We show that this invariant satisfies most of the formal properties of the log canonical threshold of $f$ and give some examples. Dano Kim asked whether this invariant always gives an upper bound for the minimal exponent of $f$ at $P$. Motivated by this, we raise another question about minimal exponents, give a positive answer to a weaker version, and discuss some examples.
Given a closed subscheme $Z$ in a smooth variety $X$, defined by the maximal minors of an $s\times r$ matrix of regular functions, with $s\geq r$, we consider the corresponding incidence correspondence $W$ in $Y=X\times {\mathbf P}^{r-1}$, and relate the log canonical thresholds of $(X,Z)$ and $(Y,W)$. In particular, when $r=s$, we show that ${\rm lct}(X,Z)=1$ if and only if ${\rm lct}(Y,W)=r$. Moreover, in this case, we show that $Z$ has rational singularities if and only if $W$ has pure codimension $r$ in $Y$ and has rational singularities. As a consequence, we deduce that for a configuration hypersurface with a connected configuration matroid, the corresponding configuration incidence variety has rational singularities.
We prove that hypersurfaces defined by irreducible square-free polynomials have rational singularities. As an easy consequence, we deduce that certain (possibly non-square-free) polynomials associated to pairs of square-free polynomials define hypersurfaces with rational singularities. This extends results on certain classes of polynomials associated to matroids and Feynman diagrams in [BW].
We compute the minimal exponent of the affine cone over a complete intersection of smooth projective hypersurfaces intersecting transversely. The upper bound for the minimal exponent is proved, more generally, in the weighted homogeneous setting, while the lower bound is deduced from a general lower bound in terms of a strong factorizing resolution in the sense of Bravo and Villamayor.
We define and study a notion of minimal exponent for a locally complete intersection subscheme $Z$ of a smooth complex algebraic variety $X$, extending the invariant defined by Saito in the case of hypersurfaces. Our definition is in terms of the Kashiwara-Malgrange $V$-filtration associated to $Z$. We show that the minimal exponent describes how far the Hodge filtration and order filtration agree on the local cohomology $H^r_Z({\mathcal O}_X)$, where $r$ is the codimension of $Z$ in $X$. We also study its relation to the Bernstein-Sato polynomial of $Z$. Our main result describes the minimal exponent of a higher codimension subscheme in terms of the invariant associated to a suitable hypersurface; this allows proving the main properties of this invariant by reduction to the codimension $1$ case. A key ingredient for our main result is a description of the Kashiwara-Malgrange $V$-filtration associated to any ideal $(f_1,\ldots,f_r)$ in terms of the microlocal $V$-filtration associated to the hypersurface defined by $\sum_{i=1}^rf_iy_i$.
We give an introduction to the theory of $V$-filtrations of Malgrange and Kashiwara. After discussing the basic properties of this construction (in the case of a smooth hypersurface and, later, in the general case), we describe the connection with the theory of $b$-functions. As an example, we treat the case of weighted homogeneous isolated singularities. We discuss the compatibility of $V$-filtrations with proper push-forward and duality and the connection with nearby and vanishing cycles via the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence. We end by describing some invariants of singularities via the $V$-filtration.
We show that if $Z$ is a local complete intersection subvariety of a smooth complex variety $X$, of pure codimension $r$, then $Z$ has $k$-rational singularities if and only if $\widetildeα(Z)>k+r$, where $\widetildeα(Z)$ is the minimal exponent of $Z$. We also characterize this condition in terms of the Hodge filtration on the intersection cohomology Hodge module of $Z$. Furthermore, we show that if $Z$ has $k$-rational singularities, then the Hodge filtration on the local cohomology sheaf $\mathcal{H}^r_Z(\mathcal{O}_X)$ is generated at level $\dim(X)-\lceil \widetildeα(Z)\rceil-1$ and, assuming that $k\geq 1$ and $Z$ is singular, of dimension $d$, that $\mathcal{H}^k(\underlineΩ_Z^{d-k})\neq 0$. All these results have been known for hypersurfaces in smooth varieties.
Given a smooth complex algebraic variety $X$ and a nonzero regular function $f$ on $X$, we give an effective estimate for the difference between the jumping numbers of $f$ and the $F$-jumping numbers of a reduction $f_p$ of $f$ to characteristic $p\gg 0$, in terms of the roots of the Bernstein-Sato polynomial $b_f$ of $f$. As an application, we show that if $b_f$ has no roots of the form $-{\rm lct}(f)-n$, with $n$ a positive integer, then the $F$-pure threshold of $f_p$ is equal to the log canonical threshold of $f$ for $p\gg 0$ with $(p-1){\rm lct}(f)\in {\mathbf Z}$.
We show that if $f$ is a nonzero, noninvertible function on a smooth complex variety $X$ and $J_f$ is the Jacobian ideal of $f$, then ${\rm lct}(f,J_f^2)>1$ if and only if the hypersurface defined by $f$ has rational singularities. Moreover, if it does not have rational singularities, then ${\rm lct}(f,J_f^2)={\rm lct}(f)$. We give two proofs, one relying on arc spaces and one that goes through the inequality $\widetildeα(f)\geq{\rm lct}(f,J_f^2)$, where $\widetildeα(f)$ is the minimal exponent of $f$. In the case of a polynomial over $\overline{\mathbf{Q}}$, we also prove an analogue of this latter inequality, with $\widetildeα(f)$ replaced by the motivic oscillation index ${\rm moi}(f)$. We also show a part of Igusa's strong monodromy conjecture, for poles larger than $-{\rm lct}(f,J_f^2)$. We end with a discussion of lct-maximal ideals: these are ideals $I$ with the property that ${\rm lct}(I)<{\rm lct}(J)$ for every $J$ with $I\subsetneq J$.
This document contains notes from the lectures of Corti, Kollár, Lazarsfeld, and Mustaţă at the workshop ``Minimal and canonical models in algebraic geometry" at MSRI, Berkeley, April 2007. The lectures give an overview of the recent advances on canonical and minimal models of algebraic varieties obtained by Hacon--McKernan and Birkar--Cascini--Hacon--McKernan.