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Nathan Ilten

Publications and source records attributed to Nathan Ilten.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Higher cotangent cohomology for Stanley-Reisner rings

Inspired by work of Altmann and Christophersen, we study the graded pieces of the cotangent cohomology $T^i_{S_{\mathcal{K}}}$, $i\geq 3$ of the Stanley-Reisner ring $S_{\mathcal{K}}$ associated to a simplicial complex $\mathcal{K}$. We prove a localization formula allowing one to reduce to the case of negative weights. Our results give a complete description of $T^3$ and $T^4$ in terms of the topology of $\mathcal{K}$ whenever $\mathcal{K}$ is a flag complex. As an application, we give a sufficient criterion for the vanishing of $T^3$ for simplicial spheres, classify two-spheres that have vanishing $T^3$, and show that the boundary complex of the dual associahedron has vanishing $T^3$. Our results make use of the arborescent resolutions considered by Hancharuk, Laurent-Gengoux, and Strobl. We give an alternative and self-contained treatment of these resolutions that may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2025

Local Equations for Hilbert Schemes of Points

We compute the completion of the local ring of the Hilbert scheme of degree $n+1$ subschemes of $\mathbb{A}^n$ at the point corresponding to the ideal $\langle x_1,\ldots,x_n\rangle^2$, and describe the completion of the universal family. For the purposes of comparison, we do this computation with both classical and DGLA methods. We use our explicit equations to produce high dimensional linear subspaces of the Hilbert scheme, and compare our equations with those coming from deformations of based algebras.

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arXiv2025

Gr\"obner Cones for Finite Type Cluster Algebras

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a cluster algebra of finite cluster type. We study the Gr\"obner cone $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{A}}$ parametrizing term orders inducing an initial degeneration of the ideal $I_{\mathcal{A}}$ of relations among the cluster variables of $\mathcal{A}$ to the ideal generated by products of incompatible cluster variables. We show that for any cluster variable $v$, the weight induced by taking compatibility degrees with $v$ belongs to $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{A}}$. This allows us to construct an explicit circular term order and prove a conjecture of Ilten, N\'ajera Ch\'avez, and Treffinger. Furthermore, we give explicit descriptions of the rays and lineality spaces of $\mathcal{C}_{\mathcal{A}}$ in terms of combinatorial models for cluster algebras of types $A_n$, $B_n$, $C_n$, $D_n$ with a special choice of frozen variables, and in the case of no frozen variables.

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arXiv2024

Locally Trivial Deformations of Toric Varieties

We study locally trivial deformations of toric varieties from a combinatorial point of view. For any fan $\Sigma$, we construct a deformation functor $\mathrm{Def}_\Sigma$ by considering \v{C}ech zero-cochains on certain simplicial complexes. We show that under appropriate hypotheses, $\mathrm{Def}_\Sigma$ is isomorphic to $\mathrm{Def}'_{X_\Sigma}$, the functor of locally trivial deformations for the toric variety $X_\Sigma$ associated to $\Sigma$. In particular, for any complete toric variety $X$ that is smooth in codimension $2$ and $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial in codimension $3$, there exists a fan $\Sigma$ such that $\mathrm{Def}_\Sigma$ is isomorphic to $\mathrm{Def}_X$, the functor of deformations of $X$. We apply these results to give a new criterion for a smooth complete toric variety to have unobstructed deformations, and to compute formulas for higher order obstructions, generalizing a formula of Ilten and Turo for the cup product. We use the functor $\mathrm{Def}_\Sigma$ to explicitly compute the deformation spaces for a number of toric varieties, and provide examples exhibiting previously unobserved phenomena. In particular, we classify exactly which toric threefolds arising as iterated $\mathbb{P}^1$-bundles have unobstructed deformation space.

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arXiv2023

Rational Curves in Projective Toric Varieties

We study embedded rational curves in projective toric varieties. Generalizing results of the first author and Zotine for the case of lines, we show that any degree $d$ rational curve in a toric variety $X$ can be constructed from a special affine-linear map called a degree $d$ Cayley structure. We characterize when the curves coming from a degree $d$ Cayley structure are smooth and have degree $d$. We use this to establish a bijection between the set of irreducible components of the Hilbert scheme whose general element is a smooth degree $d$ curve, and so-called maximal smooth Cayley structures. Furthermore, we describe the normalization of the torus orbit closure of such rational curves in the Chow variety, and give partial results for the orbit closures in the Hilbert scheme.

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arXiv2023

Local Euler characteristics of $A_n$-singularities and their application to hyperbolicity

Wahl's local Euler characteristic measures the local contributions of a singularity to the usual Euler characteristic of a sheaf. Using tools from toric geometry, we study the local Euler characteristic of sheaves of symmetric differentials for isolated surface singularities of type $A_n$. We prove an explicit formula for the local Euler characteristic of the $m$th symmetric power of the cotangent bundle; this is a quasi-polynomial in $m$ of period $n+1$. We also express the components of the local Euler characteristic as a count of lattice points in a non-convex polyhedron, again showing it is a quasi-polynomial. We apply our computations to obtain new examples of algebraic quasi-hyperbolic surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^3$ of low degree. We show that an explicit family of surfaces with many singularities constructed by Labs has no genus $0$ curves for the members of degree at least $8$ and no curves of genus $0$ or $1$ for degree at least $10$.

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arXiv2022

Tropical tangents for complete intersection curves

We consider the tropicalization of tangent lines to a complete intersection curve $X$ in $\mathbb{P}^n$. Under mild hypotheses, we describe a procedure for computing the tropicalization of the image of the Gauss map of $X$ in terms of the tropicalizations of the hypersurfaces cutting out $X$. We apply this to obtain descriptions of the tropicalization of the dual variety $X^*$ and tangential variety $τ(X)$ of $X$. In particular, we are able to compute the degrees of $X^*$ and $τ(X)$ and the Newton polytope of $τ(X)$ without using any elimination theory.

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arXiv2022

K-Stability for Fano Manifolds with Torus Action of Complexity One

We consider Fano manifolds admitting an algebraic torus action with general orbit of codimension one. Using a recent result of Datar and Szekelyhidi, we effectively determine the existence of Kahler-Ricci solitons for those manifolds via the notion of equivariant K-stability. This allows us to give new examples of Kahler-Einstein Fano threefolds, and Fano threefolds admitting a non-trivial Kahler-Ricci soliton.

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arXiv2022

Khovanskii-finite rational curves of arithmetic genus 2

We study the existence of Khovanskii-finite valuations for rational curves of arithmetic genus two. We provide a semi-explicit description of the locus of degree $n+2$ rational curves in $\mathbb{P}^n$ of arithmetic genus two that admit a Khovanskii-finite valuation. Furthermore, we describe an effective method for determining if a rational curve of arithmetic genus two defined over a number field admits a Khovanskii-finite valuation. This provides a criterion for deciding if such curves admit a toric degeneration. Finally, we show that rational curves with a single unibranched singularity are always Khovanskii-finite if their arithmetic genus is sufficiently small.

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arXiv2021

Deformation Theory for Finite Cluster Complexes

We study the deformation theory of the Stanley-Reisner rings associated to cluster complexes for skew-symmetrizable cluster algebras of geometric and finite cluster type. In particular, we show that in the skew-symmetric case, these cluster complexes are unobstructed, generalizing a result of Ilten and Christophersen in the $A_n$ case. We also study the connection between cluster algebras with universal coefficients and cluster complexes. We show that for a full rank positively graded cluster algebra $\mathcal{A}$ of geometric and finite cluster type, the cluster algebra $\mathcal{A}^{\mathrm{univ}}$ with universal coefficients may be recovered as the universal family over a partial closure of a torus orbit in a multigraded Hilbert scheme. Likewise, we show that under suitable hypotheses, the cluster algebra $\mathcal{A}^{\mathrm{univ}}$ may be recovered as the coordinate ring for a certain torus-invariant semiuniversal deformation of the Stanley-Reisner ring of the cluster complex. We apply these results to show that for any cluster algebra $\mathcal{A}$ of geometric and finite cluster type, $\mathcal{A}$ is Gorenstein, and $\mathcal{A}$ is unobstructed if it is skew-symmetric. Moreover, if $\mathcal{A}$ has enough frozen variables then it has no non-trivial torus-invariant deformations. We also study the Gr\"obner theory of the ideal of relations among cluster and frozen variables of $\mathcal{A}$. As a byproduct we generalize previous results in this setting obtained by Bossinger, Mohammadi and N\'ajera Ch\'avez for Grassmannians of planes and $\text{Gr}(3,6)$.

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arXiv2021

Fano Schemes of Complete Intersections in Toric Varieties

We study Fano schemes $F_k(X)$ for complete intersections $X$ in a projective toric variety $Y\subset \mathbb{P}^n$. Our strategy is to decompose $F_k(X)$ into closed subschemes based on the irreducible decomposition of $F_k(Y)$ as studied by Ilten and Zotine. We define the expected dimension for these subschemes, which always gives a lower bound on the actual dimension. Under additional assumptions, we show that these subschemes are non-empty and smooth of the expected dimension. Using tools from intersection theory, we can apply these results to count the number of linear subspaces in $X$ when the expected dimension of $F_k(X)$ is zero.

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arXiv2020

Deformations of Smooth Complete Toric Varieties: Obstructions and the Cup Product

Let $X$ be a complete $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial toric variety. We explicitly describe the space $H^2(X,T_X)$ and the cup product map $H^1(X,T_X)\times H^1(X,T_X)\to H^2(X,T_X)$ in combinatorial terms. Using this, we give an example of a smooth projective toric threefold for which the cup product map does not vanish, showing that in general, smooth complete toric varieties may have obstructed deformations.

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arXiv2020

Khovanskii-Finite Valuations, Rational Curves, and Torus Actions

We study full rank homogeneous valuations on (multi)-graded domains and ask when they have finite Khovanskii bases. We show that there is a natural reduction from multigraded to simply graded domains. As special cases, we consider projective coordinate rings of rational curves, and almost toric varieties. Our results relate to several problems posed by Kaveh and Manon, and imply that the procedure of Bossinger-Lamboglia-Mincheva-Mohammadi for producing tropical prime cones will not terminate in general.

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arXiv2020

Singular Curves of Low Degree and Multifiltrations from Osculating Spaces

In order to study projections of smooth curves, we introduce multifiltrations obtained by combining flags of osculating spaces. We classify all configurations of singularities occurring for a projection of a smooth curve embedded by a complete linear system away from a projective linear space of dimension at most two. In particular, we determine all configurations of singularities of non-degenerate degree d rational curves in $\mathbb{P}^n$ when $d - n \leq 3$ and $d < 2n$. Along the way, we describe the Schubert cycles giving rise to these projections. We also reprove a special case of the Castelnuovo bound using these multifiltrations: under the assumption $d < 2n$, the arithmetic genus of any nondegenerate degree $d$ curve in $\mathbb{P}^n$ is at most $d - n$.

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arXiv2019

Algebraic Hyperbolicity for Surfaces in Toric Threefolds

Adapting focal loci techniques used by Chiantini and Lopez, we provide lower bounds on the genera of curves contained in very general surfaces in Gorenstein toric threefolds. We illustrate the utility of these bounds by obtaining results on algebraic hyperbolicity of very general surfaces in toric threefolds.

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arXiv2019

Fano Schemes for Generic Sums of Products of Linear Forms

We study the Fano scheme of $k$-planes contained in the hypersurface cut out by a generic sum of products of linear forms. In particular, we show that under certain hypotheses, linear subspaces of sufficiently high dimension must be contained in a coordinate hyperplane. We use our results on these Fano schemes to obtain a lower bound for the product rank of a linear form. This provides a new lower bound for the product ranks of the $6\times 6$ Pfaffian and $4\times 4$ permanent, as well as giving a new proof that the product and tensor ranks of the $3\times 3$ determinant equal five. Based on our results, we formulate several conjectures.

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arXiv2019

Projective duals to algebraic and tropical hypersurfaces

We study a tropical analogue of the projective dual variety of a hypersurface. When $X$ is a curve in $\mathbb{P}^2$ or a surface in $\mathbb{P}^3$, we provide an explicit description of $\text{Trop}(X^*)$ in terms of $\text{Trop}(X)$, as long as $\text{Trop}(X)$ is smooth and satisfies a mild genericity condition. As a consequence, when $X$ is a curve we describe the transformation of Newton polygons under projective duality, and recover classical formulas for the degree of a dual plane curve. For higher dimensional hypersurfaces $X$, we give a partial description of $\text{Trop}(X^*)$.

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