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Patrick Popescu-Pampu

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Popescu-Pampu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Accessing Chern Numbers From Bloch Eigenstates Singularities

We propose two methods to extract the Chern numbers of the Bloch bands of a two dimensional insulator, and apply them to a photonic lattice experiment. These two methods require the knowledge of the complex-valued components of the Bloch eigenvectors, or their ratios. Unlike other tomography methods relying on the approximate reconstruction of the Berry curvature and its integration over the Brillouin zone, our methods boil down to the observation of phase vorticities in the eigensates structure. Those measurements, robust to experimental noise, yield exactly quantized values. One of the two methods exploits the non-normalization of the eigenmodes, making it particularly relevant for classical wave systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2026

The Euclidean algorithm, lotuses and singularities

The anthyphairetic process leads from a pair (a,b) of coprime positive integers to the pair (1,1) by successive subtractions of the smaller number from the bigger one. This process, which is a slow version of Euclid's algorithm applied to the pair (a,b), corresponds naturally to the process of successive blowups leading to the minimal embedded resolution of the plane curve defined by y^a - x^b = 0. This blowup process may be represented graphically by a special two-dimensional simplicial complex called a lotus. This allows to localize the various numbers appearing either during the anthyphairetic process or during the Euclidean algorithm at precise positions inside the lotus. In this introductory article, I recall first the construction of this lotus starting from the sequence of quotients generated by the Euclidean algorithm. I present then an alternative way of constructing it directly from the sequence of pairs of coprime integers generated by the anthyphairetic process, using what I call anthyphairetic rectangles. I conclude by explaining how to reconstruct from a lotus the corresponding sequence of pairs of coprime integers. This is a simple illustration of the way lotuses may serve as computational architectures.

math.HO↗
arXiv2026

An interview with Bernard Teissier

This text is a reworked version of a recorded interview with Bernard Teissier conducted in his house in Paris, on 28 and 29 September 2024.

math.HO↗
arXiv2026

A Eudoxian study of discriminant curves associated to normal surface singularities

Let $(f,g): (S,s) \to (\mathbb{C}^2, 0)$ be a finite morphism from a germ of normal complex analytic surface to the germ of $\mathbb{C}^2$ at the origin. We show that the affine algebraic curve in $\mathbb{C}^2$ defined by the initial Newton polynomial of a defining series of the discriminant germ of $(f,g)$ depends up to toric automorphisms only on the germs of curves defined by $f$ and $g$. This result generalizes a theorem of Gryszka, Gwoździewicz and Parusiński, which is the special case in which $(S,s)$ is smooth. Our proof uses a common generalization of formulas of Lê, Casas-Alvero and Némethi for the intersection number of the discriminant with a germ of plane curve. It uses also a theorem of Delgado and Maugendre characterizing the special members of pencils of curves on normal surface singularities. We apply it to the pencils generated by all pairs $(f^b, g^a)$, for varying positive integral exponents $a, b$, following a strategy initiated by Gwoździewicz and by Delgado and Maugendre. This is similar to the Eudoxian method of comparison of magnitudes by comparing the sizes of their positive integral multiples.

math.AG↗
arXiv2025

An introduction to real oriented blowups in toric, toroidal and logarithmic geometries

This text is an introduction to the applications of rounding of complex log spaces (also known as Kato-Nakayama or Betti realization) to singularity theory. Log spaces in the sense of Fontaine and Illusie were first described in print by Kato, in a 1988 paper. Rounding of complex log spaces was introduced in a 1999 paper by Kato and Nakayama and is a functorial generalization of A'Campo's 1975 notion of a real oriented blowup. It allows to cut canonically any complex toroidal variety $X$ along its toroidal boundary $\partial X$, producing a topological manifold-with-boundary, whose boundary is a canonical representative of the boundary of any tubular neighborhood of $\partial X$ in $X$. In singularity theory, roundings may be used to get canonical representatives of links of isolated complex analytic singularities and of Milnor fibers of smoothings of complex singularities, once toroidal resolutions of the singularity or of the smoothing are chosen. The text starts with introductions to not necessarily normal toric varieties, it passes then to toroidal varieties and to their real oriented blowups. It continues with introductions to log spaces and to rounding of complex log spaces. It concludes with an important theorem of Nakayama and Ogus about the local triviality of the rounding of special types of log morphisms. The notions of affine toric variety, real oriented blowup, log structure and rounding are introduced by means of the classical passage to polar coordinates.

math.AG↗
arXiv2025

Lotuses as computational architectures

Lotuses are certain types of finite contractible simplicial complexes, obtained by identifying vertices of polygons subdivided by diagonals. As we explained in a previous paper, each time one resolves a complex reduced plane curve singularity by a sequence of toroidal modifications with respect to suitable local coordinates, one gets a naturally associated lotus, which allows to unify the classical trees used to encode the combinatorial type of the singularity. In this paper we explain how to associate a lotus to each constellation of crosses, which is a finite constellation of infinitely near points endowed with compatible germs of normal crossings divisors with two components, and how this lotus may be seen as a computational architecture. Namely, if the constellation of crosses is associated to an embedded resolution of a complex reduced plane curve singularity $A$, one may compute progressively as vertex and edge weights on the lotus the log-discrepancies of the exceptional divisors, the orders of vanishing on them of the starting coordinates, the multiplicities of the strict transforms of the branches of $A$, the orders of vanishing of a defining function of $A$, the associated Eggers-Wall tree, the delta invariant and the Milnor number of $A$, etc. We illustrate these computations using three recurrent examples. Finally, we describe the changes to be done when one works in positive characteristic.

math.AG↗
arXiv2025

Approximate roots

Given an integral domain $A$, a monic polynomial $P$ of degree $n$ with coefficients in $A$ and a divisor $p$ of $n$, invertible in $A$, there is a unique monic polynomial $Q$ such that the degree of $P-Q^{p}$ is minimal for varying $Q$. This $Q$, whose $p$-th power best approximates $P$, is called the $p$-th approximate root of $P$. If $f \in \mathbf{C}[[X]][Y]$ is irreducible, there is a sequence of characteristic approximate roots of $f$, whose orders are given by the singularity structure of $f$. This sequence gives important information about this singularity structure. We study its properties in this spirit and we show that most of them hold for the more general concept of semiroot. We show then how this local study adapts to give a proof of Abhyankar-Moh's embedding line theorem.

math.AG↗
arXiv2025

An introduction to local tropicalization

In this paper we explain four viewpoints on the local tropicalization of formal subgerms of toric germs, which is a local analog of the global tropicalization of subvarieties of algebraic tori. We start by illustrating some of those viewpoints for plane curve singularities, then we pass to arbitrary dimensions. We conclude by describing several variants and extensions of the notion of local tropicalization presented in this paper.

math.AG↗
arXiv2023

Local tropicalizations of splice type surface singularities

Splice type surface singularities were introduced by Neumann and Wahl as a generalization of the class of Pham-Brieskorn-Hamm complete intersections of dimension two. Their construction depends on a weighted tree called a splice diagram. In this paper, we study these singularities from the tropical viewpoint. We characterize their local tropicalizations as the cones over the appropriately embedded associated splice diagrams. As a corollary, we reprove some of Neumann and Wahl's earlier results on these singularities by purely tropical methods, and show that splice type surface singularities are Newton non-degenerate complete intersections in the sense of Khovanskii. We also confirm that under suitable coprimality conditions on its weights, the diagram can be uniquely recovered from the local tropicalization. As a corollary of the Newton non-degeneracy property, we obtain an alternative proof of a recent theorem of de Felipe, González Pérez and Mourtada, stating that embedded resolutions of any plane curve singularity can be achieved by a single toric morphism, after re-embedding the ambient smooth surface germ in a higher-dimensional smooth space. The paper ends with an appendix by Jonathan Wahl, proving a criterion of regularity of a sequence in a ring of convergent power series, given the regularity of an associated sequence of initial forms.

math.AG↗
arXiv2023

Poincaré-Reeb graphs of real algebraic domains

An algebraic domain is a closed topological subsurface of a real affine plane whose boundary consists of disjoint smooth connected components of real algebraic plane curves. We study the geometric shape of an algebraic domain by collapsing all vertical segments contained in it: this yields a Poincaré-Reeb graph, which is naturally transversal to the foliation by vertical lines. We show that any transversal graph whose vertices have only valencies 1 and 3 and are situated on distinct vertical lines can be realized as a Poincaré-Reeb graph.

math.GT↗
arXiv2022

The Milnor fiber conjecture of Neumann and Wahl, and an overview of its proof

Splice type surface singularities, introduced in 2002 by Neumann and Wahl, provide all examples known so far of integral homology spheres which appear as links of complex isolated complete intersections of dimension two. They are determined, up to a form of equisingularity, by decorated trees called splice diagrams. In 2005, Neumann and Wahl formulated their Milnor fiber conjecture, stating that any choice of an internal edge of a splice diagram determines a special kind of decomposition into pieces of the Milnor fibers of the associated singularities. These pieces are constructed from the Milnor fibers of the splice type singularities determined by the subdiagrams on both sides of the chosen edge. In this paper we give an overview of this conjecture and a detailed outline of its proof, based on techniques from tropical geometry and log geometry in the sense of Fontaine and Illusie. The crucial log geometric ingredient is the operation of rounding of a complex logarithmic space introduced in 1999 by Kato and Nakayama. It is a functorial generalization of the operation of real oriented blowup. The use of the latter to study Milnor fibrations was pioneered by A'Campo in 1975.

math.AG↗
arXiv2022

From Singularities to Graphs

In this text I present some problems which led to the introduction of special kinds of graphs as tools for studying singular points of algebraic surfaces. I explain how such graphs were first described using words, and how several classification problems made it necessary to draw them, leading to the elaboration of a special kind of calculus with graphs. This non-technical paper is intended to be readable both by mathematicians and philosophers or historians of mathematics.

math.HO↗
arXiv2020

Ultrametrics and surface singularities

The present lecture notes give an introduction to works of García Barroso, González Pérez, Ruggiero and the author. The starting point of those works is a theorem of Płoski, stating that one defines an ultrametric on the set of branches drawn on a smooth surface singularity by associating to any pair of distinct branches the quotient of the product of their multiplicities by their intersection number. We show how to construct ultrametrics on certain sets of branches drawn on any normal surface singularity from their mutual intersection numbers and how to interpret the associated rooted trees in terms of the dual graphs of adapted embedded resolutions. The text begins by recalling basic properties of intersection numbers and multiplicities on smooth surface singularities and the relation between ultrametrics on finite sets and rooted trees. On arbitrary normal surface singularities one has to use Mumford's definition of intersection numbers of curve singularities drawn on them, which is also recalled.

math.AG↗
arXiv2020

The combinatorics of plane curve singularities. How Newton polygons blossom into lotuses

This survey may be seen as an introduction to the use of toric and tropical geometry in the analysis of plane curve singularities, which are germs $(C,o)$ of complex analytic curves contained in a smooth complex analytic surface $S$. The embedded topological type of such a pair $(S, C)$ is usually defined to be that of the oriented link obtained by intersecting $C$ with a sufficiently small oriented Euclidean sphere centered at the point $o$, defined once a system of local coordinates $(x,y)$ was chosen on the germ $(S,o)$. If one works more generally over an arbitrary algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, one speaks instead of the combinatorial type of $(S, C)$. One may define it by looking either at the Newton-Puiseux series associated to $C$ relative to a generic local coordinate system $(x,y)$, or at the set of infinitely near points which have to be blown up in order to get the minimal embedded resolution of the germ $(C,o)$ or, thirdly, at the preimage of this germ by the resolution. Each point of view leads to a different encoding of the combinatorial type by a decorated tree: an Eggers-Wall tree, an Enriques diagram, or a weighted dual graph. The three trees contain the same information, which in the complex setting is equivalent to the knowledge of the embedded topological type. There are known algorithms for transforming one tree into another. In this paper we explain how a special type of two-dimensional simplicial complex called a lotus allows to think geometrically about the relations between the three types of trees. Namely, all of them embed in a natural lotus, their numerical decorations appearing as invariants of it. This lotus is constructed from the finite set of Newton polygons created during any process of resolution of $(C,o)$ by successive toric modifications.

math.AG↗
arXiv2019

Ultrametric properties for valuation spaces of normal surface singularities

Let $L$ be a fixed branch -- that is, an irreducible germ of curve -- on a normal surface singularity $X$. If $A,B$ are two other branches, define $u_L(A,B) := \dfrac{(L \cdot A) \: (L \cdot B)}{A \cdot B}$, where $A \cdot B$ denotes the intersection number of $A$ and $B$. Call $X$ arborescent if all the dual graphs of its resolutions are trees. In a previous paper, the first three authors extended a 1985 theorem of Płoski by proving that whenever $X$ is arborescent, the function $u_L$ is an ultrametric on the set of branches on $X$ different from $L$. In the present paper we prove that, conversely, if $u_L$ is an ultrametric, then $X$ is arborescent. We also show that for any normal surface singularity, one may find arbitrarily large sets of branches on $X$, characterized uniquely in terms of the topology of the resolutions of their sum, in restriction to which $u_L$ is still an ultrametric. Moreover, we describe the associated tree in terms of the dual graphs of such resolutions. Then we extend our setting by allowing $L$ to be an arbitrary semivaluation on $X$ and by defining $u_L$ on a suitable space of semivaluations. We prove that any such function is again an ultrametric if and only if $X$ is arborescent, and without any restriction on $X$ we exhibit special subspaces of the space of semivaluations in restriction to which $u_L$ is still an ultrametric.

math.AG↗
arXiv2018

Ultrametric spaces of branches on arborescent singularities

Let $S$ be a normal complex analytic surface singularity. We say that $S$ is arborescent if the dual graph of any resolution of it is a tree. Whenever $A,B$ are distinct branches on $S$, we denote by $A \cdot B$ their intersection number in the sense of Mumford. If $L$ is a fixed branch, we define $U_L(A,B)= (L \cdot A)(L \cdot B)(A \cdot B)^{-1}$ when $A \neq B$ and $U_L(A,A) =0$ otherwise. We generalize a theorem of Płoski concerning smooth germs of surfaces, by proving that whenever $S$ is arborescent, then $U_L$ is an ultrametric on the set of branches of $S$ different from $L$. We compute the maximum of $U_L$, which gives an analog of a theorem of Teissier. We show that $U_L$ encodes topological information about the structure of the embedded resolutions of any finite set of branches. This generalizes a theorem of Favre and Jonsson concerning the case when both $S$ and $L$ are smooth. We generalize also from smooth germs to arbitrary arborescent ones their valuative interpretation of the dual trees of the resolutions of $S$. Our proofs are based in an essential way on a determinantal identity of Eisenbud and Neumann.

math.AG↗
arXiv2018

The valuative tree is the projective limit of Eggers-Wall trees

Consider a germ $C$ of reduced curve on a smooth germ $S$ of complex analytic surface. Assume that $C$ contains a smooth branch $L$. Using the Newton-Puiseux series of $C$ relative to any coordinate system $(x,y)$ on $S$ such that $L$ is the $y$-axis, one may define the {\em Eggers-Wall tree} $Θ_L(C)$ of $C$ relative to $L$. Its ends are labeled by the branches of $C$ and it is endowed with three natural functions measuring the characteristic exponents of the previous Newton-Puiseux series, their denominators and contact orders. The main objective of this paper is to embed canonically $Θ_L(C)$ into Favre and Jonsson's valuative tree $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})$ of real-valued semivaluations of $S$ up to scalar multiplication, and to show that this embedding identifies the three natural functions on $Θ_L(C)$ as pullbacks of other naturally defined functions on $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})$. As a consequence, we prove an inversion theorem generalizing the well-known Abhyankar-Zariski inversion theorem concerning one branch: if $L'$ is a second smooth branch of $C$, then the valuative embeddings of the Eggers-Wall trees $Θ_{L'}(C)$ and $Θ_L(C)$ identify them canonically, their associated triples of functions being easily expressible in terms of each other. We prove also that the space $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})$ is the projective limit of Eggers-Wall trees over all choices of curves $C$. As a supplementary result, we explain how to pass from $Θ_L(C)$ to an associated splice diagram.

math.AG↗