Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Peter Zograf

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Zograf.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Origami: real structure, enumeration and quantum modularity

We define real origami (that is, origami equipped with a real structure) and enumerate them using the combinatorics of zonal polynomials. We explicitly express in terms of sums of divisors the numbers of genus 2 real origami with 2 simple zeros and the numbers of genus 3 real origami with 2 double zeros showing that their generating functions are quantum modular forms. Furthermore, we show that by replacing zonal polynomials with Schur polynomials we can effectively count the classical (complex) origami. As a byproduct, we establish a connection between classical origami and a specific class of double Hurwitz numbers. Finally, we discuss some conjectures and open questions involving Jack functions, quantum modular forms, and integrable hierarchies.

math.CO↗
arXiv2023

Higher genus meanders and Masur-Veech volumes

A meander can be seen as a pair of transversally intersecting simple closed curves on a 2-sphere. We consider pairs of transversally intersecting simple closed curves on a closed oriented surface of arbitrary genus g. The number of such higher genus meanders admits exponential upper and lower bounds as the number of intersections grows. Fixing the number n of bigons in the complement to the union of the two curves, we compute the precise asymptotics of genus g meanders with at most 2N intersections and show that this asymptotics is polynomial in N as N tends to infinity. We obtain a similar result for the number of positively intersecting pairs of oriented simple closed curves on a surface of genus g. We also compute the asymptotic probability of getting a meander from a random braid on a surface of genus g-1 with two boundary components. In order to effectively count meanders we identify them with integer points represented by certain square-tiled surfaces in the moduli spaces of Abelian and quadratic differentials and make use of recent advances in the geometry of these moduli spaces combined with asymptotic properties of Witten-Kontsevich 2-correlators on moduli spaces of complex curves.

math.GT↗
arXiv2023

Tau function and moduli of meromorphic forms on algebraic curves

We study the moduli space of meromorphic 1-forms on complex algebraic curves having at most simple poles with fixed nonzero residues. We interpret the Bergman tau function on this moduli space as a section of a line bundle and study its asymptotic behavior near the boundary and the locus of forms with non-simple zeros. As an application, we decompose the projection of this locus to the moduli space of curves into a linear combination of standard generators of the rational Picard group with explicit coefficients that depend on the residues.

math.AG↗
arXiv2021

Tau Function and Moduli of Meromorphic Quadratic Differentials

The Bergman tau functions are applied to the study of the Picard group of moduli spaces of quadratic differentials with at most $n$ simple poles on genus $g$ complex algebraic curves. This generalizes our previous results on moduli spaces of holomorphic quadratic differentials.

math.AG↗
arXiv2021

Gravity as an ensemble and the moment problem

If a bulk gravitational path integral can be identified with an average of partition functions over an ensemble of boundary quantum theories, then a corresponding moment problem can be solved. We review existence and uniqueness criteria for the Stieltjes moment problem, which include an infinite set of positivity conditions. The existence criteria are useful to rule out an ensemble interpretation of a theory of gravity, or to indicate incompleteness of the gravitational data. We illustrate this in a particular class of 2D gravities including variants of the CGHS model and JT supergravity. The uniqueness criterium is relevant for an unambiguous determination of quantities such as $\overline{\log Z(\beta)}$ or the quenched free energy. We prove in JT gravity that perturbation theory, both in the coupling which suppresses higher-genus surfaces and in the temperature, fails when the number of boundaries is taken to infinity. Since this asymptotic data is necessary for the uniqueness problem, the question cannot be settled without a nonperturbative completion of the theory.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

On the large genus asymptotics of Weil-Petersson volumes

A relatively fast algorithm for evaluating Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of complex algebraic curves is proposed. On the basis of numerical data, a conjectural large genus asymptotics of the Weil-Petersson volumes is computed. Asymptotic formulas for the intersection numbers involving $ψ$-classes are conjectured as well. The accuracy of the formulas is high enough to believe that they are exact.

math.AG↗
arXiv2020

Masur-Veech volumes, frequencies of simple closed geodesics and intersection numbers of moduli spaces of curves

We express the Masur-Veech volume and the area Siegel-Veech constant of the moduli space $\mathcal{Q}_{g,n}$ of genus $g$ meromorphic quadratic differentials with $n$ simple poles as polynomials in the intersection numbers of $\psi$-classes with explicit rational coefficients. The formulae obtained in this article result from lattice point counts involving the Kontsevich volume polynomials that also appear in Mirzakhani's recursion for the Weil-Petersson volumes of the moduli spaces of bordered hyperbolic surfaces with geodesic boundaries. A similar formula for the Masur-Veech volume (though without explicit evaluation) was obtained earlier by Mirzakhani via completely different approach. Furthermore, we prove that the density of the mapping class group orbit of any simple closed multicurve $\gamma$ inside the ambient set of integral measured laminations computed by Mirzakhani coincides with the density of square-tiled surfaces having horizontal cylinder decomposition associated to $\gamma$ among all square-tiled surfaces in $\mathcal{Q}_{g,n}$. We study the resulting densities (or, equivalently, volume contributions) in more detail in the special case $n=0$. In particular, we compute the asymptotic frequencies of separating and non-separating simple closed geodesics on a closed hyperbolic surface of genus $g$ for small $g$ and we show that for large genera the separating closed geodesics are $\sqrt{\frac{2}{3\pi g}}\cdot\frac{1}{4^g}$ times less frequent.

math.GT↗
arXiv2020

Uniform Lower Bound for Intersection Numbers of $ψ$-Classes

We approximate intersection numbers $\big\langle ψ_1^{d_1}\cdots ψ_n^{d_n}\big\rangle_{g,n}$ on Deligne-Mumford's moduli space $\overline{\mathcal M}_{g,n}$ of genus $g$ stable complex curves with $n$ marked points by certain closed-form expressions in $d_1,\dots,d_n$. Conjecturally, these approximations become asymptotically exact uniformly in $d_i$ when $g\to\infty$ and $n$ remains bounded or grows slowly. In this note we prove a lower bound for the intersection numbers in terms of the above-mentioned approximatingexpressions multiplied by an explicit factor $λ(g,n)$, which tends to $1$ when $g\to\infty$ and $d_1+\dots+d_{n-2}=o(g)$.

math.GT↗
arXiv2020

Large genus asymptotic geometry of random square-tiled surfaces and of random multicurves

We study the combinatorial geometry of a random closed multicurve on a surface of large genus and of a random square-tiled surface of large genus. We prove that primitive components of a random multicurve represent linearly independent homology cycles with asymptotic probability 1 and that it is primitive with asymptotic probability $\sqrt{2}/2$. We prove analogous properties for random square-tiled surfaces. In particular, we show that all conical singularities of a random square-tiled surface belong to the same leaf of the horizontal foliation and to the same leaf of the vertical foliation with asymptotic probability 1. We show that the number of components of a random multicurve and the number of maximal horizontal cylinders of a random square-tiled surface of genus $g$ are both very well-approximated by the number of cycles of a random permutation for an explicit non-uniform measure on the symmetric group of $3g-3$ elements. In particular, we prove that the expected value of these quantities is asymptotically equivalent to $(\log(6g-6) + \gamma)/2 + \log 2$. These results are based on our formula for the Masur--Veech volume of the moduli space of holomorphic quadratic differentials combined with deep large genus asymptotic analysis of this formula performed by A.~Aggarwal and with the uniform asymptotic formula for intersection numbers of $\psi$-classes on the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of curves proved by A.~Aggarwal.

math.GT↗
arXiv2019

Masur-Veech volumes, frequencies of simple closed geodesics and intersection numbers of moduli spaces of curves

We express the Masur-Veech volume and the area Siegel-Veech constant of the moduli space of meromorphic quadratic differential with simple poles as polynomials in the intersection numbers of psi-classes supported on the boundary cycles of the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of curves. Our formulae are derived from lattice point count involving the Kontsevich volume polynomials that also appear in Mirzakhani's recursion for the Weil-Petersson volumes of the moduli space of bordered hyperbolic Riemann surfaces. A similar formula for the Masur-Veech volume (though without explicit evaluation) was obtained earlier by Mirzakhani through completely different approach. We prove further result: up to an explicit normalization factor depending only on the genus and on the number of cusps, the density of the orbit of any simple closed multicurve computed by Mirzakhani coincides with the density of square-tiled surfaces having horizontal cylinder decomposition associated to the simple closed multicurve. We study the resulting densities in more detail in the special case when there are no cusps. In particular, we compute explicitly the asymptotic frequencies of separating and non-separating simple closed geodesics on a closed hyperbolic surface of genus g for all small genera g and we show that in large genera the separating closed geodesics are exponentially less frequent. We conclude with detailed conjectural description of combinatorial geometry of a random simple closed multicurve on a surface of large genus and of a random square-tiled surface of large genus. This description is conditional to the conjectural asymptotic formula for the Masur-Veech volume in large genera and to the conjectural uniform asymptotic formula for certain sums of intersection numbers of psi-classes in large genera.

math.GT↗
arXiv2019

Tau functions, Hodge classes and discriminant loci on moduli spaces of Hitchin's spectral covers

We define two tau functions, $τ$ and $\hatτ$ , on moduli spaces of spectral covers of $GL(n)$ Hitchin's systems. Analyzing the properties of $τ$, we express the divisor class of the universal Hitchin's discriminant in terms of standard generators of the rational Picard group of the moduli spaces of spectral covers with variable base. The function $\hatτ$ is used to compute the divisor of canonical 1-forms with multiple zeros.

math-ph↗
arXiv2019

Square-tiled surfaces of fixed combinatorial type: equidistribution, counting, volumes of the ambient strata

We prove that square-tiled surfaces having fixed combinatorics of horizontal cylinder decomposition and tiled with smaller and smaller squares become asymptotically equidistributed in any ambient linear $GL(\mathbb R)$-invariant suborbifold defined over $\mathbb Q$ in the moduli space of Abelian differentials. Moreover, we prove that the combinatorics of the horizontal and of the vertical decompositions are asymptotically uncorrelated. As a consequence, we prove the existence of an asymptotic distribution for the combinatorics of a "random" interval exchange transformation with integer lengths. We compute explicitly the absolute contribution of square-tiled surfaces having a single horizontal cylinder to the Masur-Veech volume of any ambient stratum of Abelian differentials. The resulting count is particularly simple and efficient in the large genus asymptotics. We conjecture that the corresponding relative contribution is asymptotically of the order $1/d$, where $d$ is the dimension of the stratum, and prove that this conjecture is equivalent to the long-standing conjecture on the large genus asymptotics of the Masur-Veech volumes. We prove, in particular, that the recent results of Chen, Möller and Zagier imply that the conjecture holds for the principal stratum of Abelian differentials as the genus tends to infinity. Our result on random interval exchanges with integer lengths allows to make empirical computation of the probability to get a $1$-cylinder pillowcase cover taking a "random" one in a given stratum. We use this technique to derive the approximate values of the Masur-Veech volumes of strata of quadratic differentials of all small dimensions.

math.GT↗
arXiv2019

Contribution of one-cylinder square-tiled surfaces to Masur-Veech volumes

We compute explicitly the absolute contribution of square-tiled surfaces having a single horizontal cylinder to the Masur-Veech volume of any ambient stratum of Abelian differentials. The resulting count is particularly simple and efficient in the large genus asymptotics. Using the recent results of Aggarwal and of Chen-Moeller-Zagier on the long-standing conjecture about the large genus asymptotics of Masur-Veech volumes, we derive that the relative contribution is asymptotically of the order 1/d, where d is the dimension of the stratum. Similarly, we evaluate the contribution of one-cylinder square-tiled surfaces to Masur-Veech volumes of low-dimensional strata in the moduli space of quadratic differentials. We combine this count with our recent result on equidistribution of one-cylinder square-tiled surfaces translated to the language of interval exchange transformations to compute empirically approximate values of the Masur-Veech volumes of strata of quadratic differentials of all small dimensions.

math.GT↗
arXiv2019

Enumeration of meanders and Masur-Veech volumes

A meander is a topological configuration of a line and a simple closed curve in the plane (or a pair of simple closed curves on the 2-sphere) intersecting transversally. Meanders can be traced back to H. Poincaré and naturally appear in various areas of mathematics, theoretical physics and computational biology (in particular, they provide a model of polymer folding). Enumeration of meanders is an important open problem. The number of meanders with 2N crossings grows exponentially when N grows, but the longstanding problem on the precise asymptotics is still out of reach. We show that the situation becomes more tractable if one additionally fixes the topological type (or the total number of minimal arcs) of a meander. Then we are able to derive simple asymptotic formulas for the numbers of meanders as N tends to infinity. We also compute the asymptotic probability of getting a simple closed curve on a sphere by identifying the endpoints of two arc systems (one on each of the two hemispheres) along the common equator. The new tools we bring to bear are based on interpretation of meanders as square-tiled surfaces with one horizontal and one vertical cylinders. The proofs combine recent results on Masur-Veech volumes of the moduli spaces of meromorphic quadratic differentials in genus zero with our new observation that horizontal and vertical separatrix diagrams of integer quadratic differentials are asymptotically uncorrelated. The additional combinatorial constraints we impose in this article yield explicit polynomial asymptotics.

math.GT↗
arXiv2017

Tau functions, Prym-Tyurin classes and loci of degenerate differentials

We study the rational Picard group of the projectivized moduli space of holomorphic n-differentials on complex genus g stable curves. We define (n - 1) natural classes in this Picard group that we call Prym-Tyurin classes. We express these classes as linear combinations of boundary divisors and the divisor of n-differentials with a double zero. We give two different proofs of this result, using two alternative approaches: an analytic approach that involves the Bergman tau function and its vanishing divisor and an algebro-geometric approach that involves cohomological computations on the universal curve.

math.AG↗
arXiv2017

Local index theorem for orbifold Riemann surfaces

We derive a local index theorem in Quillen's form for families of Cauchy-Riemann operators on orbifold Riemann surfaces (or Riemann orbisurfaces) that are quotients of the hyperbolic plane by the action of cofinite finitely generated Fuchsian groups. Each conical point (or a conjugacy class of primitive elliptic elements in the Fuchsian group) gives rise to an extra term in the local index theorem that is proportional to the symplectic form of a new K\"{a}hler metric on the moduli space of Riemann orbisurfaces. We find a simple formula for a local K\"{a}hler potential of the elliptic metric and show that when the order of elliptic element becomes large, the elliptic metric converges to the cuspidal one corresponding to a puncture on the orbisurface (or a conjugacy class of primitive parabolic elements). We also give a simple example of a relation between the elliptic metric and special values of Selberg's zeta function.

math.AG↗