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Robert Lazarsfeld

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Lazarsfeld.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2012

Asymptotic syzygies of algebraic varieties

This paper studies the asymptotic behavior of the syzygies of a smooth projective variety X as the positivity of the embedding line bundle grows. We prove that as least as far as grading is concerned, the minimal resolution of the ideal of X has a surprisingly uniform asymptotic shape: roughly speaking, generators eventually appear in almost all degrees permitted by Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity. This suggests in particular that a widely-accepted intuition derived from the case of curves -- namely that syzygies become simpler as the degree of the embedding increases -- may have been misleading. For Veronese embeddings of projective space, we give an effective statement that in some cases is optimal, and conjecturally always is so. Finally, we propose a number of questions and open problems concerning asymptotic syzygies of higher-dimensional varieties.

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arXiv2011

Canonical cohomology as an exterior module

We show that the total cohomology of the canonical bundle of a smooth projective variety, seen as a module over an exterior algebra, splits into a natural direct sum of submodules which are generated in degree zero and have a linear free resolution. This improves a previous result of the first two authors.

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arXiv2010

Derivative complex, BGG correspondence, and numerical inequalities for compact Kähler manifolds

The cohomology algebra of the canonical bundle of a compact Kähler manifold is naturally viewed as a module over an exterior algebra. We use the Bernstein-Gel'fand-Gel'fand correspondence, together with Generic Vanishing theory, in order to understand the regularity properties of this module. We also relate it to the infinitesimal theory of the canonical linear series inside paracanonical space. Finally, we apply vector bundle methods on the polynomial ring side to obtain inequalities for the holomorphic Euler characteristic and the Hodge numbers of compact Kähler manifolds without irregular fibrations.

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arXiv2010

Pseudoeffective and nef classes on abelian varieties

The cones of divisors and curves defined by various positivity conditions on a smooth projective variety have been the subject of a great deal of work in algebraic geometry, and by now they are quite well understood. However the analogous cones for cycles of higher codimension and dimension have started to come into focus only recently. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the phenomena that can occur by working out the picture fairly completely in a couple of simple but non-trivial cases. Specifically, we study cycles of arbitrary codimension on the self-product of an elliptic curve with complex multiplication, as well as two dimensional cycles on the product of a very general abelian surface with itself. Already one finds various non-classical behavior, for instance nef cycles that fail to be pseudoeffective: this answers a question raised in 1964 by Grothendieck in correspondence with Mumford. We also propose a substantial number of open problems for further investigation.

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arXiv2009

A short course on multiplier ideals

These notes are the write-up of my 2008 PCMI lectures on multiplier ideals. They aim to give an introduction to the algebro-geometric side of the theory, with an emphasis on its global aspects. The focus is on concrete examples and applications. The lectures take into account a number of recent perspectives, including adjoint ideals and the resulting simplifications in Siu's theorem on plurigenera in the general type case. While the notes refer to my book [PAG] and other sources for some technical points, the conscientious reader should arrive at a reasonable grasp of the machinery after working through these lectures.

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arXiv2008

Syzygies of multiplier ideals on singular varieties

It was recently established by the first two authors that multiplier ideals on a smooth variety satisfy some special syzygetic properties. The purpose of this note is to show how some of these can be extended to the singular setting.

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arXiv2008

Convex Bodies Associated to Linear Series

In his work on log-concavity of multiplicities, Okounkov showed in passing that one could associate a convex body to a linear series on a projective variety, and then use convex geometry to study such linear systems. Although Okounkov was essentially working in the classical setting of ample line bundles, it turns out that the construction goes through for an arbitrary big divisor. Moreover, this viewpoint renders transparent many basic facts about asymptotic invariants of linear series, and opens the door to a number of extensions. The purpose of this paper is to initiate a systematic development of the theory, and to give a number of applications and examples.

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arXiv2008

Restricted volumes and base loci of linear series

We introduce and study the restricted volume of a divisor along a subvariety. Our main result is a description of the irreducible components of the augmented base locus by the vanishing of the restricted volume.

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arXiv2007

Lectures on flips and minimal models

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.

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arXiv2006

Local syzygies of multiplier ideals

In recent years, multiplier ideals have found many applications in local and global algebraic geometry. Because of their importance, there has been some interest in the question of which ideals on a smooth complex variety can be realized as multiplier ideals. Other than integral closure no local obstructions have been known up to now, and in dimension two it was established by Favre-Jonsson and Lipman-Watanabe that any integrally closed ideal is locally a multiplier ideal. We prove the somewhat unexpected result that multiplier ideals in fact satisfy some rather strong algebraic properties involving higher syzygies. It follows that in dimensions three and higher, multiplier ideals are very special among all integrally closed ideals.

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arXiv2006

Curve selection for finite-type ideals

Let $\mathfrak a$ be an ideal of holomorphic functions vanishing only at the origin in $\mathbb{C}^n$. The \textit{type} of $\mathfrak a$ is an invariant that measures the order of vanishing of the functions in $\mathfrak a$ along holomorphic curves; this invariant is of importance in the study of subelliptic estimates and subelliptic multiplier ideal sheaves. Recently there has been some interest in the question of which curves actually compute the type. In this note we prove that it is computed by one of the analytic irreducible components of the intersection of $n-1$ general functions in $\mathfrak a$.

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arXiv2006

Higher cohomology of divisors on a projective variety

We consider a Cartier divisor L on a d-dimensional complex projective variety X. It is well-known that the dimensions of the cohomomology groups H^i(X,O_X(mL)) grow at most like m^d, and it is natural to ask when one of these actually has maximal growth. For i = 0, this happens by definition exactly when L is big. Here we focus on the question of when one or more of the higher cohomology groups grows maximally. Our main result is that if one considers also small perturbations of the divisor in question, then the maximal growth of higher cohomology characterizes non-ample divisors. This criterion can also be phrased in terms of the vanishing of continuous functions on the Neron-Severi space of X that measure the growth of higher cohomology groups.

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arXiv2005

Asymptotic invariants of base loci

The purpose of this paper is to define and study systematically some asymptotic invariants associated to base loci of line bundles on smooth projective varieties. We distinguish an open dense subset of the real big cone, called the stable locus, consisting of the set of classes on which the asymptotic base locus is locally constant. The asymptotic invariants define continuous functions on the big cone, whose vanishing characterizes, roughly speaking, the unstable locus. We show that for toric varieties at least, there exists a polyhedral decomposition of the big cone on which these functions are polynomial.

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arXiv2005

Asymptotic invariants of line bundles

Let X be a smooth complex projective variety of dimension d. It is classical that ample line bundles on X satisfy many beautiful geometric, cohomological, and numerical properties that render their behavior particularly tractable. By contrast, examples due to Cutkosky and others have led to the common impression that the linear series associated to non-ample divisors are in general mired in pathology. However starting with fundamental work of Fujita, Nakayama, and Tsuji, it has recently become apparent that arbitrary effective (or "big") divisors in fact display a surprising number of properties analogous to those of ample line bundles. The key is to study the properties in question from an asymptotic perspective. At the same time, many interesting questions and open problems remain. The purpose of the present expository note is to give an invitation to this circle of ideas. In the hope that this informal overview might serve as a jumping off point for the technical literature in the area, we sketch many examples but provide no proofs. We focus on one particular invariant -- the "volume" of a line bundle -- that measures the rate of growth of the number of sections of powers of the bundle in question.

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arXiv2004

Contact loci in arc spaces

We study loci of arcs on a smooth variety defined by order of contact with a fixed subscheme. Specifically, we establish a Nash-type correspondence showing that the irreducible components of these loci arise from (intersections of) exceptional divisors in a resolution of singularities. We show also that these loci account for all the valuations determined by irreducible cylinders in the arc space. Along the way, we recover in an elementary fashion-without using motivic integration-results of the third author relating singularities to arc spaces. Moreover, we extend these results to give a jet-theoretic interpretation of multiplier ideals.

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arXiv2003

An informal introduction to multiplier ideals

Multiplier ideals, and the vanishing theorems they satisfy, have found many applications in recent years. In the global setting they have been used to study pluricanonical and other linear series on a projective variety. More recently, they have led to the discovery of some surprising uniform results in local algebra. The present notes aim to provide a gentle introduction to the algebraically-oriented local side of the theory. They follow closely a short course on multiplier ideals given in September 2002 at the Introductory Workshop of the program in commutative algebra at MSRI.

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arXiv2003

Jumping Coefficients of Multiplier Ideals

We study in this paper some local invariants attached via multiplier ideals to an effective divisor or ideal sheaf on a smooth complex variety. First considered (at least implicitly) by Libgober and by Loeser and Vaquie, these jumping coefficients consist of an increasing sequence of rational numbers beginning with the log canonical threshold of the divisor or ideal in question. They encode interesting geometric and algebraic information, and we show that they arise naturally in several different contexts. Given a polynomial f having only isolated singularities, results of Varchenko, Loeser and Vaquie imply that if ξis a jumping number of f = 0 lying in the interval (0, 1], then -ξis a root of the Bernstein-Sato polynomial of f. We adapt an argument of Kollar to show prove that this holds also when the singular locus of f has positive dimension. In a more algebraic direction, we show that the number of such jumping coefficients bounds the uniform Artin-Rees number of the principal ideal (f) in the sense of Huneke: in the case of isolated singularities, this in turn leads to bounds involving the Milnor and Tyurina numbers of f . Along the way, we establish a general result relating multiplier to Jacobian ideals. We also explore the extension of these ideas to the setting of graded families of ideals. The paper contains many concrete examples.

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