Simple cyclic covers of the plane and the Seshadri constants of some general hypersurfaces in weighted projective space

Let $$X \subset {\mathbb P}(1,1,1,m)$$ X ⊂ P ( 1 , 1 , 1 , m ) be a general hypersurface of degree md for some for $$d\ge 2$$ d ≥ 2 and $$m\ge 3$$ m ≥ 3 . We prove that the Seshadri constant $$\varepsilon ( {\mathcal O}_X(1), x)$$ ε ( O X ( 1 ) , x ) at a general point $$x\in X$$ x ∈ X lies in the interval $$\left[ \sqrt{d}- \frac{d}{m}, \sqrt{d}\right] $$ d - d m , d and thus approaches the possibly irrational number $$\sqrt{d}$$ d as m grows. The main step is a detailed study of the case where X is a simple cyclic cover of the plane.

Stable Rationality of Cyclic Covers of Projective Spaces

The main aim of this paper is to show that a cyclic cover of ℙn branched along a very general divisor of degree d is not stably rational, provided that n ≥ 3 and d ≥ n + 1. This generalizes the result of Colliot-Thélène and Pirutka. Generalizations for cyclic covers over complete intersections and applications to suitable Fano manifolds are also discussed.

The group of units on an affine variety

The object of study is the group of units 𝒪*(X) in the coordinate ring of a normal affine variety X over an algebraically closed field k. Methods of Galois cohomology are applied to those varieties that can be presented as a finite cyclic cover of a rational variety. On a cyclic cover X → 𝔸m of affine m-space over k such that the ramification divisor is irreducible and the degree is prime, it is shown that 𝒪*(X) is equal to k*, the non-zero scalars. The same conclusion holds, if X is a sufficiently general affine hyperelliptic curve. If X has a projective completion such that the divisor at infinity has r components, then sufficient conditions are given for 𝒪*(X)/k* to be isomorphic to ℤ(r-1).

Hodge Theory of Cyclic Covers Branched over a Union of Hyperplanes

Suppose that Y is a cyclic cover of projective space branched over a hyperplane arrangement D and that U is the complement of the ramification locus in Y. The first theorem in this paper implies that the Beilinson-Hodge conjecture holds for U if certain multiplicities of D are coprime to the degree of the cover. For instance, this applies when D is reduced with normal crossings. The second theorem shows that when D has normal crossings and the degree of the cover is a prime number, the generalized Hodge conjecture holds for any toroidal resolution of Y. The last section contains some partial extensions to more general nonabelian covers.

VEECH GROUPS FOR HOLONOMY-FREE TORUS COVERS

For fixed coprime k, l ∈ ℕ and each pair (w, z) ∈ ℂ2we define an infinite cyclic cover Σk,l(w, z) → 𝕋, called a k-l-surface or k-l-cover. We show that [Formula: see text] classifies k-l-covers up to isomorphism away from a rather small set. The diagonal action of SL2(ℤ) on ℂ2descends to [Formula: see text], reflecting the SL2(ℤ)-action on the family of k-l-surfaces equipped with a translation structure. The moduli space of holonomy free k-l-surfaces is a compact SL2(ℤ) invariant subspace [Formula: see text] containing all k-l-surfaces with a lattice stabilizer with respect to the SL2(ℤ) action. We calculate the stabilizer, the Veech group, explicitly and represent k-l-covers branched over two points by a generalized class of staircase surfaces. Finally we study SL2(ℤ)-equivariant translation maps from the Hurwitz space of k-(d - k)-covers to Hurwitz spaces of ℤ/d-covers branched over two points.