Weyl and Zariski chambers on projective surfaces

Let X be a nonsingular complex projective surface. The Weyl and Zariski chambers give two interesting decompositions of the big cone of X. Following the ideas of [T. Bauer and M. Funke, Weyl and Zariski chambers on K3 surfaces, Forum Math. 24 2012, 3, 609–625] and [S. A. Rams and T. Szemberg, When are Zariski chambers numerically determined?, Forum Math. 28 2016, 6, 1159–1166], we study these two decompositions and determine when a Weyl chamber is contained in the interior of a Zariski chamber and vice versa. We also determine when a Weyl chamber can intersect non-trivially with a Zariski chamber.

The integral cohomology of the Hilbert scheme of points on a surface

We show that if X is a smooth complex projective surface with torsion-free cohomology, then the Hilbert scheme $X^{[n]}$ has torsion-free cohomology for every natural number n. This extends earlier work by Markman on the case of Poisson surfaces. The proof uses Gholampour-Thomas’s reduced obstruction theory for nested Hilbert schemes of surfaces.

On the complex dynamics of birational surface maps defined over number fields

We show that any birational selfmap of a complex projective surface that has dynamical degree greater than one and is defined over a number field automatically satisfies the Bedford–Diller energy condition after a suitable birational conjugacy. As a consequence, the complex dynamics of the map is well behaved. We also show that there is a well-defined canonical height function.

An example concerning Alexeev's boundedness results on log surfaces

In this note, we construct a sequence of l.t. surfaces (Xn)n ∈ ℕ such that KXn is ample for all n and such that (K2Xn)n ∈ ℕ is a strictly increasing series with limit equal to 1. This answers (in the affirmative) a question by Alexeev, cf. [Al], 11·1. Here, an l.t. surface is a normal complex projective surface with at most quotient singularities (which is the same as ‘at most log terminal singularities’). A main result of [Al] implies that it is impossible to find a sequence (Xn)n ∈ ℕ of l.t. surfaces with KXn ample for all n such that K2Xn is strictly decreasing. Although our construction is not too difficult, the example is new and has several interesting implications, see Section 4.Without further explanation, we use some fundamental tools concerning l.t. surfaces like Mumford's intersection theory or the notion of minimality; the reader should consult [Blb] and the references quoted there.

On vector bundles on algebraic surfaces and 0-cycles

Let X be an algebraic complex projective surface equipped with the euclidean topology and E a rank 2 topological vector bundle on X. It is a classical theorem of Wu ([Wu]) that E is uniquely determined by its topological Chern classes . Viceversa, again a classical theorem of Wu ([Wu]) states that every pair (a, b) ∈ (H (X, Z), Z) arises as topological Chern classes of a rank 2 topological vector bundle. For these results the existence of an algebraic structure on X was not important; for instance it would have been sufficient to have on X a holomorphic structure. In [Sch] it was proved that for algebraic X any such topological vector bundle on X has a holomorphic structure (or, equivalently by GAGA an algebraic structure) if its determinant line bundle has a holomorphic structure. It came as a surprise when Elencwajg and Forster ([EF]) showed that sometimes this was not true if we do not assume that X has an algebraic structure but only a holomorphic one (even for some two dimensional tori (see also [BL], [BF], or [T])).

HERMITIAN SURFACES OF CONSTANT HOLOMORPHIC SECTIONAL CURVATURE II

The present paper ss a continuation of our previous work [7]. We shall prove that a compact Hernutian surface of pointwise positive constant holomorphic sectional curvature is biholomorphica.lly equivalent to a complex projective surface.

The arithmetic plurigenera of surfaces

Let S0 be a complex projective surface with only isolated Gorenstein singularities (see Introduction to (12)). By Serre's criterion ((4), p. 185) this is equivalent to saying that S0 is normal and Gorenstein. By an algebraic smooth deformation of S0, we shall mean a flat, proper morphism of varieties, ρ: say, with fibre ρ−1(y0) = S0 for some y0 ∈ Y and with the general fibre ρ−1(y) = S being a smooth surface. In the paper (12), we studied such smooth deformations of S0 and in particular the behaviour of the plurigenera Pn of the surfaces in the family. The main result of (12) was the fact that Pn(S0) ≤ Pn(S) for all positive integers n, where the choice of the particular smooth surface was irrelevant by a result of Iitaka(5). To prove the above result we introduced what were called the arithmetic plurigenera of S0, which we define again below. In this paper we shall study more closely these arithmetic quantities, and in the process answer some of the questions posed in (11).