INTERSECTION COHOMOLOGY OF THE MODULI SPACE OF HIGGS BUNDLES ON A GENUS 2 CURVE

Let C be a smooth projective curve of genus $2$ . Following a method by O’Grady, we construct a semismall desingularisation $\tilde {\mathcal {M}}_{Dol}^G$ of the moduli space $\mathcal {M}_{Dol}^G$ of semistable G-Higgs bundles of degree 0 for $G=\mathrm {GL}(2,\mathbb {C}), \mathrm {SL}(2,\mathbb {C})$ . By the decomposition theorem of Beilinson, Bernstein and Deligne, one can write the cohomology of $\tilde {\mathcal {M}}_{Dol}^G$ as a direct sum of the intersection cohomology of $\mathcal {M}_{Dol}^G$ plus other summands supported on the singular locus. We use this splitting to compute the intersection cohomology of $\mathcal {M}_{Dol}^G$ and prove that the mixed Hodge structure on it is pure, in analogy with what happens to ordinary cohomology in the smooth case of coprime rank and degree.

Stability of BPS states and weak coupling limits

We study the stability and spectrum of BPS states in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 supergravity. We find evidence, and prove for a large class of cases, that BPS stability exhibits a certain filtration which is partially independent of the value of the gauge couplings. Specifically, for any perturbative value of any gauge coupling g ≪ 1, a BPS state can only decay to some constituents if those constituents do not become infinitely heavier than it in the vanishing coupling limit g → 0. This stability filtration can be mathematically formulated in terms of the monodromy weight filtration of the limiting mixed Hodge structure associated to the vanishing coupling limit. We study various implications of the result for the Swampland program which aims to understand such weak-coupling limits, specifically regarding the nature and presence of an infinite tower of light charged BPS states.

On the geometric André–Oort conjecture for variations of Hodge structures

Let 𝕍 {{\mathbb{V}}} be a polarized variation of integral Hodge structure on a smooth complex quasi-projective variety S. In this paper, we show that the union of the non-factor special subvarieties for ( S , 𝕍 ) {(S,{\mathbb{V}})} , which are of Shimura type with dominant period maps, is a finite union of special subvarieties of S. This generalizes previous results of Clozel and Ullmo (2005) and Ullmo (2007) on the distribution of the non-factor (in particular, strongly) special subvarieties in a Shimura variety to the non-classical setting and also answers positively the geometric part of a conjecture of Klingler on the André–Oort conjecture for variations of Hodge structures.

Counting Rational Curves on K3 Surfaces With Finite Group Actions

Göttsche gave a formula for the dimension of the cohomology of Hilbert schemes of points on a smooth projective surface $S$. When $S$ admits an action by a finite group $G$, we describe the action of $G$ on the Hodge structure. In the case that $S$ is a K3 surface, each element of $G$ gives a trace on $\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\sum _{i=0}^{\infty }(-1)^{i}H^{i}(S^{[n]},\mathbb{C})q^{n}$. When $G$ acts faithfully and symplectically on $S$, the resulting generating function is of the form $q/f(q)$, where $f(q)$ is a cusp form. We relate the Hodge structure of Hilbert schemes of points to the Hodge structure of the compactified Jacobian of the tautological family of curves over an integral linear system on a K3 surface as $G$-representations. Finally, we give a sufficient condition for a $G$-orbit of curves with nodal singularities not to contribute to the representation.

A one parameter family of Calabi-Yau manifolds with attractor points of rank two

In the process of studying the ζ-function for one parameter families of Calabi-Yau manifolds we have been led to a manifold, first studied by Verrill, for which the quartic numerator of the ζ-function factorises into two quadrics remarkably often. Among these factorisations, we find persistent factorisations; these are determined by a parameter that satisfies an algebraic equation with coefficients in ℚ, so independent of any particular prime. Such factorisations are expected to be modular with each quadratic factor associated to a modular form. If the parameter is defined over ℚ this modularity is assured by the proof of the Serre Conjecture. We identify three values of the parameter that give rise to persistent factorisations, one of which is defined over ℚ, and identify, for all three cases, the associated modular groups. We note that these factorisations are due a splitting of Hodge structure and that these special values of the parameter are rank two attractor points in the sense of IIB supergravity. To our knowledge, these points provide the first explicit examples of non-singular, non-rigid rank two attractor points for Calabi-Yau manifolds of full SU(3) holonomy. The values of the periods and their covariant derivatives, at the attractor points, are identified in terms of critical values of the L-functions of the modular groups. Thus the critical L-values enter into the calculation of physical quantities such as the area of the black hole in the 4D spacetime. In our search for additional rank two attractor points, we perform a statistical analysis of the numerator of the ζ-function and are led to conjecture that the coefficients in this polynomial are distributed according to the statistics of random USp(4) matrices.

On the equidistribution of some Hodge loci

We prove the equidistribution of the Hodge locus for certain non-isotrivial, polarized variations of Hodge structure of weight 2 with {h^{2,0}=1} over complex, quasi-projective curves. Given some norm condition, we also give an asymptotic on the growth of the Hodge locus. In particular, this implies the equidistribution of elliptic fibrations in quasi-polarized, non-isotrivial families of K3 surfaces.

MIXED HODGE STRUCTURES WITH MODULUS

We define a notion of mixed Hodge structure with modulus that generalizes the classical notion of mixed Hodge structure introduced by Deligne and the level one Hodge structures with additive parts introduced by Kato and Russell in their description of Albanese varieties with modulus. With modulus triples of any dimension, we attach mixed Hodge structures with modulus. We combine this construction with an equivalence between the category of level one mixed Hodge structures with modulus and the category of Laumon 1-motives to generalize Kato–Russell’s Albanese varieties with modulus to 1-motives.

Log Picard Algebroids and Meromorphic Line Bundles

We introduce logarithmic Picard algebroids, a natural class of Lie algebroids adapted to a simple normal crossings divisor on a smooth projective variety. We show that such algebroids are classified by a subspace of the de Rham cohomology of the divisor complement determined by its mixed Hodge structure. We then solve the prequantization problem, showing that under the appropriate integrality condition, a log Picard algebroid is the Lie algebroid of symmetries of what is called a meromorphic line bundle, a generalization of the usual notion of line bundle in which the fibers degenerate along the divisor. We give a geometric description of such bundles and establish a classification theorem for them, showing that they correspond to a subgroup of the holomorphic line bundles on the divisor complement. Importantly, these holomorphic line bundles need not be algebraic. Finally, we provide concrete methods for explicitly constructing examples of meromorphic line bundles, such as for a smooth cubic divisor in the projective plane.