GEOMETRIC LOCAL -FACTORS IN HIGHER DIMENSIONS

We prove a product formula for the determinant of the cohomology of an étale sheaf with $\ell $ -adic coefficients over an arbitrary proper scheme over a perfect field of positive characteristic p distinct from $\ell $ . The local contributions are constructed by iterating vanishing cycle functors as well as certain exact additive functors that can be considered as linearised versions of Artin conductors and local $\varepsilon $ -factors. We provide several applications of our higher dimensional product formula, such as twist formulas for global $\varepsilon $ -factors.

Endoscopic decompositions and the Hausel–Thaddeus conjecture

We construct natural operators connecting the cohomology of the moduli spaces of stable Higgs bundles with different ranks and genera which, after numerical specialisation, recover the topological mirror symmetry conjecture of Hausel and Thaddeus concerning $\mathrm {SL}_n$ - and $\mathrm {PGL}_n$ -Higgs bundles. This provides a complete description of the cohomology of the moduli space of stable $\mathrm {SL}_n$ -Higgs bundles in terms of the tautological classes, and gives a new proof of the Hausel–Thaddeus conjecture, which was also proven recently by Gröchenig, Wyss and Ziegler via p-adic integration. Our method is to relate the decomposition theorem for the Hitchin fibration, using vanishing cycle functors, to the decomposition theorem for the twisted Hitchin fibration, whose supports are simpler.

The vanishing cycles of curves in toric surfaces II

We resume the study initiated in [R. Crétois and L. Lang, The vanishing cycles of curves in toric surfaces, I, preprint (2017), arXiv:1701.00608]. For a generic curve [Formula: see text] in an ample linear system [Formula: see text] on a toric surface [Formula: see text], a vanishing cycle of [Formula: see text] is an isotopy class of simple closed curve that can be contracted to a point along a degeneration of [Formula: see text] to a nodal curve in [Formula: see text]. The obstructions that prevent a simple closed curve in [Formula: see text] from being a vanishing cycle are encoded by the adjoint line bundle [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we consider the linear systems carrying the two simplest types of obstruction. Geometrically, these obstructions manifest on [Formula: see text] respectively as an hyperelliptic involution and as a spin structure. In both cases, we determine all the vanishing cycles by investigating the associated monodromy maps, whose target space is the mapping class group [Formula: see text]. We show that the image of the monodromy is the subgroup of [Formula: see text] preserving respectively the hyperelliptic involution and the spin structure. The results obtained here support Conjecture [Formula: see text] in [R. Crétois and L. Lang, The vanishing cycles of curves in toric surfaces, I, preprint (2017), arXiv:1701.00608] aiming to describe all the vanishing cycles for any pair [Formula: see text].

AROUND THE NEARBY CYCLE FUNCTOR FOR ARITHMETIC -MODULES

We will establish a nearby and vanishing cycle formalism for the arithmetic $\mathscr{D}$-module theory following Beilinson’s philosophy. As an application, we define smooth objects in the framework of arithmetic $\mathscr{D}$-modules whose category is equivalent to the category of overconvergent isocrystals.

On the Topology of Isochronous Centers of Hamiltonian Differential Systems

In this paper, we study the topology of isochronous centers of Hamiltonian differential systems with polynomial Hamiltonian functions [Formula: see text] such that the isochronous center lies on the level curve [Formula: see text]. We prove that, in the one-dimensional homology group of the Riemann surface (removing the points at infinity) of level curve [Formula: see text], the vanishing cycle of an isochronous center cannot belong to a subgroup generated by those small loops such that each of them is centered at a removed point at infinity of having one of the two special types described in the paper, where [Formula: see text] is sufficiently close to [Formula: see text]. Besides, we present some topological properties of isochronous centers for a large class of Hamiltonian systems of degree [Formula: see text], whose homogeneous parts of degree [Formula: see text] contain factors with multiplicity of no more than [Formula: see text]. As applications, we study the nonisochronicity for some Hamiltonian systems with quite complicated forms which are usually very hard to handle by the classical tools.

The vanishing cycles of curves in toric surfaces I

This article is the first in a series of two in which we study the vanishing cycles of curves in toric surfaces. We give a list of possible obstructions to contract vanishing cycles within a given complete linear system. Using tropical means, we show that any non-separating simple closed curve is a vanishing cycle whenever none of the listed obstructions appears.

Purity for graded potentials and quantum cluster positivity

Consider a smooth quasi-projective variety $X$ equipped with a $\mathbb{C}^{\ast }$-action, and a regular function $f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ which is $\mathbb{C}^{\ast }$-equivariant with respect to a positive weight action on the base. We prove the purity of the mixed Hodge structure and the hard Lefschetz theorem on the cohomology of the vanishing cycle complex of $f$ on proper components of the critical locus of $f$, generalizing a result of Steenbrink for isolated quasi-homogeneous singularities. Building on work by Kontsevich and Soibelman, Nagao, and Efimov, we use this result to prove the quantum positivity conjecture for cluster mutations for all quivers admitting a positively graded nondegenerate potential. We deduce quantum positivity for all quivers of rank at most 4; quivers with nondegenerate potential admitting a cut; and quivers with potential associated to triangulations of surfaces with marked points and nonempty boundary.

INTERSECTION COHOMOLOGY, MONODROMY AND THE MILNOR FIBER

We say that a complex analytic space, X, is an intersection cohomology manifold if and only if the shifted constant sheaf on X is isomorphic to intersection cohomology; with field coefficients, this is quickly seen to be equivalent to X being a homology manifold. Given an analytic function f on an intersection cohomology manifold, we describe a simple relation between V(f) being an intersection cohomology manifold and the vanishing cycle Milnor monodromy of f. We then describe how the Sebastiani–Thom isomorphism allows us to easily produce intersection cohomology manifolds with arbitrary singular sets. Finally, as an easy application, we obtain restrictions on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of a hypersurface with a special type of one-dimensional critical locus.