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The parameter $\sigma_8$ represents the root-mean-square (rms) mass fluctuations on a scale of $R_8=8h^{-1}$ Mpc and is commonly used to quantify the amplitude of matter fluctuations at linear cosmological scales. However, the dependence of $R_8$ on $h$ complicates direct comparisons of $\sigma_8$ values obtained under different assumptions about $H_0$, since $\sigma_8$ in such cases characterizes the amount of structure at different physical scales. This issue arises both when comparing $\sigma_8$ values from fitting analyses of cosmological models with differing $H_0$ posteriors, and when contrasting constraints from experiments with different priors on $H_0$. As first noted by Ariel G. S\'anchez in PRD 102, 123511 (2020), quantifying the growth tension using $\sigma_8$ can introduce substantial biases and couple the growth and Hubble tensions in an intricate way. To address these challenges, S\'anchez proposed an alternative parameter, $\sigma_{12}$, defined as the rms mass fluctuations at a scale of $12$ Mpc, which is independent of $h$. Although S\'anchez's work was published five years ago and other authors have since highlighted the limitations of $\sigma_8$, much of the cosmological community -- including large collaborations -- continues to rely on this parameter instead of adopting $\sigma_{12}$, seemingly due only to historical considerations. In this work, we illustrate the biases introduced by the use of $\sigma_8$ through some clear examples, aiming to motivate the community to transition from $\sigma_8$ to $\sigma_{12}$. We show that the bias found in models with large values of $H_0$ is more prominent, artificially complicating the search for a model that can resolve the Hubble tension without exacerbating the growth tension. We argue that the worsening of the growth tension in these models is much less pronounced than previously thought or may even be nonexistent., Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

We study the problem of the irreducibility of the Hessian variety $\mathcal{H}_f$ associated with a smooth cubic hypersurface $V(f)\subset \mathbb{P}^n$. We prove that when $n\leq5$, $\mathcal{H}_f$ is normal and irreducible if and only if $f$ is not of Thom-Sebastiani type, i.e., roughly, one can not separate its variables. This also generalizes a result of Beniamino Segre dealing with the case of cubic surfaces. The geometric approach is based on the study of the singular locus of the Hessian variety and on infinitesimal computations arising from a particular description of these singularities., Comment: 39 pages. Comments are welcome

Looking at the well-known Hubble tension as a tension in the calibrators of the cosmic distance ladder, i.e. the absolute magnitude $M$ of standard candles such as supernovae of Type Ia (SNIa) and the standard ruler represented by the comoving sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch, $r_d$, we propose a model-independent method to measure these distance calibrators independently from the cosmic microwave background and the first rungs of the direct distance ladder. To do so, we leverage state-of-the-art data on cosmic chronometers (CCH), SNIa and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) from various galaxy surveys. Taking advantage of the Gaussian Processes Bayesian technique, we reconstruct $M(z)$, $\Omega_k(z)$ and $r_d(z)$ at $z\lesssim2$ and check that no significant statistical evolution is preferred at 68\% C.L. This allows us to treat them as constants and constrain them assuming the metric description of gravity, the cosmological principle and the validity of CCH as reliable cosmic clocks, and SNIa and BAO as optimal standard candles and standard rulers, respectively, but otherwise in a model-independent way. We obtain: $\Omega_k=-0.07^{+0.12}_{-0.15}$, $M=(-19.314^{+0.086}_{-0.108})$ mag and $r_d=(142.3\pm 5.3)$ Mpc. At present, the uncertainties derived are still too large to arbitrate the tension but this is bound to change in the near future with the advent of upcoming surveys and data., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Contribution to the 2024 Cosmology session of the 58th Rencontres de Moriond

Several studies in the literature have found a disagreement between data on Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) derived using two distinct methodologies: the two-dimensional (2D or angular) BAO, which extracts the BAO signal from the angular two-point correlation function; and the three-dimensional (3D) BAO, which also exploits the radial signal imprinted on the large-scale structure of the universe. This discrepancy is worrisome, since many of the points contained in these data sets are obtained from the same catalogs of tracers, so we would expect them to be consistent. Since BAO measurements play a pivotal role in the building of the inverse distance ladder, this mismatch impacts the discourse on the Hubble tension and the theoretical solutions to the latter. So far, the discrepancy between 2D and 3D BAO has been only pointed out in the context of fitting analyses of cosmological models or parametrizations that involve a concrete calibration of the comoving sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch. In this Letter, we avoid the use of any calibration and cosmological model, assuming that the Etherington (a.k.a distance duality) relation holds. We use state-of-the-art measurements in our analysis, and study how the results change when the angular components of the 3D BAO data from BOSS/eBOSS are substituted by the recent data from DESI Y1. We find the tension to exist at the level of $\sim 2\sigma$ and $\sim 2.5\sigma$, respectively, when the SNIa of Pantheon+ are used, and at $\sim 4.6\sigma$ when they are replaced with those of DES Y5. We then apply a calibrator-independent method to investigate the robustness of the distance duality relation when analyzed not only with 3D BAO measurements, but also with 2D BAO. We do not find any hint for a violation of the cosmic distance duality relation in any of the considered data sets. [abridged], Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B

Current data on baryon acoustic oscillations and Supernovae of Type Ia cover up to $z\sim 2.5$. These observations play a very important role in the determination of cosmological parameters and have been widely used to constrain the $\Lambda$CDM and models beyond it. To extend the investigation to higher $z$, Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) stand out as one of the most promising observables since can probe the universe up to $z\sim9.4$. The use of GRB correlations is still a challenge due to the spread in their intrinsic properties. In this work, we propose an innovative and cosmology-independent method of calibration of the so-called 3D Dainotti correlation. We employ state-of-the-art data on Cosmic Chronometers (CCH) at $z\lesssim2$ and use the Gaussian Processes reconstruction tool. To match the CCH redshift range, we select 20 long GRBs in $0.553\leq z\leq1.96$ from the Platinum sample, which consists of well-defined GRB plateau properties that obey the fundamental plane relation. We verify that the choice of priors on the parameters of the Dainotti relation and the modelling of CCH uncertainties and covariance have negligible impact on our results. We also consider the case in which the redshift evolution of the physical features of the plane is accounted for. We find that the use of CCH allows us to identify a sub-sample of GRBs that adhere even more closely to the fundamental plane relation, with an intrinsic scatter of $\sigma_{int}=0.20^{+0.03}_{-0.05}$ when evolutionary effects are considered. In an epoch in which we strive to reduce uncertainties on the GRB correlations variables to tighten constraints on cosmological parameters, we have found a novel model-independent approach to pinpoint a sub-sample that can thus represent a valuable set of standardizable candles. This allows us to extend the distance ladder presenting a new catalogue of calibrated luminosity distances up to $z=5$., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Extended discussions (new Appendix B). Version accepted for publication in JHEAp

The $\sim 5\sigma$ mismatch between the value of the Hubble parameter measured by SH0ES and the one inferred from the inverse distance ladder (IDL) constitutes the biggest tension afflicting the standard model of cosmology, which could be pointing to the need of physics beyond $\Lambda$CDM. In this paper we study the background history required to solve the $H_0$ tension if we consider standard prerecombination physics, paying special attention to the role played by the data on baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) employed to build the IDL. We show that the anisotropic BAO data favor an ultra-late-time (phantom-like) enhancement of $H(z)$ at $z\lesssim 0.2$, accompanied by a transition in the absolute magnitude of supernovae of Type Ia $M(z)$ in the same redshift range. This agrees with previous findings in the literature. The effective dark energy (DE) density must be smaller than in the standard model at higher redshifts. Instead, when angular BAO data (claimed to be less subject to model dependencies) is employed in the analysis, we find that the increase of $H(z)$ starts at much higher redshifts, typically in the range $z\sim 0.5-0.8$. In this case, $M(z)$ could experience also a transition (although much smoother) and the effective DE density becomes negative at $z\gtrsim 2$. Both scenarios require a violation of the weak energy condition (WEC), but leave an imprint on completely different redshift ranges and might also have a different impact on the perturbed observables. They allow for the effective crossing of the phantom divide. Finally, we employ two alternative methods to show that current data from cosmic chronometers do not exclude the violation of the WEC, but do not add any strong evidence in its favor neither. Our work puts the accent on the utmost importance of the choice of the BAO data set in the study of the possible solutions to the $H_0$ tension., Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, 4 tables. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. Extended discussion (new appendices C and D), new figures, new Table IV, and references added. Typos corrected

In this paper, we analyze the Hessian locus associated to a general cubic hypersurface, by describing for every $n$ its singular locus and its desingularization. The strategy is based on strong connections between the Hessian and the quadrics defined as partial derivatives of the cubic polynomial. In particular, we focus our attention on the singularities of the Hessian hypersurface associated to the general cubic fourfold. It turns out to be a minimal surface of general type: its analysis is developed by exploiting the nature of this surface as a degeneracy locus of a symmetric vector bundle map and by describing an unramified double cover, which is constructed in a more general setting., Comment: 25 pages. Comments are welcome

We use the state-of-the-art data on cosmic chronometers (CCH) and the Pantheon+ compilation of supernovae of Type Ia (SNIa) to test the constancy of the SNIa absolute magnitude, $M$, and the robustness of the cosmological principle (CP) at $z\lesssim 2$ with a model-agnostic approach. We do so by reconstructing $M(z)$ and the curvature parameter $\Omega_{k}(z)$ using Gaussian Processes. Moreover, we use CCH in combination with data on baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) from various galaxy surveys (6dFGS, BOSS, eBOSS, WiggleZ, DES Y3) to measure the sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch, $r_d$, from each BAO data point and check their consistency. Given the precision allowed by the CCH, we find that $M(z)$, $\Omega_k(z)$ and $r_d(z)$ are fully compatible (at $<68\%$ C.L.) with constant values. This justifies our final analyses, in which we put constraints on these constant parameters under the validity of the CP, the metric description of gravity and standard physics in the vicinity of the stellar objects, but otherwise in a model-independent way. If we exclude the SNIa contained in the host galaxies employed by SH0ES, our results read $M=(-19.314^{+0.086}_{-0.108})$ mag, $r_d=(142.3\pm 5.3)$ Mpc and $\Omega_k=-0.07^{+0.12}_{-0.15}$, with $H_0=(71.5\pm 3.1)$ km/s/Mpc ($68\%$ C.L.). These values are independent from the main data sets involved in the $H_0$ tension, namely, the cosmic microwave background and the first two rungs of the cosmic distance ladder. If, instead, we also consider the SNIa in the host galaxies, calibrated with Cepheids, we measure $M=(-19.252^{+0.024}_{-0.036})$ mag, $r_d=(141.9^{+5.6}_{-4.9})$ Mpc, $\Omega_k=-0.10^{+0.12}_{-0.15}$ and $H_0=(74.0^{+0.9}_{-1.0})$ km/s/Mpc., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables. Version accepted for publication in MNRAS

In this paper we consider unramified coverings of the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_g$ of smooth projective complex curves of genus $g$. Under some hypothesis on the branch locus of the finite extended map to the Deligne-Mumford compactification, we prove the vanishing of the vector space of holomorphic 1-forms on the preimage of the smooth locus of $\mathcal{M}_g$. This applies to several moduli spaces, as the moduli space of curves with 2-level structures, of spin curves and of Prym curves. In particular, we obtain that there are no non-trivial holomorphic 1-forms on the smooth open set of the Prym locus.

In this paper we deal with Brill-Noether theory for higher-rank sheaves on a polarized nodal reducible curve $(C,\underline{w})$ following the ideas of [arXiv:alg-geom/9511003v1]. We study the Brill-Noether loci of $\underline{w}$-stable depth one sheaves on $C$ having rank $r$ on all irreducible components and having small slope. In analogy with what happens in the smooth case, we prove that these loci are closely related to BGN extensions. Moreover, we produce irreducible components of the expected dimension for these Brill-Noether loci., Comment: 21 pages. Comments are welcome

Gordan and Noether proved in their fundamental theorem that an hypersurface $X=V(F)\subseteq \mathbb{P}^n$ with $n\leq 3$ is a cone if and only if $F$ has vanishing hessian (i.e. the determinant of the Hessian matrix). They also showed that the statement is false if $n\geq 4$, by giving some counterexamples. Since their proof, several others have been proposed in the literature. In this paper we give a new one by using a different perspective which involves the study of standard Artinian Gorenstein $\mathbb{K}$-algebras and the Lefschetz properties. As a further application of our setting, we prove that a standard Artinian Gorenstein algebra $R=\mathbb{K}[x_0,\dots,x_4]/J$ with $J$ generated by a regular sequence of quadrics has the strong Lefschetz property. In particular, this holds for Jacobian rings associated to smooth cubic threefolds., Comment: 21 pages

In this paper we introduce some {\it variation functions} associated to the rank of the Infinitesimal Variations of Hodge Structure for a family of smooth projective complex curves. We give some bounds and inequalities and, in particular, we prove that if $X$ is a smooth plane curve $X$, then there exists a first order deformation $\xi\in H^1(T_X)$ which deforms $X$ as plane curve, such that $\xi\cdot:H^0(\omega_X)\to H^1(\mathcal{O}_{X})$ is an isomorphism. We also generalize the notions of variation functions to the higher dimensional case and we analyze the link between IVHS and the Weak and Strong Lefschetz properties of the Jacobian ring of a smooth hypersurface., Comment: 19 pages. Comments are welcome

The Quillen connection on ${\mathcal L} \rightarrow {\mathcal M}_g$, where ${\mathcal L}^*$ is the Hodge line bundle over the moduli stack of smooth complex projective curves curves ${\mathcal M}_g$, $g \geq 5$, is uniquely determined by the condition that its curvature is the Weil--Petersson form on ${\mathcal M}_g$. The bundle of holomorphic connections on ${\mathcal L}$ has a unique holomorphic isomorphism with the bundle on ${\mathcal M}_g$ given by the moduli stack of projective structures. This isomorphism takes the $C^\infty$ section of the first bundle given by the Quillen connection on ${\mathcal L}$ to the $C^\infty$ section of the second bundle given by the uniformization theorem. Therefore, any one of these two sections determines the other uniquely.

With the advent of big data and the birth of the data markets that sell personal information, individuals' privacy is of utmost importance. The classical response is anonymization, i.e., sanitizing the information that can directly or indirectly allow users' re-identification. The most popular solution in the literature is the k-anonymity. However, it is hard to achieve k-anonymity on a continuous stream of data, as well as when the number of dimensions becomes high.In this paper, we propose a novel anonymization property called z-anonymity. Differently from k-anonymity, it can be achieved with zero-delay on data streams and it is well suited for high dimensional data. The idea at the base of z-anonymity is to release an attribute (an atomic information) about a user only if at least z - 1 other users have presented the same attribute in a past time window. z-anonymity is weaker than k-anonymity since it does not work on the combinations of attributes, but treats them individually. In this paper, we present a probabilistic framework to map the z-anonymity into the k-anonymity property. Our results show that a proper choice of the z-anonymity parameters allows the data curator to likely obtain a k-anonymized dataset, with a precisely measurable probability. We also evaluate a real use case, in which we consider the website visits of a population of users and show that z-anonymity can work in practice for obtaining the k-anonymity too.

Let $(C,\underline{w})$ be a polarized nodal reducible curve. In this paper we consider coherent systems of type $(r,d,k)$ on $C$ with $k < r$. We prove that the moduli spaces of $(\underline{w},\alpha)$-stable coherent systems stabilize for large $\alpha$ and we generalize several results known for the irreducible case when we chose a good polarization. Then, we study in details the components of moduli spaces containing coherent systems arising from locally free sheaves., Comment: 21 pages

Since the sixties it is well known that there are no non-trivial closed holomorphic $1$-forms on the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_g$ of smooth projective curves of genus $g>2$. In this paper, we strengthen such result proving that for $g\geq 5$ there are no non-trivial holomorphic $1$-forms. With this aim, we prove an extension result for sections of locally free sheaves $\mathcal{F}$ on a projective variety $X$. More precisely, we give a characterization for the surjectivity of the restriction map $\rho_D:H^0(\mathcal{F})\to H^0(\mathcal{F}|_{D})$ for divisors $D$ in the linear system of a sufficiently large multiple of a big and semiample line bundle $\mathcal{L}$. Then, we apply this to the line bundle $\mathcal{L}$ given by the Hodge class on the Deligne Mumford compactification of $\mathcal{M}_g$., Comment: Several improvements were made. The last version has been accepted for publication in "Geometry & Topology"

In this paper we deal with polarizations on a nodal curve $C$ with smooth components. Our aim is to study and characterize a class of polarizations, which we call "good", for which depth one sheaves on $C$ reflect some properties that hold for vector bundles on smooth curves. We will concentrate, in particular, on the relation between the $\underline{w}$-stability of $\mathcal{O}_C$ and the goodness of $\underline{w}$. We prove that these two concepts agree when $C$ is of compact type and we conjecture that the same should hold for all nodal curves., Comment: 22 pages. New version has some changes and corrections. To appear on "Revista Matem\'atica Complutense"

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the adoption of severe measures to counteract the spread of the infection. Social distancing and lockdown measures modifies people's habits, while the Internet gains a major role to support remote working, e-teaching, online collaboration, gaming, video streaming, etc. All these sudden changes put unprecedented stress on the network. In this paper we analyze the impact of the lockdown enforcement on the Politecnico di Torino campus network. Right after the school shutdown on the 25th of February, PoliTO deployed its own in-house solution for virtual teaching. Ever since, the university provides about 600 virtual classes daily, serving more than 16,000 students per day. Here, we report a picture of how the pandemic changed PoliTO's network traffic. We first focus on the usage of remote working and collaborative platforms. Given the peculiarity of PoliTO in-house online teaching solution, we drill down on it, characterizing both the audience and the network footprint. Overall, we present a snapshot of the abrupt changes on campus traffic and learning due to COVID-19, and testify how the Internet has proved robust to successfully cope with challenges and maintain the university operations., Comment: Please cite this article as: Thomas Favale, Francesca Soro, Martino Trevisan, Idilio Drago, Marco Mellia, Campus Traffic and e-Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic, Computer Networks (2020), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107290

Let $C$ be a polarized nodal curve of compact type. In this paper we study coherent systems $(E,V)$ on $C$ given by a depth one sheaf $E$ having rank $r$ on each irreducible component of $C$ and a subspace $V \subset H^0(E)$ of dimension $k$. Moduli spaces of stable coherent systems have been introduced by King and Newstead and depend on a real parameter $\alpha$. We show that when $k \geq r$, these moduli spaces coincide for $\alpha$ big enough. Then we deal with the case $k=r+1$: when the degrees of the restrictions of $E$ are big enough we are able to describe an irreducible component of this moduli space by using the dual span construction., Comment: 26 pages

Given a vector bundle $E$ on a complex reduced curve $C$ and a subspace $V$ of $H^0(E)$ which generates $E$, one can consider the kernel of the evaluation map $ev_V:V\otimes \mathcal{O}_C\to E$, i.e. the {\it kernel bundle } $M_{E,V}$ associated to the pair $(E,V)$. Motivated by a well known conjecture of Butler about the semistability of $M_{E,V}$ and by the results obtained by several authors when the ambient space is a smooth curve, we investigate the case of a curve with one node. Unexpectedly, we are able to prove results which goes in the opposite direction with respect to what is known in the smooth case. For example, $M_{E,H^0(E)}$ is actually quite never $w$-semistable. Conditions which gives the $w$-semistability of $M_{E,V}$ when $V\subset H^0(E)$ or when $E$ is a line bundle are then given., Comment: Some typos corrected. Last version is accepted for publication in "International Journal of Mathematics"

Let $C$ be a curve with two smooth components and a single node. Let $\mathcal{U}_C(r,w,\chi)$ be the moduli space of $w$-semistable classes of depth one sheaves on $C$ having rank $r$ on both components and Euler characteristic $\chi$. In this paper, under suitable assumptions, we produce a projective bundle over the product of the moduli spaces of semistable vector bundles of rank $r$ on each components and we show that it is birational to an irreducible component of $\mathcal{U}_C(r,w,\chi)$. Then we prove the rationality of the closed subset containing vector bundles with given fixed determinant., Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure. Final version published on "Advances in Geometry"

We give a method for the computation of the plurigenera of a product-quotient manifold. We give two different types of applications to it: to the construction of Calabi-Yau threefolds and to the determination of the minimal model of a product-quotient surface of general type., Comment: 30 pages. To appear on ''Galois Covers, Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller Theory and Dessins d'Enfants - Interactions between Geometry, Topology, Number Theory and Algebra''. Frank Neumann, Sibylle Schroll (ed.) Series: Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics