Search

We classify subgroups of $\textrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ up to conjugacy, which occur as monodromy groups of elliptically fibered K3 surfaces following a general strategy proposed by Bogomolov and Tschinkel. The essential step is the factorisation of the functional invariant $j$ with second factor a Belyi function of maximal possible degree and the classification of the corresponding subgroups $\bar\Gamma$ of $\textrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ using dessins d'enfants., Comment: 25 pages

We describe the birational and the biregular theory of cyclic and Abelian coverings between real varieties., Comment: 25 pages, dedicated to Slava (Viatcheslav) Kharlamov on the occasion of his 71-st birthday, final version to appear on Mathematische Annalen

In this paper we investigate two stratifications of the moduli space of elliptically fibred K3 surfaces. The first comes from Shimada's classification of connected components of elliptically fibred K3 surfaces and is closely related to the root lattice of the fibration. The second is the monodromy stratification defined by Bogomolov, Petrov and Tschinkel. The main result of the paper is a classification of all positive-dimensional ambi-typical strata, that is strata which are both Shimada root strata and monodromy strata. We further discuss the connection with moduli spaces of lattice-polarised K3 surfaces. The paper contains an appendix by M. Kirschmer providing computational results on the 1-dimensional ambi-typical strata., Comment: 55 pages, appendix by Markus Kirschmer, to appear in Algebraic Geometry

We generalize presentations of the fundamental group of discriminant complements and arrive at a class of presentations associated naturally with words in the free monoid of the alphabet $\sigma_1,\dots,\sigma_{n-1}$. Our study addresses invariance properties of these presentations and the presented groups under various operations on the words. In particular we prove that the group does only depend on the corresponding element in the positive braid monoid, and under mild hypotheses only on its conjugacy class in the braid group., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, v2: new title and more motivation to put these new braid like groups into perspective

We consider components of Hurwitz moduli space of G-Galois covers and set up a powerful algebraic framework to study the set of corresponding equivalence classes of monodromy maps. Within that we study geometric stabilisation by various G-covers branched over the disc. Our results addresses the problem to decide equivalence and stable equivalence algebraically. We recover a homological invariant, which we show to distinguish the equivalence classes of given boundary monodromy and Nielsen type, if the latter is sufficiently large in the appropriate sense., Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures

In this paper we give an asymptotic bound of the cardinality of Zariski multiples of particular plane singular curves. These curves have only nodes and cusps as singularities and are obtained as branched curves of ramified covering of the plane by surfaces isogenous to a product of curves with group $(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})^k$. The knowledge of the moduli space of these surfaces will enable us to produce Zariski multiplets whose number grows subexponentialy in function of their degree., Comment: 10 pages

Quite some time ago, at the singularity conference at Carg\`ese 1972 Brieskorn asked the following question: Is the local fundamental group $\pi_1^{s}(S-D)$ of the discriminant complement inside the semi-universal unfolding $S$ of an isolated hypersurface singularity constant for $s$ in the $\mu$-constant stratum $\Sigma_E$? We review this question and give an affirmative answer in case of singular plane curve germs of multiplicity at most $3$., Comment: 10 pages

Kodaira fibrations are surfaces of general type with a non-isotrivial fibration, which are differentiable fibre bundles. They are known to have positive signature divisible by $4$. Examples are known only with signature 16 and more. We review approaches to construct examples of low signature which admit two independent fibrations. Special attention is paid to ramified covers of product of curves which we analyse by studying the monodromy action for bundles of punctured curves. As a by-product we obtain a classification of all fix-point-free automorphisms on curves of genus at most $9$., Comment: 35 page, 5 figures

The topologically protected transport of colloidal particles on top of magnetic patterns of all possible single lattice constant two dimensional magnetic point group symmetries is studied experimentally, theoretically, and with numerical simulations. We examine the transport of colloidal particles in response to modulation loops of the external field. We classify the modulation loops into topologically distinct classes causing different transport. We show that the lattice symmetry has a profound influence on the transport modes, the accessibility of transport networks, and the individual addressability of paramagnetic versus diamagnetic colloidal particles. We show how the transport of colloidal particles above a two fold symmetric stripe pattern changes from universal adiabatic transport at large elevations via a topologically protected ratchet motion at intermediate elevations toward a non-transport regime at low elevations. Transport above four fold symmetric patterns is closely related to the transport above two fold symmetric patterns. There exists a family of three fold symmetric patterns that vary as a function of the phase of the pattern. We show how this family can be divided into two topologically distinct classes supporting different transport modes and being protected by proper and improper six fold symmetries. Both classes support individual control over the transport of paramagnetic and diamagnetic particles. We discuss the topological transition when moving the phase from one class of pattern to the other class. The similarities and the differences in the lattice symmetry protected transport of classical over-damped colloidal particles versus the topologically protected transport in quantum mechanical systems are emphasized

We theoretically study the motion of magnetic colloidal particles above a magnetic pattern and compare the predictions with Brownian dynamics simulations. The pattern consists of alternating square domains of positive and negative magnetization. The colloidal motion is driven by periodic modulation loops of an external magnetic field. There exist loops that induce topologically protected colloidal transport between two different unit cells of the pattern. The transport is very robust against internal and external perturbations. Theory and simulations are in perfect agreement.

Topological protection allows robust transport of localized phenomena such as quantum information, solitons, and dislocations. The transport can be either dissipative or non-dissipative. Here, we experimentally demonstrate and theoretically explain the topologically protected dissipative motion of colloidal particles above a periodic hexagonal magnetic pattern. By driving the system with periodic modulation loops of an external and spatially homogeneous magnetic field, we achieve total control over the motion of diamagnetic and paramagnetic colloids. We can transport simultaneously and independently each type of colloid along any of the six crystallographic directions of the pattern via adiabatic or deterministic ratchet motion. Both types of motion are topologically protected. As an application, we implement an automatic topologically protected quality control of a chemical reaction between functionalized colloids. Our results are relevant to other systems with the same symmetry.

We show that the topological equivalence class of holomorphic foliation germs with an isolated singularity of Poincar\'e type is determined by the topological equivalence class of the real intersection foliation of the (suitably normalized) foliation germ with a sphere centered in the singularity. We use this Reconstruction Theorem to completely classify topological equivalence classes of plane holomorphic foliation germs of Poincar\'e type and discuss a conjecture on the classification in dimension $\geq 3$., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. v3: references added

In this paper we investigate the asymptotic growth of the number of irreducible and connected components of the moduli space of surfaces of general type corresponding to certain families of surfaces isogenous to a higher product with group $(\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z)^k$. We obtain a significantly higher growth than the one in our previous paper [LP14, arXiv:1402.6438]., Comment: 5 pages

In this paper we study the topology of the stack $\mathcal{T}_g$ of smooth trigonal curves of genus g, over the complex field. We make use of a construction by the first named author and Vistoli, that describes $\mathcal{T}_g$ as a quotient stack of the complement of the discriminant. This allows us to use techniques developed by the second named author to give presentations of the orbifold fundamental group of $\mathcal{T}_g$, of its substrata with prescribed Maroni invariant and describe their relation with the mapping class group $\mathcal{M}ap_g$ of Riemann surfaces of genus g., Comment: To appear on Selecta Math

In this paper we investigate the asymptotic growth of the number of irreducible and connected components of the moduli space of surfaces of general type corresponding to certain families of surfaces isogenous to a higher product. We obtain a higher growth then the previous growth by Manetti [M97]., Comment: 8 pages

In a previous paper, arXiv:1206.5498, we introduced a new homological invariant $\e$ for the faithful action of a finite group G on an algebraic curve. We show here that the moduli space of curves admitting a faithful action of a finite group G with a fixed homological invariant $\e$, if the genus g' of the quotient curve is sufficiently large, is irreducible (and non empty iff the class satisfies the condition which we define as 'admissibility'). In the unramified case, a similar result had been proven by Dunfield and Thurston using the classical invariant in the second homology group of G, H_2(G, \ZZ). We achieve our result showing that the stable classes are in bijection with the set of admissible classes $\e$., Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures

In this paper we introduce a new invariant for the action of a finite group $G$ on a compact complex curve of genus $g$. With the aid of this invariant we achieve the classification of the components of the moduli space of curves with an effective action by the dihedral group $D_n$. This invariant has been used in the meanwhile by the authors in order to extend the genus stabilization result of Livingston and Dunfield and Thurston to the ramified case. This new version contains an appendix clarifying the correspondence between the above components and the image loci in the moduli space M_g (classifying when two such components have the same image)., Comment: 37 pages, final version appearing in 'Groups, Geometry and Dynamics'

We show in this paper that the set of irreducible components of the family of Galois coverings of P^1_C with Galois group isomorphic to D_n is in bijection with the set of possible numerical types. In this special case the numerical type is the equivalence class (for automorphisms of D_n) of the function which to each conjugacy class \mathcal{C} in D_n associates the number of branch points whose local monodromy lies in the class \mathcal{C}., Comment: 18 pages, to appear in Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei Cl. Sci. Fis. Mat. Natur. Rend. Lincei (9) Mat. Appl., volume in memory of Giovanni Prodi

This paper is a survey of the authors' recent results on "abc-surfaces" and the monodromy of their natural Lefschetz fibrations and projections to P^1 x P^1, see (arXiv:0910.2142). The results being surveyed explore various fundamental questions about complex deformation vs. symplectomorphism vs. diffeomorphism from the perspective of one explicit family of examples; the paper also contains some remarks which were not in earlier papers., Comment: 37 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of 13th G\"okova Geometry-Topology Conference

We consider spaces of plane curves in the setting of algebraic geometry and of singularity theory. On one hand there are the complete linear systems, on the other we consider unfolding spaces of bivariate polynomials of Brieskorn-Pham type. For suitable open subspaces we can define the bifurcation braid monodromy taking values in the Zariski resp. Artin braid group. In both cases we give the generators of the image. These results are compared with the corresponding geometric monodromy. It takes values in the mapping class group of braided surfaces. Our final result gives a precise statement about the interdependence of the two monodromy maps. Our study concludes with some implication with regard to the unfaithfulness of the geometric monodromy and the - yet unexploited - knotted geometric monodromy, which takes the ambient space into account., Comment: 15 pages, typos and inconsistencies removed, argument slightly amplified

Bidouble covers $\pi : S \mapsto Q$ of the quadric Q are parametrized by connected families depending on four positive integers a,b,c,d. In the special case where b=d we call them abc-surfaces. Such a Galois covering $\pi$ admits a small perturbation yielding a general 4-tuple covering of Q with branch curve $\De$, and a natural Lefschetz fibration obtained from a small perturbation of the composition of $ \pi$ with the first projection. We prove a more general result implying that the braid monodromy factorization corresponding to $\De$ determines the three integers a,b,c in the case of abc-surfaces. We introduce a new method in order to distinguish factorizations which are not stably equivalent. This result is in sharp contrast with a previous result of the first and third author, showing that the mapping class group factorizations corresponding to the respective natural Lefschetz pencils are equivalent for abc-surfaces with the same values of a+c, b. This result hints at the possibility that abc-surfaces with fixed values of a+c, b, although diffeomorphic but not deformation equivalent, might be not canonically symplectomorphic., Comment: 38 pages, showkeys command cancelled with %

According to the Tits conjecture proved by Crisp and Paris, [CP], the subgroups of the braid group generated by proper powers of the Artin elements are presented by the commutators of generators which are powers of commuting elements. Hence they are naturally presented as right-angled Artin groups. The case of subgroups generated by powers of the band generators is more involved. We show that the groups are right-angled Artin groups again, if all generators are proper powers with exponent at least 3. We also give a presentation in cases at the other extreme, when all generators occur with exponent 1 or 2, which is far from being that of a right-angled Artin group., Comment: 14 pages

We give finite presentations for the fundamental group of moduli stacks of smooth Weierstrass curves over complex projective space P^n which extend the classical result for elliptic curves to positive dimensional base. We thus get natural generalisations of SL_2(Z) and pave the way to understanding the fundamental group of moduli stacks of elliptic surfaces in general. Our approach exploits the natural involution on Weierstrass curves and the identification of its fixed loci with smooth hypersurfaces in an appropriate linear system on a projective line bundle over P^n. The fundamental group of the corresponding discriminant complement can be presented in terms of finitely many generators and relations using methods in the Zariski tradition, which were sucessfully elaborated in mathAG/0602371., Comment: 38 pages

We investigate the complement of the discriminant in the projective space PSym^d C^{n+1} of polynomials defining hypersurfaces of degree d in P^n. Following the ideas of Zariski we are able to give a presentation for the fundamental group of the discriminant complement which generalises the well-known presentation in case n=1, i.e. of the spherical braid group on d strands. In particular our argument proceeds by a geometric analysis of the discriminant polynomial as proposed by Bessis and draws on results and methods from previous work of the author addressing a comparable problem for any versal unfolding of Brieskorn Pham singularities., Comment: 34 pages

We introduce braid monodromy for the discriminant hypersurface in versal unfoldings of hypersurface singularities. Our objective is then to compute this invariant for singularities of Brieskorn Pham type: First we consider the unfolding by linear monomials in some detail and relate it to the versal unfolding. Next we present the A_n case in our framework. The two main chapters then provide the result in case of two variables and the inductive step to all higher dimensions. We finish with a presentation of the fundamental group of the discriminant complement., Comment: 159 pages

We define a monodromy homomorphism for irreducible families of regular elliptic fibrations which takes values in the mapping class group of a punctured sphere. We compute the monodromy for elliptic fibrations only which contain no singular fibres of types other than I_1 and I*_0. There are maximal groups, which can be the monodromy groups of algebraic, resp. differentiable families of elliptic surfaces, and we give an algebraic criterion for the equality of both groups which we can check to apply in case the number of I_1 fibres is at most 6., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures

We investigate the Hurwitz action of the braid group Br_n on the n-fold Cartesian product of Br_3 and determine some stabilisers of its Artin systems. Our algebraic result is complemented by a geometric study of families of plane polynomial coverings of degree 3. Together they lead to characterisations of the set of 'paths realised by degenerations' of the polynomials as defined by Donaldson in 'Polynomials, vanishing cycles and Floer homology'., Comment: 14 pages

Monodromy groups, i.e. the groups of isometries of the intersection lattice L_X:=H_2/torsion generated by the monodromy action of all deformation families of a given surface, have been computed in math.AG/0006231 for any minimal elliptic surface with p_g>q=0. New and refined methods are now employed to address the cases of minimal elliptic surfaces with p_g+1>q>0. To this end we find explicit families such that any isometry is in the group generated by their monodromies or does not respect the invariance of the canonical class or the spinor norm. The monodromy action is moreover shown to act by the full symplectic group on the first homology modulo torsion., Comment: 14 pages

Monodromy in analytic families of smooth complex surfaces yields groups of isotopy classes of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms for each family member X. For all deformation classes of minimal elliptic surfaces with p_g>q=0, we determine the monodromy group of a representative X, i.e. the group of isometries of the intersection lattice L_X:=H_2/torsion generated by the monodromy action of all families containing X. To this end we construct families such that any isometry is in the group generated by their monodromies or does not respect the invariance of the canonical class or the spinor norm., Comment: 15 pages