Monodromy of Projective Curves

The uniform position principle states that, given an irreducible nondegenerate curve C in the projective r-space $P^r$, a general (r-2)-plane L is uniform, that is, projection from L induces a rational map from C to $P^1$ whose monodromy group is the full symmetric group. In this paper we show the locus of non-uniform (r-2)-planes has codimension at least two in the Grassmannian for a curve C with arbitrary singularities. This result is optimal in $P^2$. For a smooth curve C in $P^3$ that is not a rational curve of degree three, four or six, we show any irreducible surface of non-uniform lines is a Schubert cycle of lines through a point $x$, such that projection from $x$ is not a birational map of $C$ onto its image.Comment: corrected typo in first paragraph of introduction, 23 pages, AMSLaTe

Vector bundles and theta functions on curves of genus 2 and 3

Let C be a curve of genus g, and let SU(r) be the moduli space of vector bundles of rank r on C, with trivial determinant. A general E in SU(r) defines a theta divisor in the linear system |r Theta|, where Theta is the canonical theta divisor in Pic^{g-1}(C). This defines a rational map SU(r) - - > |r Theta|, which is the map associated to the determinant bundle on SU(r) (the positive generator of Pic(SU(r)). In this paper we prove that in genus 2 this map is generically finite and dominant. The same method, together with some classical work of Morin, shows that in rank 3 and genus 3 the theta map is a finite morphism -- in other words, every E in SU(3) admits a theta divisor.Comment: 12 page

Addendum to `Fake Projective Planes'

The addendum updates the results presented in the paper `Fake Projective Plane, Invent Math 168, 321-370 (2007)' and makes some additions and corrections. The fake projective planes are classified into twenty six classes. Together with a recent work of Donald Cartwright and Tim Steger, there is now a complete list of fake projective planes. There are precisely one hundred fake projective planes as complex surfaces classified up to biholomorphism.Comment: A more refined classification is given in the new versio

Characteristic varieties and Betti numbers of free abelian covers

The regular \Z^r-covers of a finite cell complex X are parameterized by the Grassmannian of r-planes in H^1(X,\Q). Moving about this variety, and recording when the Betti numbers b_1,..., b_i of the corresponding covers are finite carves out certain subsets \Omega^i_r(X) of the Grassmannian. We present here a method, essentially going back to Dwyer and Fried, for computing these sets in terms of the jump loci for homology with coefficients in rank 1 local systems on X. Using the exponential tangent cones to these jump loci, we show that each \Omega-invariant is contained in the complement of a union of Schubert varieties associated to an arrangement of linear subspaces in H^1(X,\Q). The theory can be made very explicit in the case when the characteristic varieties of X are unions of translated tori. But even in this setting, the \Omega-invariants are not necessarily open, not even when X is a smooth complex projective variety. As an application, we discuss the geometric finiteness properties of some classes of groups.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in International Mathematics Research Notice

Light dual multinets of order six in the projective plane

The aim of this paper is twofold: First we classify all abstract light dual multinets of order $6$ which have a unique line of length at least two. Then we classify the weak projective embeddings of these objects in projective planes over fields of characteristic zero. For the latter we present a computational algebraic method for the study of weak projective embeddings of finite point-line incidence structures