Complete Intersection Fibers in F-Theory

Global F-theory compactifications whose fibers are realized as complete intersections form a richer set of models than just hypersurfaces. The detailed study of the physics associated with such geometries depends crucially on being able to put the elliptic fiber into Weierstrass form. While such a transformation is always guaranteed to exist, its explicit form is only known in a few special cases. We present a general algorithm for computing the Weierstrass form of elliptic curves defined as complete intersections of different codimensions and use it to solve all cases of complete intersections of two equations in an ambient toric variety. Using this result, we determine the toric Mordell-Weil groups of all 3134 nef partitions obtained from the 4319 three-dimensional reflexive polytopes and find new groups that do not exist for toric hypersurfaces. As an application, we construct several models that cannot be realized as toric hypersurfaces, such as the first toric SU(5) GUT model in the literature with distinctly charged 10 representations and an F-theory model with discrete gauge group Z_4 whose dual fiber has a Mordell-Weil group with Z_4 torsion.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figures and 18 tables; added references in v

A Las Vegas algorithm to solve the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem

In this paper, we describe a new Las Vegas algorithm to solve the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem. The algorithm depends on a property of the group of rational points of an elliptic curve and is thus not a generic algorithm. The algorithm that we describe has some similarities with the most powerful index-calculus algorithm for the discrete logarithm problem over a finite field

Hilbert's fourteenth problem over finite fields, and a conjecture on the cone of curves

We give examples over arbitrary fields of rings of invariants that are not finitely generated. The group involved can be as small as three copies of the additive group, as in Mukai's examples over the complex numbers. The failure of finite generation comes from certain elliptic fibrations or abelian surface fibrations having positive Mordell-Weil rank. Our work suggests a generalization of the Morrison-Kawamata cone conjecture from Calabi-Yau varieties to klt Calabi-Yau pairs. We prove the conjecture in dimension 2 in the case of minimal rational elliptic surfaces.Comment: 26 pages. To appear in Compositio Mathematic

Curve counting and DT/PT correspondence for Calabi-Yau 4-folds

Recently, Cao-Maulik-Toda defined stable pair invariants of a compact Calabi-Yau 4-fold $X$. Their invariants are conjecturally related to the Gopakumar-Vafa type invariants of $X$ defined using Gromov-Witten theory by Klemm-Pandharipande. In this paper, we consider curve counting invariants of $X$ using Hilbert schemes of curves and conjecture a DT/PT correspondence which relates these to stable pair invariants of $X$. After providing evidence in the compact case, we define analogous invariants for toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds using a localization formula. We formulate a vertex formalism for both theories and conjecture a relation between the (fully equivariant) DT/PT vertex, which we check in several cases. This relation implies a DT/PT correspondence for toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds with primary insertions.Comment: 28 pages. Published versio

Discriminants in the Grothendieck Ring

We consider the "limiting behavior" of *discriminants*, by which we mean informally the locus in some parameter space of some type of object where the objects have certain singularities. We focus on the space of partially labeled points on a variety X, and linear systems on X. These are connected --- we use the first to understand the second. We describe their classes in the Grothendieck ring of varieties, as the number of points gets large, or as the line bundle gets very positive. They stabilize in an appropriate sense, and their stabilization is given in terms of motivic zeta values. Motivated by our results, we conjecture that the symmetric powers of geometrically irreducible varieties stabilize in the Grothendieck ring (in an appropriate sense). Our results extend parallel results in both arithmetic and topology. We give a number of reasons for considering these questions, and propose a number of new conjectures, both arithmetic and topological.Comment: 39 pages, updated with progress by others on various conjecture