Singular hypersurfaces characterizing the Lefschetz properties

In the paper untitled "Laplace equations and the Weak Lefschetz Property" the authors highlight the link between rational varieties satisfying a Laplace equation and artinian ideals that fail the Weak Lefschetz property. Continuing their work we extend this link to the more general situation of artinian ideals failing the Strong Lefschetz Property. We characterize the failure of SLP (that includes WLP) by the existence of special singular hypersurfaces (cones for WLP). This characterization allows us to solve three problems posed by Migliore and Nagel and to give new examples of ideals failing the SLP. Finally, line arrangements are related to artinian ideals and the unstability of the associated derivation bundle is linked with the failure of SLP. Moreover we reformulate the so-called Terao's conjecture for free line arrangements in terms of artinian ideals failing the SLP

Homological mirror symmetry for the quintic 3-fold

We prove homological mirror symmetry for the quintic Calabi-Yau 3-fold. The proof follows that for the quartic surface by Seidel (arXiv:math/0310414) closely, and uses a result of Sheridan (arXiv:1012.3238). In contrast to Sheridan's approach (arXiv:1111.0632), our proof gives the compatibility of homological mirror symmetry for the projective space and its Calabi-Yau hypersurface.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures. v2: revised following the suggestions of the referee

Monodromy invariants in symplectic topology

This text is a set of lecture notes for a series of four talks given at I.P.A.M., Los Angeles, on March 18-20, 2003. The first lecture provides a quick overview of symplectic topology and its main tools: symplectic manifolds, almost-complex structures, pseudo-holomorphic curves, Gromov-Witten invariants and Floer homology. The second and third lectures focus on symplectic Lefschetz pencils: existence (following Donaldson), monodromy, and applications to symplectic topology, in particular the connection to Gromov-Witten invariants of symplectic 4-manifolds (following Smith) and to Fukaya categories (following Seidel). In the last lecture, we offer an alternative description of symplectic 4-manifolds by viewing them as branched covers of the complex projective plane; the corresponding monodromy invariants and their potential applications are discussed.Comment: 42 pages, notes of lectures given at IPAM, Los Angele