Regular Functions Transversal at Infinity

We generalize and complete some of Maxim's recent results on Alexander invariants of a polynomial transversal to the hyperplane at infinity. Roughly speaking, and surprisingly, such a polynomial behaves both topologically and algebraically (e.g. in terms of the variation of MHS on the cohomology of its smooth fibers), like a homogeneous polynomial.Comment: This is a substantial improvement of the paper "Alexander Invariants and Transversality" by the first author, see math.AG/0411329. Both the topology and the associated mixed Hodge structures (not touched in the previous paper) are clearly describe

Sequences of LCT-polytopes

To r ideals on a germ of smooth variety X one attaches a rational polytope in the r-dimensional Euclidean space (the LCT-polytope) that generalizes the notion of log canonical threshold in the case of one ideal. We study these polytopes, and prove a strong form of the Ascending Chain Condition in this setting: we show that if a sequence P_m of such LCT-polytopes converges to a compact subset Q in the Hausdorff metric, then Q is equal to the intersection of all but finitely many of the P_m. Furthermore, Q is an LCT-polytope.Comment: 16 pages; v3: minor corrections, to appear in Mathematical Research Letter

Multivariable Hodge theoretical invariants of germs of plane curves

We describe methods for calculation of polytopes of quasiadjunction for plane curve singularities which are invariants giving a Hodge theoretical refinement of the zero sets of multivariable Alexander polynomials. In particular we identify some hyperplanes on which all polynomials in multivariable Bernstein ideal vanish

Motivic infinite cyclic covers

We associate with an infinite cyclic cover of a punctured neighborhood of a simple normal crossing divisor on a complex quasi-projective manifold (assuming certain finiteness conditions are satisfied) an element in the Grothendieck ring $K_0({\rm Var}^{\hat \mu}_{\mathbb{C}})$, which we call {\it motivic infinite cyclic cover}, and show its birational invariance. Our construction provides a unifying approach for the Denef-Loeser motivic Milnor fibre of a complex hypersurface singularity germ, and the motivic Milnor fiber of a rational function, respectively.Comment: published versio