Jumps and monodromy of abelian varieties

We prove a strong form of the motivic monodromy conjecture for abelian varieties, by showing that the order of the unique pole of the motivic zeta function is equal to the size of the maximal Jordan block of the corresponding monodromy eigenvalue. Moreover, we give a Hodge-theoretic interpretation of the fundamental invariants appearing in the proof.Comment: Section 5 rewritten, Section 6 expande

Motivic zeta functions of degenerating Calabi-Yau varieties

We study motivic zeta functions of degenerating families of Calabi-Yau varieties. Our main result says that they satisfy an analog of Igusa's monodromy conjecture if the family has a so-called Galois-equivariant Kulikov model; we provide several classes of examples where this condition is verified. We also establish a close relation between the zeta function and the skeleton that appeared in Kontsevich and Soibelman's non-archimedean interpretation of the SYZ conjecture in mirror symmetry.Comment: New result on existence of Kulikov models for abelian varieties added in section 5.

A relative Hilbert-Mumford criterion

We generalize the classical Hilbert-Mumford criteria for GIT (semi-)stability in terms of one parameter subgroups of a linearly reductive group G over a field k, to the relative situation of an equivariant, projective morphism X -> Spec A to a noetherian k-algebra A. We also extend the classical projectivity result for GIT quotients: the induced morphism X^ss/G -> Spec A^G is projective. As an example of applications to moduli problems, we consider degenerations of Hilbert schemes of points.Comment: v4: minor correction

Stable reduction of curves and tame ramification

We study stable reduction of curves in the case where a tamely ramified base extension is sufficient. If X is a smooth curve defined over the fraction field of a strictly henselian discrete valuation ring, there is a criterion, due to T. Saito, that describes precisely, in terms of the geometry of the minimal model with strict normal crossings of X, when a tamely ramified extension suffices in order for X to obtain stable reduction. For such curves we construct an explicit extension that realizes the stable reduction, and we furthermore show that this extension is minimal. We also obtain purely geometric proof of Saito's criterion, avoiding the use of vanishing cycles.Comment: 19 page