Perverse sheaves of categories and some applications

We study perverse sheaves of categories their connections to classical algebraic geometry. We show how perverse sheaves of categories encode naturally derived categories of coherent sheaves on $\mathbb{P}^1$ bundles, semiorthogonal decompositions, and relate them to a recent proof of Segal that all autoequivalences of triangulated categories are spherical twists. Furthermore, we show that perverse sheaves of categories can be used to represent certain degenerate Calabi--Yau varieties.Comment: Material on mirror symmetry and noncommutative projective planes removed. Many other changes made at referee's request. Comments still welcome! 40 page

Mirror symmetry, Tyurin degenerations and fibrations on Calabi-Yau manifolds

We investigate a potential relationship between mirror symmetry for Calabi-Yau manifolds and the mirror duality between quasi-Fano varieties and Landau-Ginzburg models. More precisely, we show that if a Calabi-Yau admits a so-called Tyurin degeneration to a union of two Fano varieties, then one should be able to construct a mirror to that Calabi-Yau by gluing together the Landau-Ginzburg models of those two Fano varieties. We provide evidence for this correspondence in a number of different settings, including Batyrev-Borisov mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds, Dolgachev-Nikulin mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces, and an explicit family of threefolds that are not realized as complete intersections in toric varieties.Comment: v2: Section 5 has been completely rewritten to accommodate results removed from Section 5 of arxiv:1501.04019. v3: Final version, to appear in String-Math 2015, forthcoming volume in the Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics serie

Families of lattice polarized K3 surfaces with monodromy

We extend the notion of lattice polarization for K3 surfaces to families over a (not necessarily simply connected) base, in a way that gives control over the action of monodromy on the algebraic cycles, and discuss the uses of this new theory in the study of families of K3 surfaces admitting fibrewise symplectic automorphisms. We then give an application of these ideas to the study of Calabi-Yau threefolds admitting fibrations by lattice polarized K3 surfaces

Calabi-Yau Threefolds Fibred by Mirror Quartic K3 Surfaces

We study threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the moduli space of mirror quartic K3 surfaces. This is then used to give a complete explicit description of all Calabi-Yau threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We conclude by studying the properties of such Calabi-Yau threefolds, including their Hodge numbers and deformation theory.Comment: v2: Significant changes at the request of the referee. Section 3 has been rearranged to accommodate a revised proof of Proposition 3.5 (formerly 3.2). Section 5 has been removed completely, it will instead appear as part of Section 5 in arxiv:1601.0811

Pseudolattices, del Pezzo surfaces, and Lefschetz fibrations

Motivated by the relationship between numerical Grothendieck groups induced by the embedding of a smooth anticanonical elliptic curve into a del Pezzo surface, we define the notion of a quasi del Pezzo homomorphism between pseudolattices and establish its basic properties. The primary aim of the paper is then to prove a classification theorem for quasi del Pezzo homomorphisms, using a pseudolattice variant of the minimal model program. Finally, this result is applied to the classification of a certain class of genus one Lefschetz fibrations over discs.Comment: v2: Minor revisions at the request of the referee. Remark 3.24 is new, as is the discussion of the noncommutative setting in the final sectio

Hodge Numbers from Picard-Fuchs Equations

Given a variation of Hodge structure over $\mathbb{P}^1$ with Hodge numbers $(1,1,\dots,1)$, we show how to compute the degrees of the Deligne extension of its Hodge bundles, following Eskin-Kontsevich-M\"oller-Zorich, by using the local exponents of the corresponding Picard-Fuchs equation. This allows us to compute the Hodge numbers of Zucker's Hodge structure on the corresponding parabolic cohomology groups. We also apply this to families of elliptic curves, K3 surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds