We consider the space $\mathcal{P}_d$ of smooth complex projective plane curves of degree $d$. There is the tautological family of plane curves defined over $\mathcal{P}_d$, which has an associated monodromy representation $\rho _d: \pi _1(\mathcal{P}_d) \to \textrm{Mod}(\Sigma _g)$ into the mapping class group of the fiber. For $d \le 4$, classical algebraic geometry implies the surjectivity of $\rho _d$. For $d \ge 5$, the existence of a $(d-3)^{rd}$ root of the canonical bundle implies that $\rho _d$ cannot be surjective. The main result of this paper is that for $d = 5$, the image of $\rho _5$ is as large as possible, subject to this constraint. This requires combining the algebro-geometric work of Lönne with Johnson’s theory of the Torelli subgroup of $\textrm{Mod}(\Sigma _g)$.

The Ceresa cycle is an algebraic cycle attached to a smooth algebraic curve with a marked point, which is trivial when the curve is hyperelliptic with a marked Weierstrass point. The image of the Ceresa cycle under a certain cycle class map provides a class in étale cohomology called the Ceresa class. Describing the Ceresa class explicitly for nonhyperelliptic curves is in general not easy. We present a ‘combinatorialization’ of this problem, explaining how to define a Ceresa class for a tropical algebraic curve and also for a topological surface endowed with a multiset of commuting Dehn twists (where it is related to the Morita cocycle on the mapping class group). We explain how these are related to the Ceresa class of a smooth algebraic curve over $\mathbb {C}(\!(t)\!)$ and show that the Ceresa class in each of these settings is torsion.

A question of Griffiths–Schmid asks when the monodromy group of an algebraic family of complex varieties is arithmetic. We resolve this in the affirmative for a class of algebraic surfaces known as Atiyah–Kodaira manifolds, which have base and fibers equal to complete algebraic curves. Our methods are topological in nature and involve an analysis of the ‘geometric’ monodromy, valued in the mapping class group of the fiber.

We prove that the monodromy group of a reduced irreducible square system of general polynomial equations equals the symmetric group. This is a natural first step towards the Galois theory of general systems of polynomial equations, because arbitrary systems split into reduced irreducible ones upon monomial changes of variables. In particular, our result proves the multivariate version of the Abel–Ruffini theorem: the classification of general systems of equations solvable by radicals reduces to the classification of lattice polytopes of mixed volume 4 (which we prove to be finite in every dimension). We also notice that the monodromy of every general system of equations is either symmetric or imprimitive. The proof is based on a new result of independent importance regarding dual defectiveness of systems of equations: the discriminant of a reduced irreducible square system of general polynomial equations is a hypersurface unless the system is linear up to a monomial change of variables.

Using recent results by Măcinic, Papadima and Popescu, and a refinement of an older construction of ours, we determine the monodromy action on $H^{1}(F(G),\mathbb{C})$, where $F(G)$ denotes the Milnor fiber of a hyperplane arrangement associated to an irreducible complex reflection group $G$.

In a 2012 paper, the second author showed that a tunnel of a tunnel number one, fibered link in ${{S}^{3}}$ can be isotoped to lie as a properly embedded arc in the fiber surface of the link. In this paper we observe that this is true for fibered links in any 3-manifold, we analyze how the arc behaves under the monodromy action, and we show that the tunnel arc is nearly clean, with the possible exception of twisting around the boundary of the fiber.

Using a recent result by S. Papadima and A. Suciu, we show that the equivariant Poincaré– Deligne polynomial of the Milnor fiber of a projective line arrangement having only double and triple points is combinatorially determined.

An invertible polynomial in n variables is a quasi-homogeneous polynomial consisting of n monomials so that the weights of the variables and the quasi-degree are well defined. In the framework of the construction of mirror symmetric orbifold Landau–Ginzburg models, Berglund, Hübsch and Henningson considered a pair (f, G) consisting of an invertible polynomial f and an abelian group G of its symmetries together with a dual pair . Here we study the reduced orbifold zeta functions of dual pairs (f, G) and and show that they either coincide or are inverse to each other depending on the number n of variables.

We describe a general setting where the monodromy action on the first cohomology group of the Milnor fiber of a hyperplane arrangement is the identity.

We show that some hypergeometric monodromy groups in ${\rm Sp}(4,\mathbf{Z})$ split as free or amalgamated products and hence by cohomological considerations give examples of Zariski dense, non-arithmetic monodromy groups of real rank $2$. In particular, we show that the monodromy group of the natural quotient of the Dwork family of quintic threefolds in $\mathbf{P}^{4}$ splits as $\mathbf{Z}\ast \mathbf{Z}/5\mathbf{Z}$. As a consequence, for a smooth quintic threefold $X$ we show that the group of autoequivalences $D^{b}(X)$ generated by the spherical twist along ${\mathcal{O}}_{X}$ and by tensoring with ${\mathcal{O}}_{X}(1)$ is an Artin group of dihedral type.

We construct motivic invariants of a subvariety of an algebraic torus from its tropicalization and initial degenerations. More specifically, we introduce an invariant of a compactification of such a variety called the ‘tropical motivic nearby fiber’. This invariant specializes in the schön case to the Hodge–Deligne polynomial of the limit mixed Hodge structure of a corresponding degeneration. We give purely combinatorial expressions for this Hodge–Deligne polynomial in the cases of schön hypersurfaces and matroidal tropical varieties. We also deduce a formula for the Euler characteristic of a general fiber of the degeneration.

We provide certain unusual generalizations of Clausen's and Orr's theorems for solutions of fourth-order and fifth-order generalized hypergeometric equations. As an application, we present several examples of algebraic transformations of Calabi–Yau differential equations.

We explain three methods for showing that the $p$-adic monodromy of a modular family of abelian varieties is ‘as large as possible', and illustrate them in the case of the ordinary locus of the moduli space of $g$-dimensional principally polarized abelian varieties over a field of characteristic $p$. The first method originated from Ribet's proof of the irreducibility of the Igusa tower for Hilbert modular varieties. The second and third methods both exploit Hecke correspondences near a hypersymmetric point, but in slightly different ways. The third method was inspired by work of Hida, plus a group theoretic argument for the maximality of $\ell$-adic monodromy with $\ell\neq p$.

Une conjecture de Grothendieck prédit que le transport parallèle de toute classe de cycle algébrique invariante par monodromie est encore une classe de cycle algébrique. Nous prouvons qu'il s'agit d'une conséquence des conjectures standard.

Dans un travail antérieur, nous avions démontré, en caractéristique nulle, une variante de cette conjecture de déformation, en remplaçant la notion de cycle algébrique par celle de cycle motivé (adjonction formelle des inverses des isomorphismes de Lefschetz attachés à des polarisations). Nous étendons ici ce résultat en caractéristique arbitraire, sous diverses hypothèses (par exemple si la base est ‘presque complète’).

Nous définissons inconditionnellement des groupes de Galois motiviques dans ce contexte, et étudions leur variation en famille.

A conjecture due to Grothendieck predicts that the parallel transport of any monodromy-invariant algebraic cycle class remains an algebraic cycle class. We prove that this follows from the standard conjectures.

We have shown in a previous work a variant of this deformation conjecture in characteristic zero, in which algebraic cycles are replaced by motivated cycles (formal adjunction of inverses of Lefschetz isomorphisms attached to polarizations). We extend this result in any characteristic under various assumptions, for instance if the base is ‘almost complete’.

We give an unconditional construction of motivic Galois groups in this context, and study their variation in a family of projective smooth varieties.

In this article, we give an explicit formula to compute the non abelian twisted sign-determined Reidemeister torsion of the exterior of a fibered knot in terms of its monodromy. As an application, we give explicit formulae for the non abelian Reidemeister torsion of torus knots and of the figure eight knot.

A p-adically uniformized variety is a smooth projective variety whose associated rigid analytic space admits a uniformization by Drinfeld's p-adic symmetric domain. For such a variety we prove the monodromy-weight conjecture, which asserts that two independently defined filtrations on the log-crystalline cohomology of the special fiber in fact coincide. The proof proceeds by reducing the conjecture to a combinatorial statement about harmonic cochains on the Bruhat–Tits building, which was verified in our previous work.

In this paper we study the pseudorandom properties of the signs of Kloosterman sums.

We prove that the zeta function of an irreducible hypersurface quasi-ordinary singularity f equals the zeta function of a plane curve singularity g. If the local coordinates $(x_1,\dots,x_{d+1})$ of f are ‘nice’, then $g=f(x_1,0,\dots,0,x_{d+1})$. Moreover, the Puiseux pairs of g can also be recovered from (any set of) distinguished tuples of f.

In this note we are studying the Lie algebras associated to non-abelian unipotent periods on $P^1_{\mathbb{Q}(\mu_n)}\setminus\{0,\mu_n,\infty\}$. Let $n$ be a prime number. We assume that for any $m\geq 1$ the numbers $Li_{m+1}(\xi_n^k)$ for $1\leq k\leq (n-1)/2$ are linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$ in $\mathbb{C}/(2\pi\ri)^{m+1}\mathbb{Q}$. Let $S=\{k_1,\cdots,k_q\}$ be a subset of $\{1,\dots,p-1\}$ such that if $k\in S$, then $p-k\in S$ and $(S+S)\cap S=\emptyset$ (the sum of two elements of $S$ is calculated $\mathrm{Mod}p$). Then we show that in the Lie algebra associated to non-abelian unipotent periods on $P^1_{\mathbb{Q}(\mu_n)}\setminus \{0,\mu_n,\infty\}$ there are derivations $D^{k_1}_{m+1},\dots,D^{k_q}_{m+1}$ in each degree $m+1$ and these derivations are free generators of a free Lie subalgebra of this Lie algebra.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 11G55

Monodromy groups, i.e. the groups of isometries of the intersection lattice LX [colone] H2/torsion generated by the monodromy action of all deformation families of a given surface, have been computed by the author for any minimal elliptic surface with pg > q = 0. New and refined methods are now employed to address the cases of minimal elliptic surfaces with pg [ges ] q > 0. Thereby we get explicit families such that any isometry is in the group generated by their monodromies or does not respect the invariance of the canonical class or the spinor norm. The monodromy is also shown to act by the full symplectic group on the first homology modulo torsion.