A formula for the characteristic polynomial of an arrangement (Q579259): Difference between revisions

Let V be a vector space of dimension \(\ell\) over the field K and \({\mathfrak A}\) be a finite set of hyperplanes of V (this is named an arrangement). The characteristic polynomial of \({\mathfrak A}\) is defined by the formula: \(\chi({\mathfrak A};t) = \sum_{X\in L({\mathfrak A})}\mu (V,X)t^{\dim X}\), where \(L({\mathfrak A})\) is the collection of all intersections of elements of \({\mathfrak A}\). Let \(S=S(V^*)\) be the symmetric algebra of the dual space \(V^*\) of V which is a graded K-algebra with deg\(f=1\) for all \(f\in V^*\setminus \{0\}\). For \(p\geq 0\) let \(Der^ p(S)\) be the S- module of all alternating p-linear functions \(\theta: S^ n\to S\) which are K-derivations in each variable, \(Der^ 0(S)=S\). Choose \(\alpha_ H\in V\) with Ker (\(\alpha\) \({}_ H)=H\) and \(Q=\prod_{H\in {\mathfrak A}}\alpha_ H\in S\). Define \[ D^ p({\mathfrak A})=\{\theta \in Der^ p(S)/\theta (Q,f_ 1,...,f_ p)\in QS,\text{ for all } f_ 2,...,f_ p\in S\}, \] \(D^ 0({\mathfrak A})=S\). Then \(D^ p({\mathfrak A})\) is a graded S-module. Let Poin\((D^ p({\mathfrak A}),x)\) be the Poincaré series of \(D^ p({\mathfrak A})\). The main result of the paper is the following theorem: For any arrangement \({\mathfrak A}\) in V, \[ \chi ({\mathfrak A};t)=(- 1)^{\ell}\sum_{p\geq 0}\text{Poin}(D^ p({\mathfrak A}),x)(t(x-\ell)- \ell)^ p. \]