Links of sandwiched surface singularities and self-similarity (Q2309418)

This paper studies sandwiched singularities in arbitrary characteristic. A normal 2-dimensional complete local ring \(\mathcal O\) (with algebraically closed residue field \(k\)) is \textit{sandwiched} if there exists a proper birational morphism \(X \to X_0\) from a normal algebraic surface \(X\) to a smooth surface \(X_0\) and a point \(x \in X\) such that \(\mathcal{O}\cong\widehat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}\). A normal point of an algebraic surface is a sandwiched singularity if its complete local ring is sandwiched. Over \(\mathbb C\) this definition is equivalent to that of \textit{M. Spivakovsky} [Ann. Math. (2) 131, No. 3, 411--491 (1990; Zbl 0719.14005)]. Given a point \(p\) on a smooth surface \(X_0\), let \(Y\to X_0\) be a sequence of point blowups centered above \(p\); contracting a connected divisor obtained by removing some components of the exceptional divisor gives a sandwiched singularity \((X, x)\) and any sandwiched singularity is locally étale isomorphic to such a singularity. The surface \(X\) is sandwiched between the smooth surfaces \(X_0\) and \(Y\), explaining the terminology. The authors give six different characterisations of sandwiched singularities, in term of self-similarity properties. The last of them is the existence of a proper birational morphism of algebraic surfaces \(\pi\colon X'\to X\) such that \(\widehat{\mathcal{O}_{X',p}}\cong \widehat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}\) for some point \(p\in \pi^{-1}(x)\). This property can also be formulated in terms of the dual graph of the singularity. A connected weighted graph is self-similar if it admits a nontrivial modification (where an elementary modification corresponds to a point blowup) containing a subgraph isomorphic to the original graph. The other characterisations involve the non-archimedean link \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\) of \((X, x)\). If \(k\) is endowed with the trivial absolute value and \(X^{\text{an}}\) is the analytification in the sense of Berkovich geometry, then \(\operatorname{NL}^\varepsilon(X, x) = \{y\in X^{\text{an}}\mid \max_i |z_i (y)| = \varepsilon\}\) does not depend on the embedding nor on \( \varepsilon\in (0,1)\) and is called the non-archimedean link of \((X, 0)\). Concretely it is is the set of semi-valuations \(v\) on \(\widehat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}\) that are normalized by the condition \(\min_{f\in\mathfrak{m}}v( f ) = 1\). A detailed description of the analytic structure of \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\) is given, following the work of the first author [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 370, No. 11, 7815--7859 (2018; Zbl 1423.14171)]. Self-similarity of the non-archimedean link \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\), and by extension of \((X, x)\), means that there exists a finite set \(T\) of points of type \(1\) (endpoints corresponding to semi-valuations with nontrivial kernel) of \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\) such that \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\setminus T\) is isomorphic to an open subset \(U\) of \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\) with \(\overline U\) a proper subset of \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\). This condition is implied by the existence of a finite set \(T\) of points of type \(1\) such that every open subset of \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\) contains an open subset isomorphic to \(\operatorname{NL}(X, x)\setminus T\). The authors also searched for a characterization of sandwiched singularities in terms of their archimedean links. A self-similar property reminiscent of the last mentioned property was not found. Building on the first self-similarity property the authors prove that a (complex analytic) normal surface singularity is sandwiched if and only if its (archimedean) link can be realised as a real-analytic global strongly pseudoconvex 3-fold in a compact (non-Kähler) complex surface containing a global spherical shell. Here global means that the complement of the real 3-fold or of the spherical shell is connected.