On contact loci of hyperplane arrangements (Q2665749)

Given regular non-constant function \(f\) on a smooth complex variety \(X\) the \(m\)-contact locus of \(f\), \(\mathcal{X}_m(f)\) is the set of all jets in \(\mathcal{L}_m(X)\) whose order of vanishing along \(f\) is \(m\). For arcs in \(\mathcal{L}(X)\) with order of vanishing \(m\) we get the contact locus \(\mathrm{Cont}^m(f)\). Frequently it is difficult to describe the topology of \(\mathcal{X}_m(f)\) and to determine its cohomology ring, and this is the main issue in this article, for hyperplane multi-arrangement \(\mathcal{A}\). It is the zero set of \(f = h_1^{s_1}\dots h_d^{s_d}\) in \(\mathbb{A}^n\), where \(h_i\) are linear polynomials pairwise distinct up to constant. The corresponding hyperplanes \(\{H_1, \dots, H_d \}\) have multiplicities \(s_1, \dots s_d\), and taking the intersection lattice plus the multiplicities gives the data defining the combinatorial type of \(\mathcal{A}\). The main theorem in this article gives a decomposition in the case of central multi-arrangement, \(\mathcal{X}_m(\mathcal{A}) = \coprod_{j \in S(m)} \mathcal{C}_j(\mathcal{A})\) where \(S(m) = \{j\in {\mathbb{N}}^d: \sum_i g_{i}s_i= m\}\). Each \(\mathcal{C}_j(\mathcal{A})\neq \emptyset\) is irreducible, both open and closed, and is equal to the complement of an arrangement \(\mathcal{A}_j\) with the same rank as \(\mathcal{A}\) in some space \(X_j\). There is one-to-one correspondence between the set \(T(m) \subset S(m)\) of all such indices \(j\) and the set of chains of length \(m\) of elements in the intersection lattice of \(\mathcal{A}\) whose sum of multiplicities equals \(m\). Moreover, the combinatorial type of \(\mathcal{A}\) determines \(T(m)\) and the combinatorial type of each \(\mathcal{A}_j\), and this is refinement in this particular case of results in [\textit{L. Ein} et al., Compos. Math. 140, No. 5, 1229--1244 (2004; Zbl 1060.14004); \textit{M. Mustaţă}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 358, No. 11, 5015--5023 (2006; Zbl 1126.14003)]. As a corollary from the general case (which is obtained here also) plus Orlik-Solomon theorem [\textit{A. Dimca}, Hyperplane arrangements. An introduction. Cham: Springer (2017; Zbl 1362.14001)], the degree of the Betti polynomial of \(\mathcal{X}_m (\mathcal{A})\) is equal to \(\operatorname{rank} \mathcal{A}\). Using the decomposition from the main theorem one can compute explicitly the cohomology of \(\mathcal{X}_m\) in terms of the combinatorial type of \(\mathcal{A}\), which has as a consequence that two combinatorially equivalent hyperplane arrangements have isomorphic cohomology algebras of the corresponding contact loci. In another result are calculated, for generic hyperplane arrangements the Betti numbers of the \(m\)-contact locus. The restricted \(m\)-contact locus is \(\mathfrak{X}_m(f):= \{\gamma \in \mathcal{L}_m(X)\mid \gamma(f) = t^m + (\text{higher order terms})\}\). If \(\mathcal{A}\) is central arrangement, it does not depend on the choice of polynomial \(f\) defining it, and is denoted by \(\mathfrak{X}_m(\mathcal{A})\). From the decomposition (proved here in the general), it follows that in that case \[\mathfrak{X}_m(\mathcal{A}) = \coprod_{j \in T(m)} \mathcal{F}_j(\mathcal{A}_j) \] where \(\mathcal{F}_j\) is the Milnor fiber of \(\mathcal{A}_j\). As a consequence of this result and the main theorem for central hyperplane arrangement are obtained representations for the naive motivic zeta function \(Z^{\text{naive}}(f, T):= \sum_{m \geq 0} [\mathcal{X}_m(f)]{\mathbb{L}}^{-nm}T^m\), and its non-naive version \(Z(f, T):= \sum_{m \geq 0} [\mathfrak{X}_m(f)]{\mathbb{L}}^{-nm}T^m\). Finally, the main theorem is compared with the description of contact loci [\textit{L. Ein} et al., Compos. Math. 140, No. 5, 1229--1244 (2004; Zbl 1060.14004)] in terms of log resolutions, and is proved that for a spectral sequence associated to an \(m\)-separating log resolution [\textit{N. Budur} et al., ``Cohomology of contact loci'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1911.08213}] which factors through the canonical log resolution, the spectral sequence degenerates at \(E_1\).