Rank two jump loci for solvmanifolds and Lie algebras (Q1651445)

Let \(M\) be a connected, compact differentiable manifold with fundamental group \(\pi\) and \(\iota:G\to GL(V)\) be an algebraic representation of a complex linear algebraic group \(G\). The characteristic varieties, \(\mathcal{V}^i_r(M,\iota)\), in degree \(i\) and depth \(r\) are defined as \[ \mathcal{V}^i_r(M,\iota)=\{ \rho\in\mathrm{Hom}(\pi,G)\mid \dim H^i(M;\iota_{\rho}V)\geq r\}. \] The authors study these characteristic varieties, the idea is to replace \(M\) by a connected, finite dimensional Commutative Differential Graded Algebra (cdga), having the same Sullivan minimal model. Let \((A,d)\) be a cdga and \(\mathfrak{g}\) be a finite dimensional Lie algebra. Denote by \(\mathcal{F}(A,\mathfrak{g})\subseteq A^{1}\otimes\mathfrak{g}\) the variety of \(\mathfrak{g}\)-valued flat connections on \(A\). Moreover, let \(\theta :\mathfrak{g}\to \mathfrak{gl}(V)\) be a finite dimensional Lie representation with \(V\not=0\). The degree \(i\) and depth \(r\) resonance varieties, \(\mathcal{R}^{i}_{r}(A,\theta)\), of \(\mathcal{F}(A,\mathfrak{g})\) are defined as \[ \mathcal{R}^{i}_{r}(A,\theta)=\{ \omega\in\mathcal{F}(A,\mathfrak{g})\mid \dim H^{i}(A\otimes V,d_{\omega})\geq r\}, \] where \(d_{\omega}\) is a suitable defined differential on \(A\otimes V\) by \(\omega\) and \(\theta\). There is an isomorphism \(\mathrm{Hom}(\pi,G)_{(1)}\cong \mathcal{F}(A,\mathfrak{g})_{(0)}\) that identifies \(\mathcal{V}^{i}_{r}(M,\iota)_{(1)}\) with \(\mathcal{R}^{i}_{r}(A,\theta)_{(0)}\) in case \(A\) models \(M\). Let \(\mathcal{F}^{1}(A,\mathfrak{g})\subseteq \mathcal{F}(A,\mathfrak{g})\) denote those flat connections of the form \(\omega=\eta\otimes g\) with \(d\eta=0\), and \(\prod(A,\mathfrak{g})\subseteq \mathcal{F}^{1}(A,\mathfrak{g})\) those for which \(\mathrm{det}\;\theta (g)=0\). The main result is as follows Theorem 1.1. Let \((A,d)\) be a connected, finite dimensional cdga algebra over \(\mathbb{C}\), \(\theta : \mathfrak{g}\to \mathfrak{gl}(V)\) be a finite dimensional representation of a finite dimensional Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}\) with \(V\not=0\). Assume that \(0\) is an isolated point of \(\bigcup_{i\geq 0}\mathcal{R}^{i}_{1}(A)\) and that \(\mathcal{F}(A,\mathfrak{g})_{(0)}=\mathcal{F}^{1}(A,\mathfrak{g})_{(0)}\). Then \(\mathcal{R}^{i}_{1}(A,\theta)_{(0)}=\prod (A,\theta)_{(0)}\) for all \(i\). The authors apply this result to identify characteristic varieties for certain cases of solvmanifolds and nilmanifolds.