A computational approach to Milnor fiber cohomology (Q2363341)

Let \(C\) be a reduced curve in \(\mathbb{P}^2\), given by the zero set of a homogeneous polynomial \(f\) of degree \(d\) in three variables. The Milnor fiber \(F\) is given by the set of solutions of the equation \(f(x,y,z)=1\) in \(\mathbb{C}^3\), which is obviously invariant by the diagonal action of the group of \(d\)-th roots of unity on \(\mathbb{C}^3\). In particular, \(F\) is equipped with an automorphism \(\sigma\) of order \(d\), and the Alexander polynomial of \(C\) is the characteristic polynomial of the induced automorphism on \(H^1(F,\mathbb{C})\). The authors give a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of the spectral sequence \(E_*(f)\) for \(\lambda=e^{-2k \pi i/d}\neq 1\) to be a root of the Alexander polynomial, as well as a lower and upper bounds for the corresponding multiplicity \(m(\lambda)\). Specifically, the bounds are given by \[ \max\{\dim E_2^{1,0}(f)_k,\dim E_2^{1,0}(f)_{d-k}\} \leq m(\lambda) \leq \dim E_2^{1,0}(f)_k + \dim E_2^{1,0}(f)_{d-k}, \] and the necessary and sufficient condition is given by the non-vanishing of the lower bound, i.e., by \(E_2^{1,0}(f)_k\neq 0\) or \(E_2^{1,0}(f)_{d-k}\neq 0\). The authors also give conditions that allow them to get enough computational information about the spectral sequence to determine the Alexander polynomial explicitly (and to get explicit bases for the corresponding eigenspaces). They illustrate these computational methods on several curves or families of curves.