Intersection homology and Alexander modules of hypersurface complements (Q2494177)

Intersection homology is used to investigate the Alexander modules of hypersurface complements. These invariants capture global information on the placement of a hypersurface in the projective space. They were introduced by \textit{A. Libgober} in [Duke Math. J. 49, 833--851 (1982; Zbl 0524.14026) and Ann. Math. (2) 139, No. 1, 117--144 (1994; Zbl 0815.57017)] and have been extensively studied ever since. The author extends results of A. Libgober for hypersurfaces with only isolated singularities to arbitrary singular hypersurfaces. Let \(V\) be a degree \(d\) hypersurface in the complex projective space \({\mathbb P}^{n+1}\). Fix a generic hyperplane \(H\) and denote by \(U\) the complement of \(V\cup H\) in \({\mathbb P}^{n+1}\). Let \(U^{c}\) be the infinite cyclic cover of \(U\) associated to the total linking number homomorphism. The Alexander modules of \(V\) are the \({\mathbb Q}[t^{\pm 1}]\)-modules \(H_i(U^{c},{\mathbb Q})\). It is easy to see that these modules are trivial for \(i>n+1\) and free of rank \((-1)^{n+1}\chi(U)\) for \(i=n+1\). The first result of the paper is that \(H_i(U^{c},{\mathbb Q})\) is a finitely generated semi-simple torsion \({\mathbb Q}[t^{\pm 1}]\)-module, for all \(i<n\). The orders \(\Delta_{V,i}(t)\) of these torsion modules are the Alexander polynomials of \(V\). The author then proves two divisibility results about these polynomials: \(\Delta_{V,i}(t)\) divides \(t^d-1\), and the prime factors of \(\Delta_{V,i}(t)\) are among the prime factors of the local Alexander poylnomials of the link pairs of strata in a stratification of the pair \(({\mathbb P}^{n+1},V)\). These results are then applied to obtain new restrictions on the eigenvalues of the monodromy of the Milnor fiber of an arrangement of affine hypersurfaces. The relationship between the Alexander modules of \(V\) and the Alexander modules of the link at infinity of \(V\) is also addressed. It is shown that in the range \(i<n\) the two modules coincide, whereas for \(i=n\) the first is a quotient of the latter.