Semi-negativity of Hodge bundles associated to Du Bois families (Q494092)

Projective Du Bois schemes are (possibly singular) schemes \(X\) admitting a Hodge filtration \(F^{\bullet} (H^i( X,\mathbb{C})\) in their singular cohomology groups such that \(\mathrm{Gr}_F^{0} H^i(X,\mathbb{C}) \cong H^i(X,\mathcal{O}_X)\). In this way one gets a suitable generalization of the Hodge decomposition \( H^i(X,\mathbb{C})\cong \bigoplus_{p+q=i} H^q(X, \Omega^p_X) \) holding for non-singular projective varieties. In this respect the paper deals with families whose singularities are ``mild'' in the sense of Hodge-theoretical properties. The main result of the paper, states that for projective Du Bois families \(f:X\to S\) the sheaf \(R^1f_*\mathcal{O}_X\) is semi-negative, meaning that its dual sheaf is a nef vector bundle. This statement is the generalization of Griffiths' classical result stating that if f is smooth, then the Hodge metric on \(R^1f_*\mathcal{O}_X\) has semi-negative curvature, in a context where mild singularities are allowed in the family.