Residue currents and Monge-Ampère operators (Q666725)

Let \(X\) be a complex variety of pure dimension \(n\) and let \(Z\subset X\) be an analytic subset of dimension \(p < n\). Let \(q=n-p\). Let \(T\) be a regular differential form on \(X\setminus Z\) such that around any point in \(X\), \(T\) and \(dT\) have \(\mathbb{L}^1_{\mathrm{loc}}\) coefficients. Then, \(T\) and \(dT\) determine currents \(\widetilde{T}\) and \(\widetilde{dT}\), respectively, on \(X\). The residue current associated to \(T\) is the current \[ R:=d\big(\widetilde{T}\big) - \widetilde{dT}, \] which is a current of (real) dimension \(2p\) supported on \(Z\). The structure of this residue current is well understood when \(Z\) is nonsingular: see, for instance, [\textit{H. Federer}, Geometric measure theory. Berlin: Springer (1969; Zbl 0176.00801)]. The author extends the latter result to any \(Z\), i.e., \(Z\) not necessarily nonsingular. With the above set-up, let \(\mathcal{I}\subset \mathcal{O}_X\) be a coherent subsheaf of ideals. Let \(Y = \operatorname{supp}(\mathcal{O}_X/\mathcal{I})\), and let \(q\) be its codimension. If, for an open subset \(U\) of \(X\), \(f_1,\dots, f_N\in \mathcal{O}(U)\) generate \(\mathcal{I}\) in \(U\) and \(f = (f_1,\dots, f_N)\), then \(\gamma_f\) is the distribution given by \[ \left.[Y]\right|_U\,=\,\gamma_f\big((i/2) \partial\overline{\partial}\|f\|^2\big)^2/q!\,. \] The author derives a transformation law for \(\gamma_f\). Using the above results or the techniques used in their proofs, the author presents several applications. For example, he obtains a characterisation of the pure dimensional algebraic subsets of \(\mathbb{C}^n\) that are complete intersections.