Characteristic varieties and constructible sheaves (Q931056)

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the translated components of the characteristic variety \(V_1(M)\). Following \textit{D. Arapura} [J. Algebr. Geom. 6, No. 3, 563--597 (1997; Zbl 0923.14010)] such a component \(W\) is described by a pair \((f,\rho)\) where (a) \(f:M \to S\) is a surjective morphism from the quasi projective smooth surface \(M\) to a smooth curve \(S\), having a connected generic fiber \(F\); (b) \(\rho\in T(M)\) is a torsion character such that \(W\) is the translate by \(\rho\) of the subtorus \(f^*(T(S))\) In section 2, basic facts on regular mappings \(f\) and its associated pencils are collected and the notion of admissible map used by Arapura is clarified In section 3, various properties of irreducible components of characteristic varieties are derived by a careful look at the results by Arapura. In section 4, the key role played by the constructible sheaves, obtained as direct images of local systems on \(M\) under the mapping \(f\) is emphasized. In particular for a local system \(L\in W\) the dimension of \(H^1(M,L)\) is expressed in terms of the Euler characteristic \(\chi(S)\) and the cardinality of the singular support of the sheaf \(F=R^0f_*L_\rho\). In the last section, the author associated to \(f\) a finite abelian group \(T(f)\) such that the torsion character \(\rho\) is determined by a character of \(T(f)\). The latter group is computed in terms of the multiplicities of the special fibers of \(f\).