Polarized variation of Hodge structures of Calabi-Yau type and characteristic subvarieties over bounded symmetric domains (Q985684)

A construction of real polarized variations of Hodge structures (\(\mathbb{R}\)-PVHS) on each irreducible tube domain was presented by \textit{B. Gross} [Math. Res. Lett. 1, No. 1, 1--9 (1994; Zbl 0873.32032)], and he asked about the possible geometrical realization of them. In the paper under review, the authors generalize the construction proposed by Gross to each irreducible bounded symmetric domain; then they introduce some invariants associated with infinitesimal variations of Hodge structures (IVHS), called characteristic subvarieties, which give a non-trivial obstruction to the geometrical realization problem posed by Gross. The results of the paper under review are used by \textit{R. Gerkmann}, \textit{M. Sheng} and \textit{K. Zuo} [``Disproof of modularity of moduli space of CY 3-folds coming from eight planes of \(\mathbb{P}^{3}\) in general position'', \url{arXiv:0709.1054}]. If \(D\) is an irreducible bounded symmetric domain, fix an origin \(0\) and consider the identity component \(G\) of the automorphism group of \(D\). The domain \(D\) determines a fundamental representation \(W\) of the simple complex Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}^{\mathbb{C}}:=\mathrm{Lie}(G)\otimes\mathbb{C}\) which gives rise to an irreducible complex representation of \(G\). If \(\Gamma\) is a torsion free discrete subgroup of \(G\), the complex local system \(\mathbb{W}:=W\times_{\Gamma}D\) over the locally symmetric variety \(X:=\Gamma\setminus D\) is a complex polarized variation of Hodge structures (\(\mathbb{C}\)-PVHS). The associated system of Hodge bundles \((E,\theta)\) is such that the rank of \(E^{n,0}\) is 1, and \(\theta:T_{X}\to \Hom(E^{n,0},E^{n-1,1})\) is an isomorphism, i.e., the \(\mathbb{C}\)-PVHS is of weight \(n\) and of Calabi-Yau type. In section 3, the notion of characteristic subvariety is introduced: if \(k\in\mathbb{Z}\), \(k\geq 0\), then the \(k\)-th characteristic subvariety of the system of Hodge bundles \((E,\theta)\) over \(X\) is \(C_{k} : = \text{Proj}(\mathcal{J}_{k+1})\), where \(\mathcal{J}_{X}\) is a sheaf of graded \(\mathcal{O}_{X}\)-algebras such that if \(i<k\) then \(\mathcal{J}_{k}^{i}=S^{i}\Omega_{X}\), and if \(i\geq k\) then \(\mathcal{J}_{k}^{i}\) is the quotient of \(S^{i}\Omega_{X}\) by the image of a map obtained from \(\theta^{k}:S^{k}(T_{X})\to \mathrm{End}(E)\). We have \(C_{0}=\emptyset\) and for every \(k\geq 1\) we have \(C_{k}\subseteq\mathbb{P}(T_{X})\), and the inclusion is an equality if \(k\geq n\). In Theorem 3.3 the authors show that if \(1\leq k\leq n-1\), then \(C_{k}\) is the \(k\)-th characteristic bundle \(\mathcal{S}_{k}\) over \(X\) introduced by \textit{N. Mok} [``Metric rigidity theorems on Hermitian locally symmetric manifolds,'' Series in Pure Mathematics 6, World Scientific Publishing Co, Inc. Teaneck (1989; Zbl 0912.32026)], whose notion is recalled in section 3. In section 4 a generating property of Gross is shown. More precisely, let \(I_{k}\) be the kernel of the map \(\theta^{k}\), and let \(I:=\bigoplus_{k\geq 1}I_{k}\). The authors prove that the multiplication map \(I_{2}\otimes S^{k-2}(T_{X})\to I_{k}\) is surjective for all \(k\geq 2\), i.e., the graded ideal \(I\) is generated by \(I_{2}\), showing a conjecture of Gross. This result is proved by a case by case analysis.