Variation of Hodge structure and enumerating tilings of surfaces by triangles and squares

DOI10.5802/JEP.159MaRDI QIDQ2028048zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Vincent Koziarz, Duc-Manh Nguyen

Publication date 31 May 2021

Published in Journal de l’École polytechnique — Mathématiques (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.04185

zbMATH Keywords

differentials on Riemann surfacesMasur-Veech volumemoduli spaces of flat surfacestilings of surfacesvariation of Hodge structure

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Families, moduli of curves (analytic) (14H15) Differentials on Riemann surfaces (30F30) Moduli of Riemann surfaces, Teichmüller theory (complex-analytic aspects in several variables) (32G15) Tilings in (2) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C20)

Abstract: Let $S$ be a connected closed oriented surface of genus $g$. Given a triangulation (resp. quadrangulation) of $S$, define the index of each of its vertices to be the number of edges originating from this vertex minus $6$ (resp. minus $4$). Call the set of integers recording the non-zero indices the profile of the triangulation (resp. quadrangulation). If $kappa$ is a profile for triangulations (resp. quadrangulations) of $S$, for any $minmathbb{Z}_{>0}$, denote by $mathscrT(kappa,m)$ (resp. $mathscrQ(kappa,m)$) the set of (equivalence classes of) triangulations (resp. quadrangulations) with profile $kappa$ which contain at most $m$ triangles (resp. squares). In this paper, we will show that if $kappa$ is a profile for triangulations (resp. for quadrangulations) of $S$ such that none of the indices in $kappa$ is divisible by $6$ (resp. by $4$), then $mathscrT(kappa,m)sim{c}_3(kappa)m^{2g+|kappa|-2}$ (resp. $mathscrQ(kappa,m)sim{c}_4(kappa)m^{2g+|kappa|-2}$), where $c_3(kappa)inmathbbQcdot(sqrt3pi{)}^{2g+|kappa|-2}$ and $c_4(kappa)inmathbbQcdotp{i}^{2g+|kappa|-2}$. The key ingredient of the proof is a result of J. Koll'ar on the link between the curvature of the Hogde metric on vector subbundles of a variation of Hodge structure over algebraic varieties, and Chern classes of their extensions. By the same method, we also obtain the rationality (up to some power of $pi$) of the Masur-Veech volume of arithmetic affine submanifolds of translation surfaces that are transverse to the kernel foliation.

Review text

This remarkable paper studies volumes of moduli spaces of flat surfaces (in the sense of \(k\)-differentials on Riemann surfaces) and associated enumerative geometry for counting branched covers (corresponding to lattice points in the moduli spaces), with the aid of the Hodge metric on the tautological bundle of differentials. These objects are related as following. The periods of \(k\)-differentials with prescribed orders of zeros and poles induce a volume form on their moduli space. On the one hand, under the period coordinates certain branched covers of surfaces (e.g. tiled by squares, triangles and quadrangulations) correspond to lattice points in the moduli space for certain \(k\) (e.g. \(k = 1, 6, 4\)). Thus the large degree asymptotic of the Hurwitz numbers of such covers can determine the volume of the moduli space. On the other hand, when all period coordinates arise from the absolute part of the homology, the top power of the curvature form of the Hodge hermitian metric on the tautological bundle of differentials is proportional to the volume form up to a rational constant and an explicit power of \(\pi\). Note that the curvature form corresponds to the first Chern class of the bundle, whose top intersection number is rational (as these objects are often orbifolds). Using these observations and under the assumption that no relative periods are involved (i.e. no singularity order divisible by \(k\)), the authors prove the rationality behavior for the large degree asymptotic of enumeration of tilings of surfaces by triangulations and by quadrangulations (modulo an explicit power of \(\pi\)). Moreover for Abelian differentials (i.e. \(k=1\)), the authors prove a similar result for square-tiled surfaces in arithmetic absolutely rigid affine submanifolds (i.e. \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb R)\)-invariant submanifolds with no strictly relative periods). A technical issue one usually needs to justify is the extension of the hermitian metric to the boundary of a compactified moduli space. The authors bypass this difficulty by using \textit{J. Kollár}'s result [Adv. Stud. Pure Math. 10, 361--398 (1987; Zbl 0659.14024)] that any power of the curvature of the Hodge metric is a representative in the sense of currents of the corresponding power of the first Chern class of the extended line bundle.

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Cited in

(7)

• The Lagrange spectrum of some square-tiled surfaces
• Dynamical invariants and intersection theory on the flex and gothic loci
• Asymptotics of numbers of branched coverings of a torus and volumes of moduli spaces of holomorphic differentials
• Counting tripods on the torus
• Intersection theory and volumes of moduli spaces of flat metrics on the sphere
• On the volumes of linear subvarieties in moduli spaces of projectivized abelian differentials
• Masur-Veech volumes, frequencies of simple closed geodesics, and intersection numbers of moduli spaces of curves

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