Dihedral Galois covers of algebraic varieties and the simple cases

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Publication:2360602



Abstract: In this article we investigate the algebra and geometry of dihedral covers of smooth algebraic varieties. To this aim we first describe the Weil divisors and the Picard group of divisorial sheaves on normal double covers. Then we provide a structure theorem for dihedral covers, that is, given a smooth variety Y, we describe the algebraic "building data" on Y which are equivalent to the existence of such covers X --> Y. We introduce then two special very explicit classes of dihedral covers: the simple and the almost simple dihedral covers, and we determine their basic invariants. For the simple dihedral covers we also determine their natural deformations. In the last section we give an application to fundamental groups.


In this paper the authors study dihedral covers of smooth varieties, in particular they provide a structure theorem (Section 5) for the Galois coverings \(\pi: X\to Y\), with \(Y\) smooth and Galois group the dihedral group \(D_n\) of order \(2n\). Given a smooth variety \(Y\), they describe the algebraic ``building data on \(Y\) which are equivalent to the existence of such covers \(\pi:X\to Y\).\newline The underlying idea is to factor \(\pi: X\to Y\) as the composition of a cyclic covering of order \(n\), \(p: X\to Z:=X/H\), (\(H \subset D_n\) is the group of rotations) and a (singular) double covering \(q:Z\to Y\). A technical novelty here consists in describing Weil divisors and the Picard group of divisorial sheaves on a normal double cover \(Z\) (Section 3). They also describe in detail the special case of Picard group of hyperelliptic curves (Section 4). In the second part of the paper (Section 6 and 7) the authors concentrate on two very explicit classes of dihedral covers of algebraic varieties: the \textit{simple} and the \textit{almost simple} dihedral covers. A simple dihedral covering \(X\) is contained in a rank two split vector bundle of the form \(\mathbb L\oplus \mathbb L\) over \(Y\), and is defined by equations \[ \begin{cases} u^n+v^n= 2a \,, & a\in H^0(\mathcal{O}_Y(nL)),\\ uv= F \,, & F\in H^0(\mathcal{O}_Y(2L)). \end{cases} \] The dihedral action is generated by an element \(\sigma\) of order \(n\) such that \(u\mapsto \xi u\,, v \mapsto\xi^{-1}\), where \(\xi\) is a primitive \(n\)-th root of \(1\), and and by an involution \(\tau\) exchanging \(u\) with \(v\). The authors prove that the branch locus is the divisor \(B = \{a^2 - F^n = 0\}\); \(X\) is smooth if \(B\) is smooth outside of \(F = 0\) and the two divisors \(\{a = 0\}\) and \(\{F = 0\}\) intersect transversally.\newline The almost simple dihedral covers are defined on the fibre product of two \(\mathbb P^1\)-bundles: \(X\) is the subset of \(\mathbb P(\underline {\mathbb C} \oplus \mathbb L)\times _Y\mathbb P(\underline {\mathbb C} \oplus \mathbb L)\) defined by the equations: \[ \begin{cases} u_1v_1-u_0v_0F=0\,,& F\in H^0(\mathcal{O}_Y(2L))\,,\\ a_\infty v_1^nu_0^n-2a_0v_0^n u_0^n+a_\infty v_0^n u_1^n=0 \,, & a_0\in H^0(\mathcal{O}_Y(A_0)), a_\infty\in H^0(\mathcal{O}_Y(A_\infty)) \end{cases} \] where, \(v_1, u_1\) are fibre coordinates on the geometric line bundle \(\mathbb L\to Y\), \(v_0, u_0\) are fibre coordinates on the trivial geometric line bundle \(\underline {\mathbb C} =Y\times \mathbb C \to Y\), and \(A_0, A_\infty\) are effective divisors on \(Y\) such that \(A_0\equiv nL+A_\infty\), \(A_\infty=\{a_\infty=0\}\) and \(A_0=\{a_0=0\}\). The dihedral group \(D_n\) acts on \(X\) in the following way: \[ \begin{aligned} \sigma([u_0:u_1],[v_0:v_1]) =([u_0:\xi u_1],[v_0:\xi^{-1}v_1])\,\\ \tau([u_0:u_1],[v_0:v_1])= ([v_0,v_1],[u_0:u_1])\,. \end{aligned} \] The authors prove that the branch locus is the divisor \(B = \{a_\infty(a_0^2-a_\infty^2 F^n )= 0\}\); \(X\) is smooth if the locus \(\{a_0^2-a_\infty^2 F^n = 0\}\) is smooth outside of \(F = 0\), \(A_0\) intersects transversally \(\{F = 0\}\) , \(A_0\cap A_\infty = \emptyset\) and \(A_\infty\) is smooth.











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