Local Normal Forms of Noncommutative Functions

arXiv2111.05900MaRDI QIDQ6382736FDOQ6382736

Publication date: 10 November 2021

Abstract: This article describes local normal forms of functions in noncommuting variables, up to equivalence generated by isomorphism of noncommutative Jacobi algebras, extending singularity theory in the style of Arnold's commutative local normal forms into the noncommutative realm. This generalisation unveils many new phenomena, including an ADE classification when the Jacobi ring has dimension zero and, by suitably taking limits, a further ADE classification in dimension one. These are natural generalisations of the simple singularities and those with infinite multiplicity in Arnold's classification. We obtain normal forms away from some exceptional Type E cases. Remarkably these normal forms have no moduli, and the key new feature is that the noncommutative world affords larger families, and there are many more examples of each type. The first application of noncommutative singularity theory is to the birational geometry of 3-folds. We prove that all local normal forms of Type A and D are geometric, in the sense that each one gives rise to the contraction algebra of some smooth 3-fold flop or divisor-to-curve contraction. The general elephant of the corresponding contraction has matching type, and so this fully classifies contraction algebras of flops of length one and two. In the process, we describe the first and conjecturally only infinite family of length two crepant divisor-to-curve contractions. A further consequence is the classification of Gopakumar-Vafa invariants for length two flops, with noncommutative obstructions forcing gaps in the invariants that can arise.

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