On symmetric and skew-symmetric determinantal varieties (Q790482)

Let E be a complex differentiable vector bundle over a compact oriented manifold M and f: \(E\to E^*\) a symmetric or anti-symmetric bundle map. Such a map is called general if the \((r+1)\times(r+1)\) minors of a matrix representing \(f_ x\), \(x\in M\) generate the ideal of the r-th degeneracy locus \(M_ r=\{x\in M\); rank f\({}_ x\leq r\}\) in the local ring \({\mathcal C}^{\infty}_{M,x}\) for almost all \(x\in M\) and if moreover \(M_ r\) has the expected codimension \((^{n-r+1}\!\!_ 2)\), \(n=\dim M\). The authors give formulae for the cohomology classes of \(M_ r\) for general f, analogous to Porteous' formulae for general bundle maps \(E\to F\) between bundles on M. By a ''squaring principle'' these results are extended for twisted bundle maps f: \(E\to E^*\otimes L\), where L is a line bundle. Two applications are given. As a first application the degrees of various determinantal varieties are computed. The second application concerns families \(\pi\) : \(X\to B\) of genus g curves over a smooth compact base B (i.e. X and B are projective complex manifolds, \(\pi\) is proper and the fibres \(X_ t=\pi^{-1}(t)\) are curves of genus g, possibly singular). The authors obtain inequalities involving the Chern classes of B and those of the Hodge bundle \(R^ 1\pi {\mathcal O}_ x\) (assumed to be non- trivial) in two cases (i) dim B\(=1\) (ii) dim B\(=2\) and \(\pi\) has no singular fibres. In the first case the inequality roughly says that the more non-trivial the bundle \(R^ 1\pi {\mathcal O}_ X\), either the larger the genus of B or the greater the number of singular fibres.