H Esnault Lecture On Lefschetz Theory

The Hard Lefschetz Theorem, some history and recent
progress
Hélène Esnault, Freie Universität Berlin
Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV
Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 1/

Hélène Esnault, Freie Universität Berlin Hard Lefschetz 30
Acknowledgements
Picture I took in Essen in 2010!
The new mathematical part of the lecture is based on joint work with
Moritz KERZ
I thank him for years of collaboration and for his friendship.

I thank Carlos Simpson for fruitful exchanges on this lecture.

Acknowledgements
Picture I took in Essen in 2010!
The new mathematical part of the lecture is based on joint work with
Moritz KERZ
I thank him for years of collaboration and for his friendship.

I thank Carlos Simpson for fruitful exchanges on this lecture.
I thank Xavier Gomez-Mont, Phillip Griffiths, Susan Swartz and Alberto Verjovsky
for discussions on history.


Solomon Lefschetz 1884 (Moscow)-1972 (Princeton)
The son of Jewish ottoman handlers who settled down in Paris


he studied in ”École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris”, an

engineering school .



Not being a French citizen, so not being able to access academic positions,
he emigrated to the US in 1905, where he became an engineer.



Not being a French citizen, so not being able to access academic positions,
he emigrated to the US in 1905, where he became an engineer.
He lost his both hands and a forearm in an industrial accident in 1907 and
moved towards mathematics. He became a US citizen in 1912.

Solomon Lefschetz 1884 (Moscow)-1972 (Princeton) II
Before the end of WWII, there was almost no Jewish faculty in leading US
universities.


Solomon Lefschetz 1884 (Moscow)-1972 (Princeton) II
Before the end of WWII, there was almost no Jewish faculty in leading US
universities.
Probably under the influence of the Institute for Advanced Study (which
was then physically located at the department of Mathematics of
Princeton U.), Princeton U. was an exception. Lefschetz became a
Princeton professor in 1924.


Solomon Lefschetz 1884 (Moscow)-1972 (Princeton) III
During WWII, many US mathematicians participated to the Manhattan

project. I seems Lefschetz did not, he ’undertook applied mathematical
work directed at the war effort’ (Sylvia Nasar).



He went to Mexico for the first time in 1944, where anti US-feelings were
strong.



strong.
He became a professor at UNAM Mexico and educated until his death

generations of mathematicians there, notably in Algebraic Topology.



strong.
He became a professor at UNAM Mexico and educated until his death

generations of mathematicians there, notably in Algebraic Topology.
His contribution to mathematics in Mexico is overwhelming and is still

today in the heart of many Mexican mathematicians.

Lefschetz theory
Lefschetz had an immense influence in the areas of algebraic geometry and

topology.

Lefschetz theory
Lefschetz had an immense influence in the areas of algebraic geometry and

topology.
If you google ’vanishing cycles’ for a nice picture, you’ll get tons of cute ...stolen bicycles!
He studied the topology of hyperplane sections of algebraic varieties,

yielding the weak Lefschetz theorems. He defined the Lefschetz pencils,
their monodromy, studied the Picard-Lefschetz formulae on vanishing
cycles.

Lefschetz theory II
His book L’analysis situs et la géométrie algébrique (1924) laid

the foundations of his theory.

Lefschetz theory II
His book L’analysis situs et la géométrie algébrique (1924) laid

the foundations of his theory.
Wikipedia French: The name ’Analysis Situs’ had

been given by Leibniz to a research he led during his whole life on a symbolism
which would be to geometry what the algebraic symbolism is to numbers.
Lefschetz theory III
The book was and still is considered by the specialists to be ’opaque’.

Notably, his proof of the ’hard Lefschetz theorem’, our topic today, is
wrong.

wrong.
His book Topology (1930) introduced the concept Topology in place of

Analysis Situs.

wrong.

Analysis Situs.
His book Algebraic Topology (1942) introduced the concept of Algebraic

Topology in place of Combinatorial Topology.

wrong.

Analysis Situs.
His book Algebraic Topology (1942) introduced the concept of Algebraic

Topology in place of Combinatorial Topology.
We owe Lefschetz the ’semantic’ we use.

Quotations on Lefschetz
Don’t come to me with your pretty proofs. We don’t bother with that
baby stuff around here.

He never wrote a correct proof or stated an incorrect theorem.

He never wrote a correct proof or stated an incorrect theorem.
Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind, 1998, confirmed by Phillip Griffiths.

Some pictures: projective varieties
.
In the sequel we deal with smooth projective varieties
Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 10 /

.
As a first approximation, those are the zeroes of homogeneous polynomial

equations over some field. On the picture of May Ray and the next one,
the field is the field of real numbers.

.
As a first approximation, those are the zeroes of homogeneous polynomial

equations over some field. On the picture of May Ray and the next one,
the field is the field of real numbers.
even if the set of zeroes of polynomial equations is

The first approximation here is that
empty, the mere fact that we have equations entitles us to talk on

varieties. The second approximation is that we have in addition to characterize the smoothness notion,
which essentially means (over fields like the complex numbers) that if we caress the
geometric object with our fingers, it never pricks.
Hard Lefschetz in complex geometry
Theorem (Formulated by Lefschetz 1924, proved by Hodge 1941)

Let X be a complex projective manifold of dimension d, and η be the
Chern class in Betti cohomology H 2 (X , Z) of an ample line bundle. Then
for all i ∈ N, the cup-product map
∪η i : H d−i (X , Q) → H d+i (X , Q)
is an isomorphism.

Hard Lefschetz in complex geometry II
It is a structural theorem which enables one to write cohomology as a

direct sum of ’primitive cohomologies’ (called Lefschetz decomposition). It
has immense consequences.

Hard Lefschetz in complex geometry: Hodge theory
Hodge (1941) introduced Harmonic Theory on the space of differential

forms in the study of de Rham cohomology of complex manifolds.


This contains the notion of orthogonality and enables one to deduce that
the intersection pairing restricted to the space of Lefschetz’ vanishing
cycles is non-degenerated, which is essentially equivalent to Hard
Lefschetz.


Lefschetz.
In particular, Hard Lefschetz holds more generally for Kähler manifolds, so

compact complex manifolds endowed with a Kähler form. Its class
η ∈ H 2 (X , R) is then the one in the theorem.


Lefschetz.
In particular, Hard Lefschetz holds more generally for Kähler manifolds, so

compact complex manifolds endowed with a Kähler form. Its class
η ∈ H 2 (X , R) is then the one in the theorem.
Hard Lefschetz is one central piece of Hodge theory which controls

cohomology of compact Kähler manifolds, e.g. of smooth complex
projective manifolds.
Hard Lefschetz in complex geometry: non-abelian Hodge
theory (Simpson)
In 1992 Simpson defined the notion of non-abelian Hodge theory on

smooth complex projective varieties.

theory (Simpson)II
Let ρ : π1top (X , x) → GLr (C) be a representation of the topological

fundamental group.

theory (Simpson)II

fundamental group.
It yields a local system V of rank r on X .

theory (Simpson)II

fundamental group.
It is a topological bundle on X , defined as the quotient of the product

Xx × Cr by the diagonal action of π1top (X , x). Here Xx → X is the
universal cover associated to the choice of x, π1top (X , x) acts on Xx as the
group of deck transformations and on Cr via ρ.

theory (Simpson)II

fundamental group.
It is a topological bundle on X , defined as the quotient of the product

Xx × Cr by the diagonal action of π1top (X , x). Here Xx → X is the
universal cover associated to the choice of x, π1top (X , x) acts on Xx as the
group of deck transformations and on Cr via ρ.
Then non-abelian refers to the replacement of X by (X , V).

theory (Simpson) III
Under the assumption that ρ is semi-simple, Simpson showed the existence

of a harmonic metric on V made a C ∞ bundle. This enabled him to
develop a Hodge theory with this metric and notably to prove the
non-abelian Hard Lefschetz.

theory (Simpson) III
Under the assumption that ρ is semi-simple, Simpson showed the existence

of a harmonic metric on V made a C ∞ bundle. This enabled him to
develop a Hodge theory with this metric and notably to prove the
non-abelian Hard Lefschetz.
Theorem (Simpson 1992)

Let X be a compact Kähler manifold of dimension d, V be a semi-simple
local system of rank r , and η be the Chern class in Betti cohomology
H 2 (X , C) of a Kähler class. Then for all i ∈ N, the cup-product map
∪η i : H d−i (X , V) → H d+i (X , V)
is an isomorphism.

Examples
Example (Finite monodromy)

Of course, if V has finite monodromy, we can replace X by a finite
topological cover Y → X on which V becomes a trivial local system, apply
Hard Lefschetz on Y , and descend the information by a trace argument.
However, finite monodromy local systems are not often.

Examples II
Example (Rank 1)
e.g. if r = 1, we understand well their moduli space: it contains a complex
torus as a finite index subgroup. A complex torus is like on the picture: a
circle (on the top) cross the (strictly positive, here from top to bottom to
infinity) line.

Examples II
Example (Rank 1)
e.g. if r = 1, we understand well their moduli space: it contains a complex
torus as a finite index subgroup. A complex torus is like on the picture: a
circle (on the top) cross the (strictly positive, here from top to bottom to
infinity) line.
Example
The points which correspond to torsion (i.e. with finite monodromy) rank
1 local systems are all located on one horizontal section. So they are not
dense in the real topology. It makes it difficult to deduce Simpson’s
theorem from the standard Hard Lefschetz. We remark however already here for later discussion
that they are Zariski dense.

The Riemann hypothesis
The Riemann hypothesis (1859) predicts that for s ∈ C , the Riemann

zeta function
1 1
ξ(s) = 1 + s + s + . . . ,
2 3
which converges for Re(s) > 1, has all but its trivial zeroes −2, −4, . . .
located on the vertical line Re(s) = 21 .

The Weil conjectures
Weil (1948) (see e.g. a Lecture I have at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which is linked on my webpage)
defined the zeta function of a smooth projective variety X defined over a
finite field Fq , by counting the number of Fqn -rational points of X as n
goes to infinity.

The Weil conjectures
Weil (1948) (see e.g. a Lecture I have at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which is linked on my webpage)
defined the zeta function of a smooth projective variety X defined over a
finite field Fq , by counting the number of Fqn -rational points of X as n
goes to infinity.
He predicted the existence of a cohomology theory H i (X ) on which the

Frobenius F acts, which would express the zeta function as the trace of
the Frobenius acting on cohomology.

The Grothendieck school in relation to the Weil conjectures
`-adic étale cohomology theory has been developed by the Grothendieck

school in the 60s, 70s. Dwork (1960), independently of the Grothendieck
school, and then Grothendieck (1965) proved the necessary properties of
the zeta function.

Grothendieck-Lefschetz trace formula
In summary, for X0 a smooth projective variety of dimension d defined

over the finite field Fq , X its base change to an algebraic closure Fq , and
F the ’geometric’ Frobenius acting on `-adic cohomology H i (X ), one has
the Grothendieck-Lefschetz trace formula
2d
X
|X0 (Fq )| = Trace(F |H • (X )) = (−1)i Trace(F |H i (X ))
i=0

The Weil conjectures II: Deligne
Weil, in analogy to the Riemann hypothesis, predicted that read via

complex embeddings, the absolute value of the eigenvalues of the
Frobenius acting on H i depends only on i and are different for different i.


One says that the cohomology is pure, or that the weights of the
cohomology are pure, and are different for different i.


One says that the cohomology is pure, or that the weights of the
cohomology are pure, and are different for different i.
In 1973 Deligne proves the Weil conjectures. In 1980 he publishes a more

conceptual proof.
The Weil conjectures and Hard Lefschetz (Deligne)
Notably he proves the Hard Lefschetz theorem.

The Weil conjectures and Hard Lefschetz (Deligne)
Notably he proves the Hard Lefschetz theorem.
Theorem (Deligne 1980)

Let X0 be a smooth projective variety of dimension d defined over a finite
field Fq , let X be its base change to an algebraic closure Fp . Let η be the
Chern class in `-adic cohomology H 2 (X , Q` ) of an ample line bundle.
Then for all i ∈ N, the cup-product map
∪η i : H d−i (X , Q` ) → H d+i (X , Q` )
is an isomorphism.

The Weil conjectures and Hard Lefschetz (Deligne) II
What replaces Harmonic Theory in Hodge theory on the complex side is

Deligne’s theory of weights for varieties defined over a finite field.

The Weil conjectures and Hard Lefschetz (Deligne) II
What replaces Harmonic Theory in Hodge theory on the complex side is

Deligne’s theory of weights for varieties defined over a finite field.
It enables him to conclude that the intersection pairing restricted to the

space of Lefschetz’ vanishing cycles is non-degenerated.

Examples

Of course as we saw on the complex side, we could replace Q` coefficients
by any `-adic local system with finite monodromy V. Such a V is
necessarily defined over the base change of X0 to a finite extension of Fq .
We would apply Deligne’s Hard Lefschetz on the pull-back of V to a finite
étale cover Y → X which kills the monodromy, and then descend via a
trace argument.

Examples

Of course as we saw on the complex side, we could replace Q` coefficients
by any `-adic local system with finite monodromy V. Such a V is
necessarily defined over the base change of X0 to a finite extension of Fq .
We would apply Deligne’s Hard Lefschetz on the pull-back of V to a finite
étale cover Y → X which kills the monodromy, and then descend via a
trace argument.
Example (Rank 1)
For example in rank r = 1. However, most `-adic local systems are not
definable over the base change of X0 to a finite extension of Fq . The aim
of the last part of the lecture is to explain that we can make more precise
this most. This leads to a proof of a new case of Hard Lefschetz for which
we do not have Deligne’s theory of weights at disposal.

Zariski density of torsion points.
Theorem (E-Kerz 2019)

Let X be a smooth projective variety defined over an algebraically closed
field of characteristic p > 0.
There is a noetherian space G over Q` , such that its points G(Q` )
form a subgroup of discrete index in the group of rank 1 `-adic local
systems.
With respect to the Zariski topology stemming from this
noetherianity, the locus S◦ of points which violate Hard Lefschetz is
Zariski constructible.
The Zariski closure of S◦ , if not empty, necessarily is the
Zariski closure of its torsion points.

Hard Lefschetz in rank 1 is positive characteristic.
Corollary (E-Kerz 2019)

Let X be a smooth projective variety defined over an algebraically closed
field of characteristic p > 0, let V be a rank 1 local system. Let η be the
Chern class in `-adic cohomology H 2 (X , Q` ) of an ample line bundle.
Then for all i ∈ N, the cup-product map
∪η i : H d−i (X , V) → H d+i (X , V)
is an isomorphism.

Logic of proof: Drinfeld
The logic of proof, as exposed, relies on Drinfeld’s work: Indeed, if not

empty, S◦ must contain torsion points, which violates Deligne’s Hard
Lefschetz.

Proof
The proof itself relies on `-adic geometry, using methods developed

originally for p-adic geometry. It uses Deligne’s purity theorem, Tate’s
semi-simplicity theorem.

Proof

It is the profinite analog of Simpson’s theorem in complex geometry

describing closed subloci of the moduli of rank 1 complex local systems
which viewed in de Rham theory are algebraic (bialgebraic):

Proof


They have the property that they are the Zariski closure of their torsion
points.

Proof


They have the property that they are the Zariski closure of their torsion
points.
Thank you for your attention.


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The Hard Lefschetz Theorem, some history and recent

Hélène Esnault, Freie Universität Berlin

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 1/

Picture I took in Essen in 2010!

I thank him for years of collaboration and for his friendship.

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 2/

Picture I took in Essen in 2010!

I thank him for years of collaboration and for his friendship.

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 2/

The son of Jewish ottoman handlers who settled down in Paris

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 3/

The son of Jewish ottoman handlers who settled down in Paris

he studied in ”École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris”, an

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 3/

The son of Jewish ottoman handlers who settled down in Paris

he studied in ”École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris”, an

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 3/

The son of Jewish ottoman handlers who settled down in Paris

he studied in ”École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris”, an

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 4/

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 4/

During WWII, many US mathematicians participated to the Manhattan

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 5/

During WWII, many US mathematicians participated to the Manhattan

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 5/

During WWII, many US mathematicians participated to the Manhattan

He became a professor at UNAM Mexico and educated until his death

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 5/

During WWII, many US mathematicians participated to the Manhattan

He became a professor at UNAM Mexico and educated until his death

His contribution to mathematics in Mexico is overwhelming and is still

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 5/

Lefschetz had an immense influence in the areas of algebraic geometry and

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 6/

Lefschetz had an immense influence in the areas of algebraic geometry and

He studied the topology of hyperplane sections of algebraic varieties,

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 6/

His book L’analysis situs et la géométrie algébrique (1924) laid

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 7/

His book L’analysis situs et la géométrie algébrique (1924) laid

Wikipedia French: The name ’Analysis Situs’ had

The book was and still is considered by the specialists to be ’opaque’.

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 8/

The book was and still is considered by the specialists to be ’opaque’.

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 8/

The book was and still is considered by the specialists to be ’opaque’.

His book Topology (1930) introduced the concept Topology in place of

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 8/

The book was and still is considered by the specialists to be ’opaque’.

His book Topology (1930) introduced the concept Topology in place of

His book Algebraic Topology (1942) introduced the concept of Algebraic

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 8/

The book was and still is considered by the specialists to be ’opaque’.

His book Topology (1930) introduced the concept Topology in place of

His book Algebraic Topology (1942) introduced the concept of Algebraic

We owe Lefschetz the ’semantic’ we use.

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 8/

Karlsruhe, Sept. 23, 2019, DMV 9/