Quintic threefold

Summary

In mathematics, a quintic threefold is a 3-dimensional hypersurface of degree 5 in 4-dimensional projective space . Non-singular quintic threefolds are Calabi–Yau manifolds.

The Hodge diamond of a non-singular quintic 3-fold is

1
00
010
11011011
010
00
1

Mathematician Robbert Dijkgraaf said "One number which every algebraic geometer knows is the number 2,875 because obviously, that is the number of lines on a quintic."[1]

Definition edit

A quintic threefold is a special class of Calabi–Yau manifolds defined by a degree   projective variety in  . Many examples are constructed as hypersurfaces in  , or complete intersections lying in  , or as a smooth variety resolving the singularities of another variety. As a set, a Calabi-Yau manifold is

 
where   is a degree   homogeneous polynomial. One of the most studied examples is from the polynomial
 
called a Fermat polynomial. Proving that such a polynomial defines a Calabi-Yau requires some more tools, like the Adjunction formula and conditions for smoothness.

Hypersurfaces in P4 edit

Recall that a homogeneous polynomial   (where   is the Serre-twist of the hyperplane line bundle) defines a projective variety, or projective scheme,  , from the algebra

 
where   is a field, such as  . Then, using the adjunction formula to compute its canonical bundle, we have
 
hence in order for the variety to be Calabi-Yau, meaning it has a trivial canonical bundle, its degree must be  . It is then a Calabi-Yau manifold if in addition this variety is smooth. This can be checked by looking at the zeros of the polynomials
 
and making sure the set
 
is empty.

Examples edit

Fermat Quintic edit

One of the easiest examples to check of a Calabi-Yau manifold is given by the Fermat quintic threefold, which is defined by the vanishing locus of the polynomial

 
Computing the partial derivatives of   gives the four polynomials
 
Since the only points where they vanish is given by the coordinate axes in  , the vanishing locus is empty since   is not a point in  .

As a Hodge Conjecture testbed edit

Another application of the quintic threefold is in the study of the infinitesimal generalized Hodge conjecture where this difficult problem can be solved in this case.[2] In fact, all of the lines on this hypersurface can be found explicitly.

Dwork family of quintic three-folds edit

Another popular class of examples of quintic three-folds, studied in many contexts, is the Dwork family. One popular study of such a family is from Candelas, De La Ossa, Green, and Parkes,[3] when they discovered mirror symmetry. This is given by the family[4] pages 123-125

 
where   is a single parameter not equal to a 5-th root of unity. This can be found by computing the partial derivates of   and evaluating their zeros. The partial derivates are given by
 
At a point where the partial derivatives are all zero, this gives the relation  . For example, in   we get
 
by dividing out the   and multiplying each side by  . From multiplying these families of equations   together we have the relation
 
showing a solution is either given by an   or  . But in the first case, these give a smooth sublocus since the varying term in   vanishes, so a singular point must lie in  . Given such a  , the singular points are then of the form
 
such that
 
where  . For example, the point
 
is a solution of both   and its partial derivatives since  , and  .

Other examples edit

Curves on a quintic threefold edit

Computing the number of rational curves of degree   can be computed explicitly using Schubert calculus. Let   be the rank   vector bundle on the Grassmannian   of  -planes in some rank   vector space. Projectivizing   to   gives the projective grassmannian of degree 1 lines in   and   descends to a vector bundle on this projective Grassmannian. Its total chern class is

 
in the Chow ring  . Now, a section   of the bundle corresponds to a linear homogeneous polynomial,  , so a section of   corresponds to a quintic polynomial, a section of  . Then, in order to calculate the number of lines on a generic quintic threefold, it suffices to compute the integral[5]
 
This can be done by using the splitting principle. Since
 
and for a dimension   vector space,  ,
 
so the total chern class of   is given by the product
 
Then, the Euler class, or the top class is
 
expanding this out in terms of the original chern classes gives
 
using the relations  ,  .

Rational curves edit

Herbert Clemens (1984) conjectured that the number of rational curves of a given degree on a generic quintic threefold is finite. (Some smooth but non-generic quintic threefolds have infinite families of lines on them.) This was verified for degrees up to 7 by Sheldon Katz (1986) who also calculated the number 609250 of degree 2 rational curves. Philip Candelas, Xenia C. de la Ossa, and Paul S. Green et al. (1991) conjectured a general formula for the virtual number of rational curves of any degree, which was proved by Givental (1996) (the fact that the virtual number equals the actual number relies on confirmation of Clemens' conjecture, currently known for degree at most 11 Cotterill (2012)). The number of rational curves of various degrees on a generic quintic threefold is given by

2875, 609250, 317206375, 242467530000, ...(sequence A076912 in the OEIS).

Since the generic quintic threefold is a Calabi–Yau threefold and the moduli space of rational curves of a given degree is a discrete, finite set (hence compact), these have well-defined Donaldson–Thomas invariants (the "virtual number of points"); at least for degree 1 and 2, these agree with the actual number of points.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Robbert Dijkgraaf (29 March 2015). "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Quantum Physics in Modern Mathematics". youtube.com. Trev M. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 10 September 2015. see 29 minutes 57 seconds
  2. ^ Albano, Alberto; Katz, Sheldon (1991). "Lines on the Fermat quintic threefold and the infinitesimal generalized Hodge conjecture". Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. 324 (1): 353–368. doi:10.1090/S0002-9947-1991-1024767-6. ISSN 0002-9947.
  3. ^ Candelas, Philip; De La Ossa, Xenia C.; Green, Paul S.; Parkes, Linda (1991-07-29). "A pair of Calabi-Yau manifolds as an exactly soluble superconformal theory". Nuclear Physics B. 359 (1): 21–74. Bibcode:1991NuPhB.359...21C. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(91)90292-6. ISSN 0550-3213.
  4. ^ Gross, Mark; Huybrechts, Daniel; Joyce, Dominic (2003). Ellingsrud, Geir; Olson, Loren; Ranestad, Kristian; Stromme, Stein A. (eds.). Calabi-Yau Manifolds and Related Geometries: Lectures at a Summer School in Nordfjordeid, Norway, June 2001. Universitext. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. pp. 123–125. ISBN 978-3-540-44059-8.
  5. ^ Katz, Sheldon. Enumerative Geometry and String Theory. p. 108.
  • Arapura, Donu, "Computing Some Hodge Numbers" (PDF)
  • Candelas, Philip; de la Ossa, Xenia C.; Green, Paul S.; Parkes, Linda (1991), "A pair of Calabi-Yau manifolds as an exactly soluble superconformal theory", Nuclear Physics B, 359 (1): 21–74, Bibcode:1991NuPhB.359...21C, doi:10.1016/0550-3213(91)90292-6, MR 1115626
  • Clemens, Herbert (1984), "Some results about Abel-Jacobi mappings", Topics in transcendental algebraic geometry (Princeton, N.J., 1981/1982), Ann. of Math. Stud., vol. 106, Princeton University Press, pp. 289–304, MR 0756858
  • Cotterill, Ethan (2012), "Rational curves of degree 11 on a general quintic 3-fold", The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, 63 (3): 539–568, doi:10.1093/qmath/har001, MR 2967162
  • Cox, David A.; Katz, Sheldon (1999), Mirror symmetry and algebraic geometry, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 68, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-1059-0, MR 1677117
  • Givental, Alexander B. (1996), "Equivariant Gromov-Witten invariants", International Mathematics Research Notices, 1996 (13): 613–663, doi:10.1155/S1073792896000414, MR 1408320
  • Katz, Sheldon (1986), "On the finiteness of rational curves on quintic threefolds", Compositio Mathematica, 60 (2): 151–162, MR 0868135
  • Pandharipande, Rahul (1998), "Rational curves on hypersurfaces (after A. Givental)", Astérisque, 1997/98 (252): 307–340, arXiv:math/9806133, Bibcode:1998math......6133P, MR 1685628