English

Complements of hypersurfaces in projective spaces

Algebraic Geometry 2023-02-17 v2

Abstract

We study the complement problem in projective spaces Pn\mathbb{P}^n over any algebraically closed field: If H,HPnH, H' \subseteq \mathbb{P}^n are irreducible hypersurfaces of degree dd such that the complements PnH\mathbb{P}^n \setminus H, PnH\mathbb{P}^n \setminus H' are isomorphic, are the hypersurfaces HH, HH' isomorphic? For n=2n = 2, the answer is positive if d7d\leq 7 and there are counterexamples when d=8d = 8. In contrast we provide counterexamples for all n,d3n, d \geq 3 with (n,d)(3,3)(n, d) \neq (3, 3). Moreover, we show that the complement problem has an affirmative answer for d=2d = 2 and give partial results in case (n,d)=(3,3)(n, d) = (3, 3). In the course of the exposition, we prove that rational normal projective surfaces admitting a desingularisation by trees of smooth rational curves are piecewise isomorphic if and only if they coincide in the Grothendieck ring, answering affirmatively a question posed by Larsen and Lunts for such surfaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2301.13040,
  title  = {Complements of hypersurfaces in projective spaces},
  author = {Jérémy Blanc and Pierre-Marie Poloni and Immanuel Van Santen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.13040},
  year   = {2023}
}

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36 pages