Higher rational connectedness and applications

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

Rational simple connectedness is an algebraic notion which is to simple connectedness as rational connectedness is to path connectedness. Just as a topological fibration over a 2-dimensional base with simply connected fiber admits a continuous section, also an algebraic fibration over a surface with rationally simply connected general fiber admits a rational section (under suitable additional hypotheses). This project investigates the theory beyond this result, just as topological obstruction theory is the theory beyond the quoted topological result. The first goal is to determine how the obstruction to "weak approximation"(approximation of power series solutions by polynomial solutions) decomposes into a local obstruction and a global obstruction. The second goal is to investigate the obstruction theory where it is not yet known by determining precisely which algebraic fibrations over a surface of a specified, simple type admit a rational section. Systems of polynomial equations are ubiquitous in mathematics, science and engineering. In studying the collection of all solutions in complex numbers, i.e., the variety, associated to such a system, there is one special phenomenon: the system is "rationally connected" if for every pair of solutions, there is a polynomial map taking values in the variety and whose values interpolate between the given pair of solutions. This special property is often satisfied in practice. Surprisingly, a system of polynomial equations depending algebraically on 1 extra parameter (often thought of as time) always has a family of solutions varying as a polynomial of the parameter so long as the system for a fixed general choice of the parameter is rationally connected. There is now an analogous theorem for a 2-parameter system, but with very strong constraints on the system. The goal of the project is to weaken the constraint condition, and thus make the advance more widely applicable, by using notions analogous to those in topology, i.e., "rubber-sheet geometry".