Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2608.25031

Log MMP Constraints on Curves with Cuspidal Singularities

Abstract

Let $X$ be a smooth projective surface and let $C\subset X$ be a unicuspidal rational curve with one Puiseux pair $(p,q)$. We use the log minimal model program to prove a sharp upper bound on the self-intersection of $C$ conjectured by Weimin Chen in [C, Conjecture 1.15] in the course of his study of contact structures and their symplectic fillings. We then extend this argument to rational curves with arbitrary cuspidal singularities and compare the resulting algebraic bounds with the symplectic bounds of Golla and Starkston [GS]. Finally, we prove that there is no plane curve of degree $102$ and genus $10$ with a $(36,289)$-cusp, answering a question of Evans [E, Remark 7.3.5] about algebraic curves associated with the final post-Fibonacci step of the McDuff-Schlenk staircase.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Jenia Tevelev. 2026-08-25. Log MMP Constraints on Curves with Cuspidal Singularities. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.25031

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Lawson--Deligne Classes and Applications

We construct the integral Lawson--Deligne map of weight $q=n-p-k-1$ on smooth complex projective $n$-folds using filtered currents. It lifts the Friedlander--Mazur cycle class, recovers the reduced generalized Abel--Jacobi invariant on homologically trivial classes, and is compatible with algebraic correspondences. A Picard--Fuchs separation argument applied to the conic and van Geemen normal functions on the mirror quintic determines explicit regulator subspaces modulo the full rational period group. For prescribed elliptic moduli and a suitable mirror-quintic fiber, the subspace generated by their $a$- and $b$-loop products has dimension twice the $\Q$-dimension of the period-monomial space. Moduli $i\sqrt{\ell_j}$ for distinct primes $\ell_j$ give $2^{k+1}$ independent images on varieties of dimension $p+k+2$; one repeated imaginary quadratic modulus gives dimension four for every $k\geq1$. Compatibility with known projective-bundle and blow-up decompositions yields independent exceptional subspaces on smooth rational varieties. We also compare the higher Chow composite with the Bloch--KLM regulator after lowering the Hodge filtration. The KLM representative reduces to a cut-current class, and equality with the Lawson composite is proved in degree zero and for constant-unit decomposable classes. The general positive-degree comparison is reduced to an explicit filtered-realization condition.

math.AG

Complete quasimaps to $\mathsf{Bl}_{\mathbb{P}^s}(\mathbb{P}^r)$

We introduce a moduli space of ``complete quasimaps'' to $\mathsf{Bl}_{\mathbb{P}^s}(\mathbb{P}^r)$. The construction, following previous work for curves on projective spaces, essentially proceeds by blowing up Ciocan-Fontanine--Kim's space of quasimaps at loci where sections of line bundles are linearly dependent. We conjecture that tautological intersection numbers on these moduli spaces give enumerative counts of curves of fixed complex structure on $X$ subject to general incidence conditions, in contrast with traditional compactifications of the moduli spaces of maps. A result of Farkas guarantees that these spaces are pure of expected dimension. The conjecture is proven in dimension 2, where the main input is a Brill-Noether theorem for general curves on toric surfaces.

math.AG