We consider threefolds that admit a fibration by K3 surfaces over a nonsingular curve, equipped with a divisorial sheaf that defines a polarisation of degree two on the general fibre. Under certain assumptions on the threefold we show that its relative log canonical model exists and can be explicitly reconstructed from a small set of data determined by the original fibration. Finally we prove a converse to the above statement: under certain assumptions, any such set of data determines a threefold that arises as the relative log canonical model of a threefold admitting a fibration by K3 surfaces of degree two.

We introduce the notion of families of $n$-marked smooth rational tropical curves over smooth tropical varieties and establish a one-to-one correspondence between (equivalence classes of) these families and morphisms from smooth tropical varieties into the moduli space of $n$-marked abstract rational tropical curves $\mathcal{M}_{n}$.

We study the topology of tropical varieties that arise from a certain natural class of varieties. We use the theory of tropical degenerations to construct a natural, ``multiplicity-free'' parameterization of $\operatorname{Trop}(X)$ by a topological space $\Gamma_X$ and give a geometric interpretation of the cohomology of $\Gamma_X$ in terms of the action of a monodromy operator on the cohomology of $X$. This gives bounds on the Betti numbers of $\Gamma_X$ in terms of the Betti numbers of $X$ which constrain the topology of $\operatorname{Trop}(X)$. We also obtain a description of the top power of the monodromy operator acting on middle cohomology of $X$ in terms of the volume pairing on $\Gamma_X$.

The moduli space of smooth real binary octics has five connected components. They parametrize the real binary octics whose defining equations have $0,\dots,4$ complex-conjugate pairs of roots respectively. We show that each of these five components has a real hyperbolic structure in the sense that each is isomorphic as a real-analytic manifold to the quotient of an open dense subset of $5$-dimensional real hyperbolic space $\mathbb{RH}^5$ by the action of an arithmetic subgroup of $\operatorname{Isom}(\mathbb{RH}^5)$. These subgroups are commensurable to discrete hyperbolic reflection groups, and the Vinberg diagrams of the latter are computed.

We produce ample (resp.\ NEF, eventually free) divisors in the Kontsevich space $\Kgnb{0,n} (\mathbb P^r, d)$ of $n$-pointed, genus $0$, stable maps to $\mathbb P^r$, given such divisors in $\Kgnb{0,n+d}$. We prove that this produces all ample (resp.\ NEF, eventually free) divisors in $\Kgnb{0,n}(\mathbb P^r,d)$. As a consequence, we construct a contraction of the boundary $\bigcup_{k=1}^{\lfloor d/2 \rfloor} \Delta_{k,d-k}$ in $\Kgnb{0,0}(\mathbb P^r,d)$, analogous to a contraction of the boundary $\bigcup_{k=3}^{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor} \tilde{\Delta}_{k,n-k}$ in $\kgnb{0,n}$ first constructed by Keel and McKernan.

Let $X$ be a smooth projective geometrically connected curve over a finite field with function field $K$. Let $\G$ be a connected semisimple group scheme over $X$. Under certain hypotheses we prove the equality of two numbers associated with $\G$. The first is an arithmetic invariant, its Tamagawa number. The second is a geometric invariant, the number of connected components of the moduli stack of $\G$-torsors on $X$. Our results are most useful for studying connected components as much is known about Tamagawa numbers.

It is well known that multiple polylogarithms give rise to good unipotent variations of mixed Hodge-Tate structures. In this paper we shall {\em explicitly} determine these structures related to multiple logarithms and some other multiple polylogarithms of lower weights. The purpose of this explicit construction is to give some important applications: First we study the limit of mixed Hodge-Tate structures and make a conjecture relating the variations of mixed Hodge-Tate structures of multiple logarithms to those of general multiple {\em poly}\/logarithms. Then following Deligne and Beilinson we describe an approach to defining the single-valued real analytic version of the multiple polylogarithms which generalizes the well-known result of Zagier on classical polylogarithms. In the process we find some interesting identities relating single-valued multiple polylogarithms of the same weight $k$ when $k=2$ and 3. At the end of this paper, motivated by Zagier's conjecture we pose a problem which relates the special values of multiple Dedekind zeta functions of a number field to the single-valued version of multiple polylogarithms.

In this article we determine the global geometry of the planar quadratic differential systems with a weak focus of third order. This class plays a significant role in the context of Hilbert's 16-th problem. Indeed, all examples of quadratic differential systems with at least four limit cycles, were obtained by perturbing a system in this family. We use the algebro-geometric concepts of divisor and zero-cycle to encode global properties of the systems and to give structure to this class. We give a theorem of topological classification of such systems in terms of integer-valued affine invariants. According to the possible values taken by them in this family we obtain a total of $18$ topologically distinct phase portraits. We show that inside the class of all quadratic systems with the topology of the coefficients, there exists a neighborhood of the family of quadratic systems with a weak focus of third order and which may have graphics but no polycycle in the sense of \cite{DRR} and no limit cycle, such that any quadratic system in this neighborhood has at most four limit cycles.

We develop an explicit skein-theoretical algorithm to compute the Alexander polynomial of a 3-manifold from a surgery presentation employing the methods used in the construction of quantum invariants of 3-manifolds. As a prerequisite we establish and prove a rather unexpected equivalence between the topological quantum field theory constructed by Frohman and Nicas using the homology of $U(1)$-representation varieties on the one side and the combinatorially constructed Hennings TQFT based on the quasitriangular Hopf algebra $\mathcal{N} = \mathbb{Z}/2 \ltimes \bigwedge^* \mathbb{R}^2$ on the other side. We find that both TQFT's are $\SL (2,\mathbb{R})$-equivariant functors and, as such, are isomorphic. The $\SL (2,\mathbb{R})$-action in the Hennings construction comes from the natural action on $\mathcal{N}$ and in the case of the Frohman--Nicas theory from the Hard--Lefschetz decomposition of the $U(1)$-moduli spaces given that they are naturally K\"ahler. The irreducible components of this TQFT, corresponding to simple representations of $\SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ and $\Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$, thus yield a large family of homological TQFT's by taking sums and products. We give several examples of TQFT's and invariants that appear to fit into this family, such as Milnor and Reidemeister Torsion, Seiberg--Witten theories, Casson type theories for homology circles {\it \`a la} Donaldson, higher rank gauge theories following Frohman and Nicas, and the $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ reductions of Reshetikhin--Turaev theories over the cyclotomic integers $\mathbb{Z} [\zeta_p]$. We also conjecture that the Hennings TQFT for quantum-$\mathfrak{sl}_2$ is the product of the Reshetikhin--Turaev TQFT and such a homological TQFT.

Equivariant holomorphic maps of Hermitian symmetric domains into Siegel upper half spaces can be used to construct families of abelian varieties parametrized by locally symmetric spaces, which can be regarded as complex torus bundles over the parameter spaces. We extend the construction of such torus bundles using 2-cocycles of discrete subgroups of the semisimple Lie groups associated to the given symmetric domains and investigate some of their properties. In particular, we determine their cohomology along the fibers.

We describe the irrational pencils on surfaces of general type with $p_{g}=q=2$.

A Hopf surface is the quotient of the complex surface $\mathbb{C}^2 \setminus \{0\}$ by an infinite cyclic group of dilations of $\mathbb{C}^2$. In this paper, we study the moduli spaces $\mathcal{M}^n$ of stable $\SL (2,\mathbb{C})$-bundles on a Hopf surface $\mathcal{H}$, from the point of view of symplectic geometry. An important point is that the surface $\mathcal{H}$ is an elliptic fibration, which implies that a vector bundle on $\mathcal{H}$ can be considered as a family of vector bundles over an elliptic curve. We define a map $G \colon \mathcal{M}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^{2n+1}$ that associates to every bundle on $\mathcal{H}$ a divisor, called the graph of the bundle, which encodes the isomorphism class of the bundle over each elliptic curve. We then prove that the map $G$ is an algebraically completely integrable Hamiltonian system, with respect to a given Poisson structure on $\mathcal{M}^n$. We also give an explicit description of the fibres of the integrable system. This example is interesting for several reasons; in particular, since the Hopf surface is not K\"ahler, it is an elliptic fibration that does not admit a section.

There is a well-known correspondence (due to Mehta and Seshadri in the unitary case, and extended by Bhosle and Ramanathan to other groups), between the symplectic variety $M_h$ of representations of the fundamental group of a punctured Riemann surface into a compact connected Lie group~$G$, with fixed conjugacy classes $h$ at the punctures, and a complex variety ${\cal M}_h$ of holomorphic bundles on the unpunctured surface with a parabolic structure at the puncture points. For $G = \SU(2)$, we build a symplectic variety $P$ of pairs (representations of the fundamental group into $G$, ``weighted frame'' at the puncture points), and a corresponding complex variety ${\cal P}$ of moduli of ``framed parabolic bundles'', which encompass respectively all of the spaces $M_h$, ${\cal M}_h$, in the sense that one can obtain $M_h$ from $P$ by symplectic reduction, and ${\cal M}_h$ from ${\cal P}$ by a complex quotient. This allows us to explain certain features of the toric geometry of the $\SU(2)$ moduli spaces discussed by Jeffrey and Weitsman, by giving the actual toric variety associated with their integrable system.

The characteristic numbers of smooth plane quartics are computed using intersection theory on a component of the moduli space of stable maps. This completes the verification of Zeuthen's prediction of characteristic numbers of smooth plane curves. A short sketch of a computation of the characteristic numbers of plane cubics is also given as an illustration.

Let $M_n$ be the variety of spatial polygons $P= (a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n)$ whose sides are vectors $a_i \in \text{\bf R}^3$ of length $\vert a_i \vert=1 \; (1 \leq i \leq n),$ up to motion in $\text{\bf R}^3.$ It is known that for odd $n$, $M_n$ is a smooth manifold, while for even $n$, $M_n$ has cone-like singular points. For odd $n$, the rational homology of $M_n$ was determined by Kirwan and Klyachko [6], [9]. The purpose of this paper is to determine the rational homology of $M_n$ for even $n$. For even $n$, let ${\tilde M}_n$ be the manifold obtained from $M_n$ by the resolution of the singularities. Then we also determine the integral homology of ${\tilde M}_n$.