For each central essential hyperplane arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ over an algebraically closed field, let $Z_\mathcal{A}^{\hat\mu}(T)$ denote the Denef–Loeser motivic zeta function of $\mathcal{A}$ . We prove a formula expressing $Z_\mathcal{A}^{\hat\mu}(T)$ in terms of the Milnor fibers of related hyperplane arrangements. This formula shows that, in a precise sense, the degree to which $Z_{\mathcal{A}}^{\hat\mu}(T)$ fails to be a combinatorial invariant is completely controlled by these Milnor fibers. As one application, we use this formula to show that the map taking each complex arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ to the Hodge–Deligne specialization of $Z_{\mathcal{A}}^{\hat\mu}(T)$ is locally constant on the realization space of any loop-free matroid. We also prove a combinatorial formula expressing the motivic Igusa zeta function of $\mathcal{A}$ in terms of the characteristic polynomials of related arrangements.

Over the past forty years many papers have studied logarithmic sheaves associated to reduced divisors, in particular logarithmic bundles associated to plane curves. An interesting family of these curves are the so-called free ones for which the associated logarithmic sheaf is the direct sum of two line bundles. Terao conjectured thirty years ago that when a curve is a finite set of distinct lines (i.e. a line arrangement) its freeness depends solely on its combinatorics, but this has only been proved for sets of up to 12 lines. In looking for a counter-example to Terao’s conjecture, the nearly free curves introduced by Dimca and Sticlaru arise naturally. We prove here that the logarithmic bundle associated to a nearly free curve possesses a minimal non-zero section that vanishes on one single point, P say, called the jumping point, and that this characterises the bundle. We then give a precise description of the behaviour of P. Based on detailed examples we then show that the position of P relative to its corresponding nearly free arrangement of lines may or may not be a combinatorial invariant, depending on the chosen combinatorics.

We give a bound on the H-constants of configurations of smooth curves having transversal intersection points only on an algebraic surface of non-negative Kodaira dimension. We also study in detail configurations of lines on smooth complete intersections $X \subset \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{C}}^{n + 2}$ of multi-degree d = (d1, …, dn), and we provide a sharp and uniform bound on their H-constants, which only depends on d.

For a line arrangement ${\mathcal{A}}$ in the complex projective plane $\mathbb{P}^{2}$, we investigate the compactification $\overline{F}$ in $\mathbb{P}^{3}$ of the affine Milnor fiber $F$ and its minimal resolution $\tilde{F}$. We compute the Chern numbers of $\tilde{F}$ in terms of the combinatorics of the line arrangement ${\mathcal{A}}$. As applications of the computation of the Chern numbers, we show that the minimal resolution is never a quotient of a ball; in addition, we also prove that $\tilde{F}$ is of general type when the arrangement has only nodes or triple points as singularities. Finally, we compute all the Hodge numbers of some $\tilde{F}$ by using some knowledge about the Milnor fiber monodromy of the arrangement.

We consider smooth, complex quasiprojective varieties $U$ that admit a compactification with a boundary, which is an arrangement of smooth algebraic hypersurfaces. If the hypersurfaces intersect locally like hyperplanes, and the relative interiors of the hypersurfaces are Stein manifolds, we prove that the cohomology of certain local systems on $U$ vanishes. As an application, we show that complements of linear, toric, and elliptic arrangements are both duality and abelian duality spaces.

In this note we prove the following surprising characterization: if $X\,\subset \,{{\mathbb{A}}^{n}}$ is an (embedded, non-empty, proper) algebraic variety deûned over a field $k$ of characteristic zero, then $X$ is a hypersurface if and only if the module ${{T}_{{{O}_{{{\mathbb{A}}^{n\,/k}}}}}}(X)$ of logarithmic vector fields of $X$ is a reflexive ${{O}_{{{\mathbb{A}}^{n}}}}$-module. As a consequence of this result, we derive that if ${{T}_{{{O}_{{{\mathbb{A}}^{n\,/k}}}}}}(X)$ is a free ${{O}_{{{\mathbb{A}}^{n}}}}$-module, which is shown to be equivalent to the freeness of the $t$-th exterior power of ${{T}_{{{O}_{{{\mathbb{A}}^{n\,/k}}}}}}(X)$ for some (in fact, any) $t\,\le \,n$, then necessarily $X$ is a Saito free divisor.

This paper proves the existence of potentials of the first and second kind of a Frobenius like structure in a frame, which encompasses families of arrangements. The frame uses the notion of matroids. For the proof of the existence of the potentials, a power series ansatz is made. The proof that it works requires that certain decompositions of tuples of coordinate vector fields are related by certain elementary transformations. This is shown with a nontrivial result on matroid partition.

Using recent results by Măcinic, Papadima and Popescu, and a refinement of an older construction of ours, we determine the monodromy action on $H^{1}(F(G),\mathbb{C})$, where $F(G)$ denotes the Milnor fiber of a hyperplane arrangement associated to an irreducible complex reflection group $G$.

We prove some vanishing theorems for the cohomology groups of local systems associated to Laurent polynomials. In particular, we extend one of the results of Gelfand et al. [Generalized Euler integrals and$A$-hypergeometric functions, Adv. Math. 84 (1990), 255–271] to various directions. In the course of the proof, some properties of vanishing cycles of perverse sheaves and twisted Morse theory are used.

The dimensions of the graded quotients of the cohomology of a plane curve complement $U\,=\,{{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}\,\backslash \,C$ with respect to the Hodge filtration are described in terms of simple geometrical invariants. The case of curves with ordinary singularities is discussed in detail. We also give a precise numerical estimate for the difference between the Hodge filtration and the pole order filtration on ${{H}^{2}}\left( U,\,\mathbb{C} \right)$.

Using a recent result by S. Papadima and A. Suciu, we show that the equivariant Poincaré– Deligne polynomial of the Milnor fiber of a projective line arrangement having only double and triple points is combinatorially determined.

We describe a general setting where the monodromy action on the first cohomology group of the Milnor fiber of a hyperplane arrangement is the identity.

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a line arrangement in the complex projective plane ${{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}$ and let $M$ be its complement. A rank one local system $\mathcal{L}$ on $M$ is admissible if, roughly speaking, the cohomology groups ${{H}^{m}}\left( M,\,\mathcal{L} \right)$ can be computed directly from the cohomology algebra ${{H}^{*}}\left( M,\,\mathbb{C} \right)$. In this work, we give a sufficient condition for the admissibility of all rank one local systems on $M$. As a result, we obtain some properties of the characteristic variety ${{\mathcal{V}}_{1}}\left( M \right)$ and the Resonance variety ${{\mathcal{R}}_{1}}\left( M \right)$.

The order of the Milnor fiber monodromy operator of a central hyperplane arrangement is shown to be combinatorially determined. In particular, a necessary and sufficient condition for the triviality of this monodromy operator is given.

It is known that the complement of a complex hyperplane arrangement is cohomologically Tate and, if the arrangement is defined over ℚ, has polynomial count. We show that these properties hold for the corresponding Milnor fibers if the monodromy is trivial.

We construct a hyperplane arrangement defined over ℚ, whose Milnor fiber has a nontrivial monodromy operator, is cohomologically Tate, and has no polynomial count. Such examples are shown not to exist in low dimensions.

If ${{\Phi }_{\lambda }}$ is a master function corresponding to a hyperplane arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ and a collection of weights $\lambda $, we investigate the relationship between the critical set of ${{\Phi }_{\lambda }}$, the variety defined by the vanishing of the one-form ${{\omega }_{\lambda }}=\text{d}\log {{\Phi }_{\lambda }}$, and the resonance of $\lambda $. For arrangements satisfying certain conditions, we show that if $\lambda $ is resonant in dimension $p$, then the critical set of ${{\Phi }_{\lambda }}$ has codimension at most $p$. These include all free arrangements and all rank 3 arrangements.

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a line arrangement in the complex projective plane ${{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}$, having the points of multiplicity $\ge \,3$ situated on two lines in $\mathcal{A}$, say ${{H}_{0}}$ and ${{H}_{\infty }}$. Then we show that the non-local irreducible components of the first resonance variety ${{\mathcal{R}}_{1}}(\mathcal{A})$ are 2-dimensional and correspond to parallelograms $P$ in ${{\mathbb{C}}^{2}}={{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}\text{ }\backslash \text{ }{{H}_{\infty }}$ whose sides are in $\mathcal{A}$ and for which ${{H}_{0}}$ is a diagonal.

We prove the existence of complexified real arrangements with the same combinatorics but different embeddings in ${\mathbb P}^2$. Such a pair of arrangements has an additional property: they admit conjugated equations on the ring of polynomials over ${\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{5})$.

Let $Q\in{\mathbb C}[x_1,\dotsc,x_n]$ be a homogeneous polynomial of degree $k>0$. We establish a connection between the Bernstein–Sato polynomial $b_Q(s)$ and the degrees of the generators for the top cohomology of the associated Milnor fiber. In particular, the integer $u_Q={\rm max}\{i\in{\mathbb Z}:b_Q(-(i+n)/k)=0\}$ bounds the top degree (as differential form) of the elements in $H^{n-1}_{\rm DR}(Q^{-1}(1),{\mathbb C})$. The link is provided by the relative de Rham complex and ${\mathcal D}$-module algorithms for computing integration functors.

As an application we determine the Bernstein–Sato polynomial $b_Q(s)$ of a generic central arrangement $Q=\prod_{i=1}^kH_i$ of hyperplanes. In turn, we obtain information about the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of such arrangements related to results of Orlik and Randell who investigated the monodromy.

We also introduce certain subschemes of the arrangement determined by the roots of $b_Q(s)$. They appear to correspond to iterated singular loci.