Let $f:X\to Y$ be a surjective projective map, and let L be a holomorphic line bundle on X equipped with a (singular) semi-positive Hermitian metric h. In this article, by studying the canonical metric on the direct image sheaf of the twisted relative canonical bundles $K_{X/Y}\otimes L\otimes \mathscr {I}(h)$, we obtain that this metric has dual Nakano semi-positivity when h is smooth and there is no deformation by f and that this metric has locally Nakano semi-positivity in the singular sense when h is singular.

We define Bernstein–Sato polynomials for meromorphic functions and study their basic properties. In particular, we prove a Kashiwara–Malgrange-type theorem on their geometric monodromies, which would also be useful in relation with the monodromy conjecture. A new feature in the meromorphic setting is that we have several b-functions whose roots yield the same set of the eigenvalues of the Milnor monodromies. We also introduce multiplier ideal sheaves for meromorphic functions and show that their jumping numbers are related to our b-functions.

In this paper, we prove that klt singularities are invariant under deformations if the generic fiber is $\mathbb {Q}$ -Gorenstein. We also obtain a similar result for slc singularities. These are generalizations of results of Esnault-Viehweg [Math. Ann. 271 (1985), 439–449] and S. Ishii [Math. Ann. 275 (1986), 139–148; Singularities (Iowa City, IA, 1986) Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 90 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1989), 135–145].

Utilizing ultraproducts, Schoutens constructed a big Cohen–Macaulay (BCM) algebra $\mathcal {B}(R)$ over a local domain R essentially of finite type over $\mathbb {C}$. We show that if R is normal and $\Delta $ is an effective $\mathbb {Q}$-Weil divisor on $\operatorname {Spec} R$ such that $K_R+\Delta $ is $\mathbb {Q}$-Cartier, then the BCM test ideal $\tau _{\widehat {\mathcal {B}(R)}}(\widehat {R},\widehat {\Delta })$ of $(\widehat {R},\widehat {\Delta })$ with respect to $\widehat {\mathcal {B}(R)}$ coincides with the multiplier ideal $\mathcal {J}(\widehat {R},\widehat {\Delta })$ of $(\widehat {R},\widehat {\Delta })$, where $\widehat {R}$ and $\widehat {\mathcal {B}(R)}$ are the $\mathfrak {m}$-adic completions of R and $\mathcal {B}(R)$, respectively, and $\widehat {\Delta }$ is the flat pullback of $\Delta $ by the canonical morphism $\operatorname {Spec} \widehat {R}\to \operatorname {Spec} R$. As an application, we obtain a result on the behavior of multiplier ideals under pure ring extensions.

We study the singularity at the origin of $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$ of an arbitrary homogeneous polynomial in $n+1$ variables with complex coefficients, by investigating the monodromy characteristic polynomials $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}_{l}(t)$ as well as the relation between the monodromy zeta function and the Hodge spectrum of the singularity. In the case $n=2$, we give a description of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}_{C}(t)=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}_{1}(t)$ in terms of the multiplier ideal.

We compute the Alexander polynomial of a nonreduced nonirreducible complex projective plane curve with mutually coprime orders of vanishing along its irreducible components in terms of certain multiplier ideals.

In this paper we study the local cohomology modules of Du Bois singularities. Let $(R,\mathfrak{m})$ be a local ring; we prove that if $R_{\text{red}}$ is Du Bois, then $H_{\mathfrak{m}}^{i}(R)\rightarrow H_{\mathfrak{m}}^{i}(R_{\text{red}})$ is surjective for every $i$. We find many applications of this result. For example, we answer a question of Kovács and Schwede [Inversion of adjunction for rational and Du Bois pairs, Algebra Number Theory 10 (2016), 969–1000; MR 3531359] on the Cohen–Macaulay property of Du Bois singularities. We obtain results on the injectivity of $\operatorname{Ext}$ that provide substantial partial answers to questions in Eisenbud et al. [Cohomology on toric varieties and local cohomology with monomial supports, J. Symbolic Comput. 29 (2000), 583–600] in characteristic $0$. These results can also be viewed as generalizations of the Kodaira vanishing theorem for Cohen–Macaulay Du Bois varieties. We prove results on the set-theoretic Cohen–Macaulayness of the defining ideal of Du Bois singularities, which are characteristic-$0$ analogs and generalizations of results of Singh–Walther and answer some of their questions in Singh and Walther [On the arithmetic rank of certain Segre products, in Commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 390 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2005), 147–155]. We extend results on the relation between Koszul cohomology and local cohomology for $F$-injective and Du Bois singularities first shown in Hochster and Roberts [The purity of the Frobenius and local cohomology, Adv. Math. 21 (1976), 117–172; MR 0417172 (54 #5230)]. We also prove that singularities of dense $F$-injective type deform.

We prove that the canonical ring of a canonical variety in the sense of de Fernex and Hacon is finitely generated. We prove that canonical varieties are Kawamata log terminal (klt) if and only if is finitely generated. We introduce a notion of nefness for non-ℚ-Gorenstein varieties and study some of its properties. We then focus on these properties for non-ℚ-Gorenstein toric varieties.

Our object of study is a rational map  defined by homogeneous forms $g_{1},\ldots ,g_{n}$ , of the same degree $d$ , in the homogeneous coordinate ring $R=k[x_{1},\ldots ,x_{s}]$ of $\mathbb{P}_{k}^{s-1}$ . Our goal is to relate properties of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ , of the homogeneous coordinate ring $A=k[g_{1},\ldots ,g_{n}]$ of the variety parameterized by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ , and of the Rees algebra ${\mathcal{R}}(I)$ , the bihomogeneous coordinate ring of the graph of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ . For a regular map $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ , for instance, we prove that ${\mathcal{R}}(I)$ satisfies Serre’s condition $R_{i}$ , for some $i>0$ , if and only if $A$ satisfies $R_{i-1}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ is birational onto its image. Thus, in particular, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ is birational onto its image if and only if ${\mathcal{R}}(I)$ satisfies $R_{1}$ . Either condition has implications for the shape of the core, namely, $\text{core}(I)$ is the multiplier ideal of $I^{s}$ and $\text{core}(I)=(x_{1},\ldots ,x_{s})^{sd-s+1}.$ Conversely, for $s=2$ , either equality for the core implies birationality. In addition, by means of the generalized rows of the syzygy matrix of $g_{1},\ldots ,g_{n}$ , we give an explicit method to reduce the nonbirational case to the birational one when $s=2$ .

We introduce an operation on modules over an F-finite ring of characteristic p. We call this operation tight interior. While it exists more generally, in some cases this operation is equivalent to the Matlis dual of tight closure. Moreover, the interior of the ring itself is simply the big test ideal. We directly prove, without appeal to tight closure, results analogous to persistence, colon capturing, and working modulo minimal primes, and we begin to develop a theory dual to phantom homology. Using our dual notion of persistence, we obtain new and interesting transformation rules for tight interiors, and so in particular for the test ideal. Using our theory of phantom homology, we prove a vanishing theorem for maps of Ext. We also compare our theory with Blickle’s notion of Cartier modules, and in the process we prove new existence results for Blickle’s test submodule. Finally, we apply the theory we developed to the study of test ideals in nonnormal rings, proving that the finitistic test ideal coincides with the big test ideal in some cases.

Given an ideal a on a smooth variety in characteristic zero, we estimate the F-jumping numbers of the reductions of a to positive characteristic in terms of the jumping numbers of a and the characteristic. We apply one of our estimates to bound the Hartshorne–Speiser–Lyubeznik invariant for the reduction to positive characteristic of a hypersurface singularity.

For a characteristic-$p\gt 0$ variety $X$ with controlled $F$-singularities, we state conditions which imply that a divisorial sheaf is Cohen–Macaulay or at least has depth $\geq $3 at certain points. This mirrors results of Kollár for varieties in characteristic 0. As an application, we show that relative canonical sheaves are compatible with arbitrary base change for certain families with sharply $F$-pure fibers.

We consider the following conjecture: if X is a smooth and irreducible n-dimensional projective variety over a field k of characteristic zero, then there is a dense set of reductions Xs to positive characteristic such that the action of the Frobenius morphism on Hn(Xs, OXs) is bijective. There is another conjecture relating certain invariants of singularities in characteristic zero (the multiplier ideals) with invariants in positive characteristic (the test ideals). We prove that the former conjecture implies the latter one in the case of ambient nonsingular varieties.