Generalizing a result of Yoshinaga in dimension three, we show that a central hyperplane arrangement in 4-space is free exactly if its restriction with multiplicities to a fixed hyperplane of the arrangement is free and its reduced characteristic polynomial equals the characteristic polynomial of this restriction. We show that the same statement holds true in any dimension when imposing certain tameness hypotheses.

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.

We prove that certain roots of the Bernstein–Sato polynomial (i.e. $b$-function) are jumping coefficients up to a sign, showing a partial converse of a theorem of L. Ein, R. Lazarsfeld, K. E. Smith, and D. Varolin. We also prove that certain roots are determined by a filtration on the Milnor cohomology, generalizing a theorem of B. Malgrange in the isolated singularity case. This implies a certain relation with the spectrum which is determined by the Hodge filtration, because the above filtration is related to the pole order filtration. For multiplier ideals we prove an explicit formula in the case of locally conical divisors along a stratification, generalizing a formula of Mustaţ̌a in the case of hyperplane arrangements. We also give another proof of a formula of U. Walther on the $b$-function of a generic hyperplane arrangement, including the multiplicity of $-1$.

For cohomological (respectively homological) coefficient systems ${\mathcal F}$ (respectively ${\mathcal V}$) on affine buildings X with Coxeter data of type $\widetilde{A}_d$, we give for any $k\ge1$ a sufficient local criterion which implies $H^k(X,{\mathcal F})=0$ (respectively $H_k(X,{\mathcal V})=0$). Using this criterion we prove a conjecture of de Shalit on the acyclicity of coefficient systems attached to hyperplane arrangements on the Bruhat–Tits building of the general linear group over a local field. We also generalize an acyclicity theorem of Schneider and Stuhler on coefficient systems attached to representations.

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.

We construct a formal connection on the Aomoto complex of an arrangement of hyperplanes, and use it to study the Gauss–Manin connection for the moduli space of the arrangement in the cohomology of a complex rank one local system. We prove that the eigenvalues of the Gauss–Manin connection are integral linear combinations of the weights which define the local system.