ABSTRACT. We study the deformation theory of lines on the Fermat quintic threefold. We formulate an infinitesimal version of the generalized Hodge conjecture, and use our analysis of lines to prove it in a special case.

ABSTRACT. We study the deformation theory of lines on the Fermat quintic threefold. We formulate an infinitesimal version of the generalized Hodge conjecture, and use our analysis of lines to prove it in a special case.

We construct three new families of fibrations π : S → B where S is an algebraic complex surface and B a curve that violate Xiao's conjecture relating the relative irregularity and the genus of the general fiber. The fibers of π are certain étale cyclic covers of hyperelliptic curves that give coverings of P 1 with dihedral monodromy. As an application, we also show the existence of big and nef effective divisors in the Brill-Noether range.

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Abstract. In this paper we prove that the Griffiths group of a general cubic sevenfold is not finitely generated, even when tensored with Q. Using this result and a theorem of Nori, we provide examples of varieties which have some Griffiths group not finitely generated but whose corresponding intermediate Jacobian is trivial.

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We propose a Ginzburg-Landau model for the expansion of a dodecahedral viral capsid during infection or maturation. The capsid is described as a dodecahedron whose faces, meant to model rigid capsomers, are free to move independent of each other, and has therefore twelve degrees of freedom. We assume that the energy of the system is a function of the twelve variables with icosahedral symmetry. Using techniques of the theory of invariants, we expand the energy as the sum of invariant polynomials up to fourth order, and classify its minima in dependence of the coefficients of the Ginzburg-Landau expansion. Possible conformational changes of the capsid correspond to symmetry breaking of the equilibrium closed form. The results suggest that the only generic transition from the closed state leads to icosahedral expanded form. Our approach does not allow to study the expansion pathway, which is likely to be non-icosahedral.

The conchoid of a plane curve $C$ is constructed using a fixed circle $B$ in the affine plane. We generalize the classical definition so that we obtain a conchoid from any pair of curves $B$ and $C$ in the projective plane. We present two definitions, one purely algebraic through resultants and a more geometric one using an incidence correspondence in $\PP^2 \times \PP^2$. We prove, among other things, that the conchoid of a generic curve of fixed degree is irreducible, we determine its singularities and give a formula for its degree and genus. In the final section we return to the classical case: for any given curve $C$ we give a criterion for its conchoid to be irreducible and we give a procedure to determine when a curve is the conchoid of another.Comment: 18 pages Revised version: slight title change, improved exposition, fixed proof of Theorem 5.3 Accepted for publication in Appl. Algebra Eng., Commun. Comput