Deformation Theory - Deformations of Complex Manifolds

Deformations of Complex Manifolds

The most salient deformation theory in mathematics has been that of complex manifolds and algebraic varieties. This was put on a firm basis by foundational work of Kunihiko Kodaira and D. C. Spencer, after deformation techniques had received a great deal of more tentative application in the Italian school of algebraic geometry. One expects, intuitively, that deformation theory of the first order should equate the Zariski tangent space with a moduli space. The phenomena turn out to be rather subtle, though, in the general case.

In the case of Riemann surfaces, one can explain that the complex structure on the Riemann sphere is isolated (no moduli). For genus 1, an elliptic curve has a one-parameter family of complex structures, as shown in elliptic function theory. The general Kodaira-Spencer theory identifies as the key to the deformation theory the sheaf cohomology group

H1(Θ)

where Θ is (the sheaf of germs of sections of) the holomorphic tangent bundle. There is an obstruction in the H2 of the same sheaf; which is always zero in case of a curve, for general reasons of dimension. In the case of genus 0 the H1 vanishes, also. For genus 1 the dimension is the Hodge number h1,0 which is therefore 1. It is known that all curves of genus one have equations of form y2 = x3 + ax + b. These obviously depend on two parameters, a and b, whereas the isomorphism classes of such curves have only one parameter. Hence there must be an equation relating those a and b which describe isomorphic elliptic curves. It turns out that curves for which b2a-3 has the same value, describe isomorphic curves. I.e. varying a and b is one way to deform the structure of the curve y2 = x3 + ax + b, but not all variations of a,b actually change the isomorphism class of the curve.

One can go further with the case of genus g > 1, using Serre duality to relate the H1 to

H0(Ω)

where Ω is the holomorphic cotangent bundle and the notation Ω means the tensor square (not the second exterior power). In other words, deformations are regulated by holomorphic quadratic differentials on a Riemann surface, again something known classically. The dimension of the moduli space, called Teichmüller space in this case, is computed as 3g − 3, by the Riemann-Roch theorem.

These examples are the beginning of a theory applying to holomorphic families of complex manifolds, of any dimension. Further developments included: the extension by Spencer of the techniques to other structures of differential geometry; the assimilation of the Kodaira-Spencer theory into the abstract algebraic geometry of Grothendieck, with a consequent substantive clarification of earlier work; and deformation theory of other structures, such as algebras.