Nero Budur: Homotopy of singular algebraic varieties

Abstract: By work of Simpson, Kollár, Kapovich, every finitely generated group can be the fundamental group of an irreducible complex algebraic variety with only normal crossings and Whitney umbrellas as singularities. In contrast, we show that if a complex algebraic variety has no weight zero 1-cohomology classes, then the fundamental group is strongly restricted: the irreducible components of the cohomology jump loci of rank one local systems containing the constant sheaf are complex affine tori. Same for links and Milnor fibers. Work with Marcel Rubió.