The Hard Lefschetz Theorem and the topology of semismall maps

Abstract

We introduce the notion of lef line bundles on a complex projective manifold. We prove that lef line bundles satisfy the Hard Lefschetz Theorem, the Lefschetz Decomposition and the Hodge-Riemann Bilinear Relations. We study proper holomorphic semismall maps from complex manifolds and prove that, for constant coefficients, the Decomposition Theorem is equivalent to the non-degeneracy of certain intersection forms. We give a proof of the Decomposition Theorem for the complex direct image of the constant sheaf when the domain and the target are projective by proving that the forms in question are non-degenerate. A new feature uncovered by our proof is that the forms are definite.