Singularities of variations of mixed Hodge structure

Abstract

We prove that a variation of graded-polarizable mixed Hodge structure over a punctured disk with unipotent monodromy, has a limiting mixed Hodge structure at the puncture (i.e., it is admissible in the sense of [SZ]) which splits over $\R$, if and only if certain grading of the complexified weight filtration, depending smoothly on the Hodge filtration, extends across the puncture. In particular, the result exactly supplements Schmid's Theorem for pure structures, which holds for the graded variation, and gives a Hodge-theoretic condition for the relative monodromy weight filtration to exist.