Factoriality and Neron-Severi groups of a projective codimension two complete intersection with isolated singularities

Abstract

For a projective variety $Z$ and for any integer $p$, define the $p$-th N\'eron-Severi group $NS_p(Z)$ of $Z$ as the image of the cycle map $A_{p}(Z)\to H_{2p}(Z; \mathbb{C})$. Now let $X\subset \Ps^{2m+1}$ ($m\geq 1$) be a projective variety of dimension $2m-1$, with isolated singularities, complete intersection of a smooth hypersurface of degree $k$, with a hypersurface of degree $n>max\{k, 2m+1\}$, and let $F$ be a general hypersurface of degree $n$ containing $X$. We prove that the natural map $NS_m(X)\to NS_m(F)$ is surjective, and that if $dim NS_m(F)=1$ then $dim NS_m(X)=1$. In particular $dim NS_m(X)=1$ if and only if $dim NS_m(F)=1$. When $X$ is a threefold (i.e. $m=2$) we deduce a new characterization for the factoriality of $X$, i.e. that $X$ is factorial if and only if $dim NS_2(F)=1$. This allows us to give examples of factorial threefolds, in some case with many singularities. During the proof of the announced results, we show that the quotient of the middle cohomology of $F$ by the cycle classes coming from $X$ is irreducible under the monodromy action induced by the hypersurfaces of degree $n$ containing $X$. As consequences we deduce a Noether-Lefschetz Theorem for a projective complete intersection with isolated singularities, and, also using a recent result on codimension two Hodge conjecture, in the case $X\subset \Ps^{5}$ is a threefold as before, we deduce that the general hypersurface $F$ of degree $n$ containing $X$ verifies Hodge conjecture.