Séminaires : Géométrie et Théorie des Modèles

For a normal complex algebraic variety X equipped with a semisimple complex local system V, a Shafarevich morphism X → Y is a map which contracts precisely those algebraic subvarieties on which V has finite monodromy. The existence of such maps has interesting consequences on the geometry of universal covers of complex algebraic varieties. Shafarevich morphisms were constructed for projective X by Eyssidieux, and recently have been constructed analytically in the quasiprojective case independently by Deng--Yamanoi and myself using techniques from non-abelian Hodge theory. In joint work with B. Bakker and J. Tsimerman, we show that these maps are algebraic, and that in fact Y is quasiprojective. This is a generalization of the Griffiths conjecture on the quasiprojectivity of images of period maps, and the proof critically uses o-minimal geometry.