HODGE POLYNOMIALS OF SINGULAR HYPERSURFACES

Abstract. We express the difference between the Hodge polynomials of the singular and resp. generic member of a pencil of hypersurfaces in a projective manifold by using a stratification of the singular member described in terms of the data of the pencil. In particular, if we assume trivial monodromy along all strata in the singular member of the pencil, our formula computes this difference as a weighted sum of Hodge polynomials of singular strata, the weights depending only on the Hodge-type information in the normal direction to the strata. This extends previous results (cf. [19]) which related the Euler characteristics of the generic and singular members only of generic pencils, and yields explicit formulas for the Hodge χy-polynomials of singular hypersurfaces. 1