On the length of perverse sheaves on hyperplane arrangements

Abstract

In this article we address the length of perverse sheaves arising as direct images of rank one local systems on complements of hyperplane arrangements. In the case of a cone over an essential line arrangement with at most triple points, we provide combinatorial formulas for these lengths. As by-products, we also obtain in this case combinatorial formulas for the intersection cohomology Betti numbers of rank one local systems on the complement with same monodromy around the planes.