A vanishing result for the first twisted cohomology of affine varieties and applications to line arrangements

A general vanishing result for the first cohomology group of affine smooth complex varieties with values in rank one local systems is established. This is applied to the determination of the monodromy action on the first cohomology group of the Milnor fiber of some line arrangements, including the monomial arrangement and the exceptional reflection arrangement of type $G_{31}$.