Weights in arithmetic geometry

The concept of weights on the cohomology of algebraic varieties was initiated by fundamental ideas and work of A. Grothendieck and P. Deligne. It is deeply connected with the concept of motives and appeared first on the singular cohomology as the weights of (possibly mixed) Hodge structures and on the etale cohomology as the weights of eigenvalues of Frobenius. But weights also appear on algebraic fundamental groups and in p-adic Hodge theory, where they become only visible after applying the comparison functors of Fontaine. After rehearsing various versions of weights, we explain some more recent applications of weights, e.g. to Hasse principles and the computation of motivic cohomology, and discuss some open questions.     

Deformation Theory of Dialgebras

We develop deformation theory of (associative) dialgebras and show that perturbation of algebraic structures of a dialgebra is controlled by the dialgebra cohomology.     

Rigidity for orientable functors

In the following paper we introduce the notion of orientable functor (orientable cohomology theory) on the category of projective smooth schemes and define a family of transfer maps. Applying this technique, we prove that with finite coefficients orientable cohomology of a projective variety is invariant with respect to the base-change given by an extension of algebraically closed fields. This statement generalizes the classical result of Suslin, concerning algebraic K-theory of algebraically closed fields. Besides K-theory, we treat such examples of orientable functors as etale cohomology, motivic cohomology, algebraic cobordism. We also demonstrate a method to endow algebraic cobordism with multiplicative structure and Chern classes.     

Homology stability for classical regular semisimple varieties

We use techniques from homotopy theory, in particular the connection between configuration spaces and iterated loop spaces, to give geometric explanations of stability results for the cohomology of the varieties of regular semisimple elements in the simple complex Lie algebras of classical type A, B or C, as well as in the group . We show that the cohomology spaces of stable versions of these varieties have an algebraic stucture, which identifies them as “free Poisson algebras” with suitable degree shifts. Using this, we are able to give explicit formulae for the corresponding Poincaré series, which lead to power series identities by comparison with earlier work. The cases of type B and C involve ideas from equivariant homotopy theory. Our results may be interpreted in terms of the actions of a Weyl group on its coinvariant algebra (i.e. the coordinate ring of the affine space on which it acts, modulo the invariants of positive degree; this space coincides with the cohomology ring of the flag variety of the associated Lie group) and on the cohomology of its associated complex discriminant variety. Received August 31, 1998; in final form August 1, 1999 / Published online October 30, 2000     

Rational surfaces and regular maps into the 2-dimensional sphere

Let X and Y be affine nonsingular real algebraic varieties. A general problem in Real Algebraic Geometry is to try to decide when a mapping, , can be approximated by regular mappings in the space of mappings, , equipped with the topology. In this paper, we obtain some results concerning this problem when the target space is the 2-dimensional standard sphere and X has a complexification that is a rational (complex) surface. To get the results we study the subgroup of the second cohomology group of X with integer coefficients that consists of the cohomology classes that are pullbacks, via the inclusion mapping , of the cohomology classes in represented by complex algebraic hypersurfaces. Received December 1, 1998; in final form August 2, 1999     

Chiral equivariant cohomology I

We construct a new equivariant cohomology theory for a certain class of differential vertex algebras, which we call the chiral equivariant cohomology. A principal example of a differential vertex algebra in this class is the chiral de Rham complex of Malikov-Schechtman-Vaintrob of a manifold with a group action. The main idea in this paper is to synthesize the algebraic approach to classical equivariant cohomology due to H. Cartan,² with the theory of differential vertex algebras, by using an appropriate notion of invariant theory. We also construct the vertex algebra analogues of the Mathai-Quillen isomorphism, the Weil and the Cartan models for equivariant cohomology, and the Chern-Weil map. We give interesting cohomology classes in the new theory that have no classical analogues.     

Higher Intersection Theory on Algebraic Stacks: II

This is the second part of our work on the intersection theory of algebraic stacks. The main results here are the following. We provide an intersection pairing for all smooth Artin stacks (locally of finite type over a field) which we show reduces to the known intersection pairing on the Chow groups of smooth Deligne–Mumford stacks of finite type over a field as well as on the Chow groups of quotient stacks associated to actions of linear algebraic groups on smooth quasi-projective schemes modulo torsion. The former involves also showing the existence of Adams operations on the rational étale K-theory of all smooth Deligne–Mumford stacks of finite type over a field. In addition, we show that our definition of the higher Chow groups is intrinsic to the stack for all smooth stacks and also stacks of finite type over the given field. Next we establish the existence of Chern classes and Chern character for Artin stacks with values in our Chow groups and extend these to higher Chern classes and a higher Chern character for perfect complexes on an algebraic stack, taking values in cohomology theories of algebraic stacks that are defined with respect to complexes of sheaves on a big smooth site. As a by-product of our techniques we also provide an extension of higher intersection theory to all schemes locally of finite type over a field. As the higher cycle complex, by itself, is a bit difficult to handle, the stronger results like contravariance for arbitrary maps between smooth stacks and the intersection pairing for smooth stacks are established by comparison with motivic cohomology.     

Families of univalent functions and Kleinian groups

The paper treats two topics. We obtain new characterizations of quasidiscs using theλ-lemma. We study regularb-groups by combining results on holomorphic families of injections with theorems on algebraic convergence of Kleinian groups and the structure of the Eichler cohomology spaces. We also obtain results about projective structures whose developing maps are coverings. Research partially supported by NSF grant DMS 8401280.     

Rational isomorphisms between K-theories and cohomology theories

The well known isomorphism relating the rational algebraic K-theory groups and the rational motivic cohomology groups of a smooth variety over a field of characteristic 0 is shown to be realized by a map (the Segre map) of infinite loop spaces. Moreover, the associated Chern character map on rational homotopy groups is shown to be a ring isomorphism. A technique is introduced that establishes a useful general criterion for a natural transformation of functors on quasi-projective complex varieties to induce a homotopy equivalence of semi-topological singular complexes. Since semi-topological K-theory and morphic cohomology can be formulated as the semi-topological singular complexes associated to algebraic K-theory and motivic cohomology, this criterion provides a rational isomorphism between the semi-topological K-theory groups and the morphic cohomology groups of a smooth complex variety. Consequences include a Riemann-Roch theorem for the Chern character on semi-topological K-theory and an interpretation of the topological filtration on singular cohomology groups in K-theoretic terms.     

Torsion algebraic cycles and étale cobordism

We prove that the classical integral cycle class map from algebraic cycles to étale cohomology factors through a quotient of ?-adic étale cobordism over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. This shows that there is a strong topological obstruction for cohomology classes to be algebraic and that examples of Atiyah, Hirzebruch and Totaro also work in positive characteristic.     

Techniques,computations, and conjectures for semi-topological <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-theory

We establish the existence of an Atiyah-Hirzebruch-like spectral sequence relating the morphic cohomology groups of a smooth, quasi-projective complex variety to its semi-topological K-groups. This spectral sequence is compatible with (and, indeed, is built from) the motivic spectral sequence that relates the motivic cohomology and algebraic K-theory of varieties, and it is also compatible with the classical Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence in algebraic topology. In the second part of this paper, we use this spectral sequence in conjunction with another computational tool that we introduce — namely, a variation on the integral weight filtration of the Borel-Moore (singular) homology of complex varieties introduced by H. Gillet and C. Soulé – to compute the semi-topological K-theory of a large class of varieties. In particular, we prove that for curves, surfaces, toric varieties, projective rational three-folds, and related varieties, the semi-topological K-groups and topological K-groups are isomorphic in all degrees permitted by cohomological considerations. We also formulate integral conjectures relating semi-topological K-theory to topological K-theory analogous to more familiar conjectures (namely, the Quillen-Lichtenbaum and Beilinson-Lichtenbaum Conjectures) concerning mod-n algebraic K-theory and motivic cohomology. In particular, we prove a local vanishing result for morphic cohomology which enables us to formulate precisely a conjectural identification of morphic cohomology by A. Suslin. Our computations verify that these conjectures hold for the list of varieties above.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 19E20, 19E15, 14F43The first author was partially supported by the NSF and the NSAThe second author was supported by the Helen M. Galvin Fellowship of Northwestern UniversityThe third author was partially supported by the NSF and the NSA     

Cohomology of classical algebraic groups from the functorial viewpoint

We prove that extension groups in strict polynomial functor categories compute the rational cohomology of classical algebraic groups. This result was previously known only for general linear groups. We give several applications to the study of classical algebraic groups, such as a cohomological stabilization property, the injectivity of external cup products, and the existence of Hopf algebra structures on the (stable) cohomology of a classical algebraic group with coefficients in a Hopf algebra. Our result also opens the way to new explicit cohomology computations. We give an example inspired by recent computations of Djament and Vespa.     

Homological Perturbation Theory and Mirror Symmetry

We explain how deformation theories of geometric objects such as complex structures,Poisson structures and holomorphic bundle structures lead to differential Gerstenhaber or Poisson al-gebras.We use homological perturbation theory to construct A∞ algebra structures on the cohomology,and their canonically defined deformations.Such constructions are used to formulate a version of A∞ algebraic mirror symmetry.     

Algebraic De Rham cohomology

We announce the development of a theory of algebraic De Rham cohomology and homology for arbitrary schemes over a field of characteristic zero. Over the complex numbers, this theory is equivalent to singular cohomology. Applications include generalizations of theorems of Lefschetz and Barth on the cohomology of projective varieties.     

Comparing Codimension and Absolute Length in Complex Reflection Groups

Reflection length and codimension of fixed point spaces induce partial orders on a complex reflection group. Motivated by connections to the algebraic structure of cohomology governing deformations of skew group algebras, we show that Coxeter groups and the infinite family G(m, 1, n) are the only irreducible complex reflection groups for which reflection length and codimension coincide. We then discuss implications for the degrees of generators of Hochschild cohomology. Along the way, we describe the codimension atoms for the infinite family G(m, p, n), give algorithms using character theory, and determine two-variable Poincaré polynomials recording reflection length and codimension.     

Bredon-style homology, cohomology and Riemann-Roch for algebraic stacks

One of the main obstacles for proving Riemann-Roch for algebraic stacks is the lack of cohomology and homology theories that are closer to the K-theory and G-theory of algebraic stacks than the traditional cohomology and homology theories for algebraic stacks. In this paper we study in detail a family of cohomology and homology theories which we call Bredon-style theories that are of this type and in the spirit of the classical Bredon cohomology and homology theories defined for the actions of compact topological groups on topological spaces. We establish Riemann-Roch theorems in this setting: it is shown elsewhere that such Riemann-Roch theorems provide a powerful tool for deriving formulae involving virtual fundamental classes associated to dg-stacks, for example, moduli stacks of stable curves provided with a virtual structure sheaf associated to a perfect obstruction theory. We conclude the present paper with a brief application of this nature.     

Pentes en cohomologie rigide et F-isocristaux unipotents

We study the slopes of Frobenius on the rigid cohomology and the rigid cohomology with compact support of an algebraic variety over a perfect field of positive characteristic. We then prove that any unipotent overconvergent F-isocrystal on a smooth variety has a slope filtration whose graded parts are pure. Received: 23 December 1998 / Revised version: 5 July 1999     

Higher Intersection Theory on Algebraic Stacks: I

In this paper and the sequel we establish a theory of Chow groups and higher Chow groups on algebraic stacks locally of finite type over a field and establish their basic properties. This includes algebraic stacks in the sense of Deligne–Mumford as well as Artin. An intrinsic difference between our approach and earlier approaches is that the higher Chow groups of Bloch enter into our theory early on and depends heavily on his fundamental work. Our theory may be more appropriately called the (Lichtenbaum) motivic homology and cohomology of algebraic stacks. One of the main themes of these papers is that such a motivic homology does provide a reasonable intersection theory for algebraic stacks (of finite type over a field), with several key properties holding integrally and extending to stacks locally of finite type. While several important properties of our higher Chow groups, like covariance for projective representable maps (that factor as the composition of a closed immersion into the projective space associated to a locally free coherent sheaf and the obvious projection), an intersection pairing and contravariant functoriality for all smooth algebraic stacks, are shown to hold integrally, our theory works best with rational coefficients.The main results of Part I are the following. The higher Chow groups are defined in general with respect to an atlas, but are shown to be independent of the choice of the atlas for smooth stacks if one uses finite coefficients with torsion prime to the characteristics or in general for Deligne–Mumford stacks. (Using some results on motivic cohomology, we extend this integrally to all smooth algebraic stacks in Part II.) Using cohomological descent, we extend Bloch's fundamental localization sequence for quasi-projective schemes to long exact localization sequences of the higher Chow groups modulo torsion for all Artin stacks: this is one of the main results of the paper. We show that these higher Chow groups modulo torsion are covariant for all proper representable maps between stacks of finite type while being contravariant for all representable flat maps and, in Part II, that they are independent of the choice of an atlas for all stacks of finite type over the given field k. The comparison with motivic cohomology, as is worked out in Part II, enables us to provide an explicit comparison of our theory for quotient stacks associated to actions of linear algebraic groups on quasi-projective schemes with the corresponding Totaro–Edidin–Graham equivariant intersection theory. As an application of our theory we compute the higher Chow groups of Deligne–Mumford stacks and show that they are isomorphic modulo torsion to the higher Chow groups of their coarse moduli spaces. As a by-product of our theory we also produce localization sequences in (integral) higher Chow groups for all schemes locally of finite type over a field: these higher Chow groups are defined as the Zariski hypercohomology with respect to the cycle complex.