Universal deformation rings need not be complete intersections

We answer a question of M. Flach by showing that there is a linear representation of a profinite group whose universal deformation ring is not a complete intersection. We show that such examples arise in arithmetic in the following way. There are infinitely many real quadratic fields F for which there is a mod 2 representation of the Galois group of the maximal unramified extension of F whose universal deformation ring is not a complete intersection. To cite this article: F.M. Bleher, T. Chinburg, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).