We classify purely inseparable morphisms of degree $p$ between rational double points (RDPs) in characteristic $p > 0$. Using such morphisms, we refine a result of Artin that any RDP admits a finite smooth covering.
The article investigates the behaviour of the characteristic zero resolution invariant when transcribed suitably to the case of surfaces in positive characteristic. By Moh's jumping phenomenon -- or the occurrence of kangaroo singularities -- one knows that the invariant may increase, thus destroying any induction. We describe in the paper how one can modify in the purely inseparable surface case the invariant by adding a subtle correction term so as to prohibit its occasional increases and to establish the induction argument again.
We give effective upper bounds for the number of purely inseparable points on non isotrivial curves over function fields of positive characteristic and of transcendence degree one. These bounds depend on the genus of the curve, the genus of the function field and the number of points of bad reduction of the curve.
We define the notion of inseparable coverings of schemes and we propose a ramification formalism for them, along the lines of the classical one. Using this formalism we prove a formula analogous to the classical Riemann-Hurwitz formula for generic torsors under infinitesimal diagonalizable group schemes.
In this article, we investigate the shift of Abbes and Saito's ramification filtrations of the absolute Galois group of a complete discrete valuation field of positive characteristic under a purely inseparable extension. We also study a functoriality property for characteristic forms.
We construct a Galois correspondence for finite purely inseparable field extensions $F/K$, generalising a classical result of Jacobson for extensions of exponent one (where $x^p \in K$ for all $x\in F$).
Let $U$ be an affine smooth curve defined over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. The Abhyankar Conjecture (proved by Raynaud and Harbater in 1994) describes the set of finite quotients of Grothendieck's étale fundamental group of $U$. In this paper, we consider a purely inseparable analogue of this problem, formulated in terms of Nori's profinite fundamental group scheme, and give a partial answer to it.
It is known since the works of Zariski in early 40ies that desingularization of varieties along valuations (called local uniformization of valuations) can be considered as the local part of the desingularization problem. It is still an open problem if local uniformization exists in positive characteristic and dimension larger than three. In this paper, we prove that Zariski local uniformization of algebraic varieties is always possible after a purely inseparable extension of the field of rational functions, i.e. any valuation can be uniformized by a purely inseparable alteration.
Let $K$ be the function field of a smooth and proper curve $S$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$. Let $A$ be an ordinary abelian variety over $K$. Suppose that the Néron model $\CA$ of $A$ over $S$ has a closed fibre $\CA_s$, which is an abelian variety of $p$-rank 0. We show that under these assumptions the group $A(K^\perf)/\Tr_{K|k}(A)(k)$ is finitely generated. Here $K^\perf=K^{p^{-\infty}}$ is the maximal purely inseparable extension of $K$. This result implies that in some circumstances, the "full" Mordell-Lang conjecture, as well as a conjecture of Esnault a…
Let $k$ be an imperfect field. Let $X$ be a regular variety over $k$ and set $Y$ to be the normalization of $(X \times_k k^{1/p^{\infty}})_{\rm red}$. In this paper, we show that $K_Y+C=f^*K_X$ for some effective divisor $C$ on $Y$. We obtain the following three applications. First, we show that a $K_X$-trivial fiber space with non-normal fibers is uniruled. Second, we prove that general fibers of Mori fiber spaces are rationally chain connected. Third, we obtain a weakening of the cone theorem for surfaces and threefolds defined over an imperfect field.
Let $A$ be an abelian variety over the function field $K$ of a curve over a finite field. We describe several mild geometric conditions ensuring that the group $A(K^{\rm perf})$ is finitely generated and that the $p$-primary torsion subgroup of $A(K^{\rm sep})$ is finite. This gives partial answers to questions of Scanlon, Ghioca and Moosa, and Poonen and Voloch. We also describe a simple theory (used to prove our results) relating the Harder-Narasimhan filtration of vector bundles to the structure of finite flat group schemes of height one over projective curves over perfect fields. Finally, …
We describe a method to show that certain elliptic surfaces do not admit purely inseparable multisections (equivalently, that genus one curves over function fields admit no points over the perfect closure of the base field) and use it to show that any non-Jacobian elliptic structure on a very general supersingular K3 surface has no purely inseparable multisections. We also describe specific examples of such fibrations without purely inseparable multisections. Finally, we discuss the consequences for the claimed proof of the Artin conjecture on unirationality of supersingular K3 surfaces.
We prove that every place P of an algebraic function field F|K of arbitrary characteristic admits local uniformization in a finite extension E of F. We show that E|F can be chosen to be Galois, after a finite purely inseparable extension of the ground field K. Instead of being Galois, the extension can also be chosen such that the induced extension EP|FP of the residue fields is purely inseparable and the value group of F only gets divided by the residue characteristic. If F lies in the completion of an Abhyankar place, then no extension of F is needed. Our proofs are based solely on valuation…
A finite étale map between irreducible, normal varieties is called tame, if it is tamely ramified with respect to all partial compactifications whose boundary is the support of a strict normal crossings divisor. We prove that if the Galois group of a Galois covering contains a normal nilpotent subgroup of index bounded by a constant N, then the covering is tame if and only if it is tamely ramified with respect to a single distinguished partial compactification only depending on N. The main tools used in the proof are Temkin's local purely inseparable uniformization and a Lefschetz type theorem…
Let k be a base field, K be a field containing k and L/K be a field extension of degree n. The essential dimension ed(L/K) over k is a numerical invariant measuring "the complexity" of L/K. Of particular interest is $τ$(n) = max { ed(L/K) | L/K is a separable extension of degree n}, also known as the essential dimension of the symmetric group $S_n$. The exact value of $τ$(n) is known only for n $\leq$ 7. In this paper we assume that k is a field of characteristic p > 0 and study the essential dimension of inseparable extensions L/K. Here the degree n = [L:K] is replaced by a pair (n, e) which …
For every supersingular $K3$ surface $X$ in characteristic 2, there exists a homogeneous polynomial $G$ of degree 6 such that $X$ is birational to the purely inseparable double cover of a projective plane defined by $w^2=G$. We present an algorithm to calculate from $G$ a set of generators of the numerical Néron-Severi lattice of $X$. As an application, we investigate the stratification defined by the Artin invariant on a moduli space of supersingular $K3$ surfaces of degree 2 in characteristic 2.
We give a purely scheme theoretic construction of the filtration by ramification groups of the Galois group of a covering. The valuation need not be discrete but the normalizations are required to be locally of complete intersection.
We present a hypersurface singularity in positive characteristic which is defined by a purely inseparable power series, and a sequence of point blowups so that, after applying the blowups to the singularity, the same type of singularity reappears after the last blowup, with just certain exponents of the defining power series shifted upwards. The construction hence yields a cycle. Iterating this cycle leads to an infinite increase of the residual order of the defining power series. This disproves a theorem claimed by Moh about the stability of the residual order under sequences of blowups. It i…
A plane curve is called strange if its tangent line at any smooth point passes through a fixed point, called the strange point. In this paper, we study $\mathbb{A}^1$-curves on the complement of a rational strange curve of degree $p$ in characteristic $p$. We prove the connectedness of the moduli spaces of $\mathbb{A}^1$-curves with given degree, classify their irreducible components, and exhibit the inseparable $\mathbb{A}^1$-connectedness via the $\mathbb{A}^1$-curves parameterized by each irreducible component. The key to these results is the strangeness of all $\mathbb{A}^1$-curves. As an …
The Gauss map of a given projective variety is the rational map that sends a smooth point to the tangent space at that point, considered as a point of the Grassmann variety. The present paper aims to generalize a result by H. Kaji on Gauss maps in positive characteristic and establish an interaction with the study of dormant opers, as well as Frobenius-projective structures. We first prove a correspondence between dormant opers on a smooth projective variety $X$ and closed immersions from $X$ into a projective space with purely inseparable Gauss map. By using this, we determine the subfields o…
In this paper, the technique of foliations in characteristic $p$ is used to investigate the difference between rational connectedness and separable rational connectedness in positive characteristic. The notion of being freely rationally connected is defined; a variety is freely rationally connected if a general pair of points can be connected by a free rational curve. It is proved that a freely rationally connected variety admits a finite purely inseparable morphism to a separably rationally connected variety. As an application, a generalized Graber-Harris-Starr type theorem in positive charac…
We prove the equivalence between the category $\mathbf{RigDM}_{et}^{eff}(K,\mathbb{Q})$ of effective motives of rigid analytic varieties over a perfect complete non-archimedean field $K$ and the category $\mathbf{RigDM}_{Frobet}^{eff}(K,\mathbb{Q})$ which is obtained by localizing the category of motives without transfers $\mathbf{RigDA}_{et}^{eff}(K,\mathbb{Q})$ over purely inseparable maps. In particular, we obtain an equivalence between $\mathbf{RigDM}_{et}^{eff}(K,\mathbb{Q})$ and $\mathbf{RigDA}_{et}^{eff}(K,\mathbb{Q})$ in the characteristic $0$ case and an equivalence between $\mathbf{D…
This paper is a continuation of [G-dS1]. We study foliations of two types on Shimura varieties $S$ in characteristic $p$. The first, which we call "tautological foliations", are defined on Hilbert modular varieties, and lift to characteristic $0$. The second, the "$V$-foliations", are defined on unitary Shimura varieties in characteristic $p$ only, and generalize the foliations studied by us before, when the CM field in question was quadratic imaginary. We determine when these foliations are $p$-closed, and the locus where they are smooth. Where not smooth, we construct a "successive blow up" …
This paper investigates the geometry of a smooth canonically polarized surface $X$ defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$ in the case when the automorphism scheme of $X$ is not smooth. This is a situation that appears only in positive characteristic and it is closely related to the structure of the moduli stack of canonically polarized surfaces. Restrictions on certain numerical invariants of $X$ are obtained in order for Aut(X) to be smooth or not and information is provided about the structure of the component of Aut(X) containing the identity. In particular, it i…