We study Hilbert's fourteenth problem from a geometric point of view. Nagata's celebrated counterexample demonstrates that for an arbitrary group action on a variety the ring of invariant functions need not be isomorphic to the ring of functions of an affine variety. Nevertheless one can prove that such a ring of invariants is always isomorphic to the ring of functions on a quasi-affine variety. Conversely, for a given quasi-affine variety V there exists always an action of the additive group on some affine variety W such that the ring of functions of V is isomorphic to the ring of invariant functions on W. Thus a k-algebra occurs as invariant ring for some group acting on a k-variety iff it occurs as function ring for some quasi-affine k-variety.
Generalizing cones over projective toric varieties, we present arbitrary toric varieties as quotients of quasiaffine toric varieties. Such quotient presentations correspond to groups of Weil divisors generating the topology. Groups comprising Cartier divisors define free quotients, whereas $\QQ$-Cartier divisors define geometric quotients. Each quotient presentation yields homogeneous coordinates. Using homogeneous coordinates, we express quasicoherent sheaves in terms of multigraded modules and describe the set of morphisms into a toric variety.
We study equivariant affine embeddings of homogeneous spaces and their equivariant automorphisms. An example of a quasiaffine, but not affine, homogeneous space with finitely many equivariant automorphisms is presented. We prove the solvability of any connected group of equivariant automorphisms for an affine embedding with a fixed point and finitely many orbits. This is applied to studying the orbital decomposition for algebraic monoids and canonical embeddings of quasiaffine homogeneous spaces, i.e., those affine embeddings associated with the coordinate algebras of homogeneous spaces, provi…
In infinitesimal deformation theory, a classical criterion due to Schlessinger gives an intrinsic characterisation of functors that are pro-representable, and more generally, of the ones that have a hull. Our result is that in this setting the question of characterising group quotients can also be answered. In other words, for functors of Artin rings that have a hull, those that are quotients of pro-representable ones by a constant group action can be described intrinsically.
Nagata's famous counterexample to Hilbert's fourteenth problem shows that the ring of invariants of an algebraic group action on an affine algebraic variety is not always finitely generated. In some sense, however, invariant rings are not far from affine. Indeed, invariant rings are always quasi-affine, and there always exist finite separating sets. In this paper, we give a new method for finding a quasi-affine variety on which the ring of regular functions is equal to a given invariant ring, and we give a criterion to recognize separating algebras. The method and criterion are used on some kn…
Let $B$ be a regular local ring and $G\subset\Aut(B)$ a finite group of local automorphisms. Assume that $G$ is cyclic of prime order $p$, where $p$ is equal to the residue characteristic of $B$. We give conditions under which the ring of invariants $A=B^G$ is again regular.
We develop a method of finding a Cox ring of a crepant resolution of a quotient singularity with a torus action and apply it to examples of symplectic quotient singularities in dimension 4. In addition we obtain a bound on the degrees of homogeneous generators of the Cox ring in a more general setup, based on the multigraded Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity and Kawamata-Viehweg vanishing.
We investigate Cox rings of minimal resolutions of surface quotient singularities and provide two descriptions of these rings. The first one is the equation for the spectrum of a Cox ring, which is a hypersurface in an affine space. The second is the set of generators of the Cox ring viewed as a subring of the coordinate ring of a product of a torus and another surface quotient singularity. In addition, we obtain an explicit description of the minimal resolution as a divisor in a toric variety.
We investigate Cox rings of symplectic resolutions of quotients of $\mathbb{C}^{2n}$ by finite symplectic group actions. We propose a finite generating set of the Cox ring of a symplectic resolution and prove that under a condition concerning monomial valuations it is sufficient. Also, three 4-dimensional examples are described in detail. Generators of the (expected) Cox rings of symplectic resolutions are computed and in one case a resolution is constructed as a GIT quotient of the spectrum of the Cox ring.
We study Cox rings of crepant resolutions of quotient singularities $\mathbb{C}^3/G$ where $G$ is a finite subgroup of $SL(3,\mathbb{C})$. We use them to obtain information on the geometric structure of these resolutions, number of different resolutions and relations between them. In particular, we treat explicitly several examples where $G$ contains elements of age 2.
For a scheme S with a good action of a finite abelian group G having enough roots of unity we show that the quotient map on the G-equivariant Grothendieck ring of varieties over S is well defined with image in the Grothendieck ring of varieties over S/G in the tame case, and in the modified Grothendieck ring in the wild case. To prove this we use a result on the class of the quotient of a vector space by a quasi-linear action in the Grothendieck ring of varieties due to Esnault and Viehweg, which we also generalize to the case of wild actions. As an application we deduce that the quotient of t…
This paper introduces two new notions of graded linear resolution and graded linear quotients, which generalize the concepts of linear resolution property and linear quotient for modules over the polynomial ring $A=k[x_1, \dots ,x_n]$. Besides, we compare graded linearity with componentwise linearity in general. For modules minimally generated by a regular sequence in a maximal ideal of $A$, we show that graded linear quotients imply graded linear resolution property for the colon ideals. On the other hand, we provide specific characterizations of graded linear resolution property for the Stan…
In this paper, we establish two results concerning algebraic $(\mathbb{C},+)$-actions on $\mathbb{C}^n$. First let $ϕ$ be an algebraic $(\mathbb{C},+)$-action on $\mathbb{C}^3$. By a result of Miyanishi, its ring of invariants is isomorphic to $\mathbb{C}[t_1,t_2]$. If $f_1,f_2$ generate this ring, the quotient map of $ϕ$ is the map $F:\mathbb{C}^3\to \mathbb{C}^2$, $x\mapsto (f_1(x),f_2(x))$. By using some topological arguments, we prove that $F$ is always surjective. Second, we are interested in dominant polynomial maps $F:\mathbb{C}^n\to \mathbb{C}^{n-1}$ whose connected components of their…
In a previous paper Cuntz and Deninger introduced the ring $C(R)$ for a perfect $\mathbb{F}_p$-algebra $R$. The ring $C(R)$ is canonically isomorphic to the $p$-typical Witt ring $W(R)$. In fact there exist canonical isomorphisms $α_n \colon \mathbb{Z}R/I^n \xrightarrow{\sim} W_n(R)$. In this paper we give explicit descriptions of the isomorphisms $α_n$ for $n\geq 2$ if $p\geq n$.
In this paper we study actions of reductive groups on affine spaces. We prove that there is a fan structure on the space of characters of the group, which parameterizes the possible invariant quotients. In the second half of the paper we study various geometrical properties of the quotients: we compute their Chow ring and the cohomology ring (in case we work over the complex numbers), both with rational coefficients. Actually, the cycle map turns out to be an isomorphism. Further, we construct families of such quotients over reduced base schemes, and compute again the Chow and the cohomology r…
We suggest to endow Mumford's GIT quotient scheme with a stack structure, by replacing Proj(-) of the invariant ring with its stack theoretic analogue. We analyse the stacks resulting in this way from classically studied invariant rings, and in particular for binary forms of low degree. Our viewpoint is that the stack structure carries interesting geometric information that is intrinsically present in the invariant ring, but lost when passing to its Proj(-).
We consider actions of reductive groups on a varieties with finitely generated Cox ring, e.g., the classical case of a diagonal action on a product of projective spaces. Given such an action, we construct via combinatorial data in the Cox ring all maximal open subsets such that the quotient is quasiprojective or embeddable into a toric variety. As applications, we obtain an explicit description of the chamber structure of the linearized ample cone and several Gelfand-MacPherson type correspondences relating quotients of reductive groups to quotients of torus actions. Moreover, our approach pro…
Let $M$ be a symplectic manifold, equipped with a Hamiltonian action of a torus $T$. We give an explicit formula for the rational cohomology ring of the symplectic quotient $M//T$ in terms of the cohomology ring of $M$ and fixed point data. Under some restrictions, our formulas apply to integral cohomology. In certain cases these methods enable us to show that the cohomology of the reduced space is torsion-free.
We study an integration theory in circle equivariant cohomology in order to prove a theorem relating the cohomology ring of a hyperkahler quotient to the cohomology ring of the quotient by a maximal abelian subgroup, analogous to a theorem of Martin for symplectic quotients. We discuss applications of this theorem to quiver varieties, and compute as an example the ordinary and equivariant cohomology rings of a hyperpolygon space.
For an arrangement with complement X and fundamental group G, we relate the truncated cohomology ring, H^{<=2}(X), to the second nilpotent quotient, G/G_3. We define invariants of G/G_3 by counting normal subgroups of a fixed prime index p, according to their abelianization. We show how to compute this distribution from the resonance varieties of the Orlik-Solomon algebra mod p. As an application, we establish the cohomology classification of 2-arrangements of n<=6 planes in R^4.
The Springer variety is the set of flags stabilized by a nilpotent operator. In 1976, T.A. Springer observed that this variety's cohomology ring carries a symmetric group action, and he offered a deep geometric construction of this action. Sixteen years later, Garsia and Procesi made Springer's work more transparent and accessible by presenting the cohomology ring as a graded quotient of a polynomial ring. They combinatorially describe an explicit basis for this quotient. The goal of this paper is to generalize their work. Our main result deepens their analysis of Springer varieties and extend…
For an orbifold X which is the quotient of a manifold Y by a finite group G we construct a noncommutative ring with an action of G such that the orbifold cohomology of X as defined in math.AG/0004129 by Chen and Ruan is the G invariant part. In the case thar Y is S^n for a surface S with trivial canonical class we prove that (a small modification of) the orbifold cohomology of X is naturally isomorphic to the cohomology ring of the Hilbert scheme of n points on S computed in math.AG/0012166 by Lehn and Sorger.
The virtual geometry of the moduli space of stable quotients is used to obtain Chow relations among the kappa classes on the moduli space of nonsingular genus g curves. In a series of steps, the stable quotient relations are rewritten in successively simpler forms. The final result is the proof of the Faber-Zagier relations (conjectured in 2000).
We define the Chow ring of the classifying space of a linear algebraic group. In all the examples where we can compute it, such as the symmetric groups and the orthogonal groups, it is isomorphic to a natural quotient of the complex cobordism ring of the classifying space, a topological invariant. We apply this to get torsion information on the Chow groups of varieties defined as quotients by finite groups. This generalizes Atiyah and Hirzebruch's use of such varieties to give counterexamples to the Hodge conjecture with integer coefficients.
We obtain a new important basic result on splice-quotient singularities in an elegant combinatorial-geometric way: every level of the divisorial filtration of the ring of functions is generated by monomials of the defining coordinate functions. The elegant way is the language of of line bundles based on Okuma's description of the function ring of the universal abelian cover. As an easy application, we obtain a new proof of the End Curve Theorem of Neumann and Wahl.
We consider the problem of finding the isolated common roots of a set of polynomial functions defining a zero-dimensional ideal I in a ring R of polynomials over C. We propose a general algebraic framework to find the solutions and to compute the structure of the quotient ring R/I from the null space of a Macaulay-type matrix. The affine dense, affine sparse, homogeneous and multi-homogeneous cases are treated. In the presented framework, the concept of a border basis is generalized by relaxing the conditions on the set of basis elements. This allows for algorithms to adapt the choice of basis…
Let $G\subseteq GL(n)$ be a finite group without pseudo-reflections. We present an algorithm to compute and verify a candidate for the Cox ring of a resolution $X\rightarrow \mathbb{C}^n/G$, which is based just on the geometry of the singularity $\mathbb{C}^n/G$, without further knowledge of its resolutions. We explain the use of our implementation of the algorithms in Singular. As an application, we determine the Cox rings of resolutions $X\rightarrow \mathbb{C}^3/G$ for all $G\subseteq GL(3)$ with the aforementioned property and of order $|G|\leq 12$. We also provide examples in dimension 4.
In this paper we study algebras of modular forms on unitary groups of signature $(n,1)$. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for an algebra of unitary modular forms to be free in terms of the modular Jacobian. As a corollary we obtain a criterion that guarantees in many cases that, if $L$ is an even lattice with complex multiplication and the ring of modular forms for its orthogonal group is a polynomial algebra, then the ring of modular forms for its unitary group is also a polynomial algebra. We prove that a number of rings of unitary modular forms are freely generated by applying t…
We study the cup product on the Hochschild cohomology of the stack quotient [X/G] of a smooth quasi-projective variety X by a finite group G. More specifically, we construct a G-equivariant sheaf of graded algebras on X whose G-invariant global sections recover the associated graded algebra of the Hochschild cohomology of [X/G], under a natural filtration. This sheaf is an algebra over the polyvector fields T^{poly}_X on X, and is generated as a T^{poly}_X-algebra by the sum of the determinants det(N_{X^g}) of the normal bundles of the fixed loci in X. We employ our understanding of Hochschild…
Two Azumaya algebras with involutions are considered over a regular local ring. It is proved that if they are isomorphic over the quotient field, then they are isomorphic too. In particular, if two quadratic spaces over such a ring are similar over its quotient field, then these two spaces are similar already over the ring. The result is a consequence of a purity theorem for similarity factors proved in this text and the known fact that rationally isomorphic hermitian spases are locally isomorphic.
Let $G$ be a connected semisimple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$. In 1965 Steinberg proved that if $G$ is simply connected, then in $G$ there exists a closed irreducible cross-section of the set of closures of regular conjugacy classes. We prove that in arbitrary $G$ such a cross-section exists if and only if the universal covering isogeny $τ\colon \tG\to G$ is bijective; this answers Grothendieck's question cited in the epigraph. In particular, for ${\rm char}\,k=0$, the converse to Steinberg's theorem holds. The existence of a cross-section in $G$ implies, at least fo…
Consider the ring $\mathcal{S}$ of symmetric polynomials in $k$ variables over an arbitrary base ring $\mathbf{k}$. Fix $k$ scalars $a_{1},a_{2},\ldots,a_{k}\in\mathbf{k}$. Let $I$ be the ideal of $\mathcal{S}$ generated by $h_{n-k+1}-a_{1},h_{n-k+2}-a_{2},\ldots,h_{n}-a_{k}$, where $h_{i}$ is the $i$-th complete homogeneous symmetric polynomial. The quotient ring $\mathcal{S}/I$ generalizes both the usual and the quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian. We show that $\mathcal{S}/I$ has a $\mathbf{k}$-module basis consisting of (residue classes of) Schur polynomials fitting into an $\left( n-k\…
