Let $G$ be a finite group and $W$ be a faithful representation of $G$ over {\bf C}. The group $G$ acts on the field of rational functions $\mathbf C(W)$. The aim of this paper is to give a description of the unramified cohomology group of degree 3 of the field of invariant functions $\mathbf C(W)^G$ in terms of the cohomology of $G$ when $G$ is a group of odd order. This enables us to give an example of a group for which this field is not rational, although its unramified Brauer group is trivial.
We study Grothedieck groups of triangulated categories using weight structures, weight complexes, and the corresponding pure (co)homological functors. We prove some general statements on $K_0$ of weighted categories and apply it to Voevodsky motives endowed with so-called Chow weight structures. We obtain certain "motivic substitutes" for smooth compactifications of smooth varieties over arbitrary perfect fields; this enables us to make certain unramified cohomology and Euler characteristic calculations that are closely related to results of T. Ekedahl and B. Kahn.
Let $X$ be a smooth proper variety over a field $k$ and suppose that the degree map $\mathrm{CH}_0(X \otimes_k K) \to \mathbb{Z}$ is isomorphic for any field extension $K/k$. We show that $G(\mathrm{Spec} k) \to G(X)$ is an isomorphism for any $\mathbb{P}^1$-invariant Nisnevich sheaf with transfers $G$. This generalize a result of Binda-Rülling-Saito that proves the same conclusion for reciprocity sheaves. We also give a direct proof of the fact that the unramified logarithmic Hodge-Witt cohomology is a $\mathbb{P}^1$-invariant Nisnevich sheaf with transfers.
We prove the universal triviality of the third unramified cohomology group of a very general complex cubic fourfold containing a plane. The proof uses results on the unramified cohomology of quadrics due to Kahn, Rost, and Sujatha.
The purpose of this paper is to show that the third unramified cohomology with divisible coefficients of a smooth projective geometrically rational threefold over a finite field must vanish under $\Z_{\ell}$-exactness Hard Lefschetz condition.
We develop an approach to proving the Rost nilpotence principle involving higher unramified cohomology. We use this to prove the principle for certain varieties of dimension $\leq 3$ over a perfect field.
Combining work of Peyre, Colliot-Thélène and Voisin, we give the first example of a finite group $G$ such that the motivic class of its classifying stack $BG$ in Ekedahl's Grothendieck ring of stacks over $\mathbb{C}$ is non-trivial and $BG$ has trivial unramified Brauer group.
We study the first "derived functors of unramified cohomology" in the sense of arXiv:1506.08385 [math.AG], applied to the sheaves $\mathbf{G}_m$ and $\mathcal{K}_2$. We find interesting connections with classical cycle-theoretic invariants of smooth projective varieties, involving notably a version of the Griffiths group, and the indecomposable $(2,1)$-cycles.
Auel-Bigazzi-Böhning-Graf von Bothmer proved that if a proper smooth variety $X$ over a field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$ has universally trivial Chow group of $0$-cycles, the cohomological Brauer group of $X$ is universally trivial as well. In this paper, we generalize their argument to arbitrary unramified mod $p$ étale motivic cohomology groups. We also see that the properness assumption on the variety $X$ can be dropped off by using the Suslin homology together with a certain tame subgroup of the unramified cohomology group.
We obtain several finiteness results for the unramified cohomology of function fields of algebraic varieties defined over fields of type (F'_m), a class that includes algebraically closed fields, finite fields, local fields, and some higher local fields of characteristic 0.
We introduce the notion of refined unramified cohomology of algebraic schemes and prove comparison theorems that identify some of these groups with cycle groups. This recovers for cycles of low codimensions on smooth projective varieties previous results of Bloch--Ogus, Colliot-Thélène--Voisin, Kahn, Voisin, and Ma. We combine our approach with the Bloch--Kato conjecture, proven by Voevodsky, to show that on a smooth complex projective variety, any homologically trivial torsion cycle with trivial Abel--Jacobi invariant has coniveau 1. This establishes a torsion version of a conjecture of Janns…
Let $k$ be any field, $G$ be a finite group acing on the rational function field $k(x_g:g\in G)$ by $h\cdot x_g=x_{hg}$ for any $h,g\in G$. Define $k(G)=k(x_g:g\in G)^G$. Noether's problem asks whether $k(G)$ is rational (= purely transcendental) over $k$. It is known that, if $\bm{C}(G)$ is rational over $\bm{C}$, then $B_0(G)=0$ where $B_0(G)$ is the unramified Brauer group of $\bm{C}(G)$ over $\bm{C}$. Bogomolov showed that, if $G$ is a $p$-group of order $p^5$, then $B_0(G)=0$. This result was disproved by Moravec for $p=3,5,7$ by computer calculations. We will prove the following theorem.…
Let BG be a classifying variety for an exceptional simple simply connected algebraic group G. We compute the degree 3 unramified Galois cohomology of BG with values in Q/Z(2) over an arbitrary field F. Combined with a paper by Merkurjev, this completes the computation of these cohomology groups for G semisimple simply connected over all fields. These computations provide another example of a simple simply connected group G such that BG is not stably rational.
Let $p$ be an odd prime number. Peyre shows that there is a group $G$ of order $p^{12}$ such that $H_{nr}^3(\bm{C}(G), \bm{Q}/\bm{Z})$ is non-trivial. Using Peyre's method, we are able to prove that the same conclusion is true for some groups of order $p^9$.
In this note, we consider unramified cohomology with $\mathbb{Z}/2$ coefficients for some (degree two) quotient varieties and describe a method that allows one to prove the non-vanishing of these groups under certain conditions. We apply this method to prove a non-vanishing statement in the case of Kummer varieties. Combining this with work of Colliot-Thélène and Voisin, we obtain a new type of three-dimensional counterexample to the integral Hodge conjecture.
We prove that the degree k unramified cohomology with torsion coefficients of a smooth complex projective variety X with small CH_0(X) has a filtration of length [k/2], whose first piece is the torsion part of the quotient of the degree k+1 integral singular cohomology by its coniveau 2 subgroup, and whose next graded piece is controlled by the Griffiths group Griff^{k/2+1}(X) when k is even and is related to the higher Chow group CH^{(k+3)/2}(X, 1) when k is odd. The first piece is a generalization of the Artin-Mumford invariant (k=2) and the Colliot-Thelene-Voisin invariant (k=3). We also gi…
We show that the non-Archimedean skeleton of the Prym variety associated to an unramified double cover of an algebraic curve is naturally isomorphic (as a principally polarized tropical abelian variety) to the tropical Prym variety of the associated tropical double cover. This confirms a conjecture by Jensen and the first author. We prove a new upper bound on the dimension of the Prym-Brill-Noether locus for generic unramified double covers of curves with fixed even gonality on the base. Our methods also give a new proof of the classical Prym-Brill-Noether Theorem for generic unramified double…
Let $G$ be a reductive group defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $0$ such that the Dynkin diagram of $G$ is the disjoint union of diagrams of types $G_{2}, F_{4}, E_{6}, E_{7}, E_{8}$. We show that the degree $3$ unramified cohomology of the classifying space of $G$ is trivial. In particular, combined with articles by Merkurjev \cite{Mer17} and the author \cite{Baek}, this completes the computations of degree $3$ unramified cohomology and reductive invariants for all split semisimple groups of a homogeneous Dynkin type.
This is a survey of recent examples of varieties that are not stably rational. We review the specialization method based on properties of the Chow group of zero-cycles used in these examples and explain the point of view of unramified cohomology for the construction of nontrivial stable invariants of the special fiber. In particular, we find an explicit formula for the Brauer group of fourfolds fibered in quadrics of dimension two over a rational surface.
We formulate and analyze several finiteness conjectures for linear algebraic groups over higher-dimensional fields. In fact, we prove all of these conjectures for algebraic tori as well as in some other situations. This work relies in an essential way on several finiteness results for unramified cohomology.
We study the Chevalley-Warning problem in the Grothendieck ring $K_0(Var/k)$. We show that the $\A^1$-homotopy theory yields well defined invariants on $K_0(Var/k)/\bold{L}$, in particular the Brauer group is such an invariant. We use this to give a concrete counter-example to the Chevalley-Warning conjecture over a $C_1$-field (Brown and Schnetz, 2011). This also gives a negative answer to the question in Bilgin (2011).
In [Inventiones mathematicae, 184 (2011)], Vollaard and Wedhorn defined a stratification on the special fiber of the unitary unramified PEL Rapoport-Zink space with signature $(1,n-1)$. They constructed an isomorphism between the closure of a stratum, called a closed Bruhat-Tits stratum, and a Deligne-Lusztig variety which is not of classical type. In this paper, we describe the $\ell$-adic cohomology groups over $\overline{\mathbb Q_{\ell}}$ of these Deligne-Lusztig varieties, where $\ell \not = p$. The computations involve the spectral sequence associated to the Ekedahl-Oort stratification o…
We study the $l$-adic cohomology of unramified Rapoport-Zink spaces of EL-type. These spaces were used in Harris and Taylor's proof of the local Langlands correspondence for $\mathrm{GL_n}$ and to show local-global compatibilities of the Langlands correspondence. In this paper we consider certain morphisms, $\mathrm{Mant}_{b, μ}$, of Grothendieck groups of representations constructed from the cohomology of the above spaces, as studied by Harris and Taylor, Mantovan, Fargues, Shin, and others. Due to earlier work of Fargues and Shin we have a description of $\mathrm{Mant}_{b, μ}(ρ)$ for $ρ$ a s…
Let C be a smooth projective curve over the field of the complex numbers. We consider Brill-Noether loci over the moduli of maps from C to the Grassmannian G(m,n) and the corresponding Quot schemes of quotients of a trivial vector bundle on C compactifying the spaces of morphisms. We study in detail the case in which m=2, n=4. We prove results on the irreducibility and dimension of these Brill-Noether loci and we address explicit formulas for their cohomology classes. We study the existence problem of these spaces which is closely related with the problem of classification of vector bundles ov…
Let $k$ be a field and $G$ be a finite group acting on the rational function field $k(x_g : g\in G)$ by $k$-automorphisms defined as $h(x_g)=x_{hg}$ for any $g,h\in G$. We denote the fixed field $k(x_g : g\in G)^G$ by $k(G)$. Noether's problem asks whether $k(G)$ is rational (= purely transcendental) over $k$. It is well-known that if $C(G)$ is stably rational over $C$, then all the unramified cohomology groups $H_[nr}^i(C(G),Q/Z)=0$ for $i \ge 2$. Hoshi, Kang and Kunyavskii [HKK] showed that, for a $p$-group of order $p^5$ ($p$: an odd prime number), $H_[nr}^2(C(G),Q/Z)\neq 0$ if and only if …
This is a textbook on arithmetic geometry with special regard to unramified Brauer groups of algebraic varieties. The topics include Galois cohomology, Brauer groups, obstructions to stable rationality, arithmetic and geometry of quadrics, Weil restriction of scalars, algebraic tori, an example of a stably rational non-rational variety, Brauer-Manin obstruction. All material is split into locally trivial problems with detailed hints.
We show how the techniques of Voevodsky's proof of the Milnor conjecture and the Voevodsky- Rost proof of its generalization the Bloch-Kato conjecture can be used to study counterexamples to the classical Lüroth problem. By generalizing a method due to Peyre, we produce for any prime number l and any integer n >= 2, a rationally connected, non-rational variety for which non-rationality is detected by a non-trivial degree n unramified étale cohomology class with l-torsion coefficients. When l = 2, the varieties that are constructed are furthermore unirational and non-rationality cannot be detec…
In this paper we will give a computation of the étale fundamental group of an integral arithmetic scheme. For such a scheme, we will prove that the étale fundamental group is naturally isomorphic to the Galois group of the maximal formally unramified extension over the function field. It consists of the main theorem of the paper. Here, formally unramified will be proved to be arithmetically unramified which is defined in an evident manner and coincides with that in algebraic number theory. Hence, formally unramified has an arithmetic sense. At the same time, such a computation coincides with t…
We compute the rational cohomology groups of the smooth Brill-Noether varieties $G^r_d(C)$, parametrizing linear series of degree $d$ and dimension exactly $r$ on a general curve $C$. As an application, we determine the whole intersection cohomology of the singular Brill-Noether loci $W^r_d(C)$, parametrizing complete linear series on $C$ of degree $d$ and dimension at least $r$.
Let $k$ be a finite field, a $p$-adic field or a number field. Let $K$ be a finite extension of the Laurent series field in $m$ variables $k((x_1,...,x_m))$ or, more generally, a finite extension of the field of rational functions $k((x_1,...,x_m))(y_1,...,y_n)$. When $r$ is an integer, we consider the Galois module $\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}(r)$ over $K$ and we prove several vanishing theorems for its cohomology. In the particular case when $K$ is a finite extension of the Laurent series field in two variables $k((x_1,x_2))$, we also prove exact sequences that play the role of the Brauer-Hasse-No…
Using a reduction of the Galois cohomology of a linear algebraic group $G$ to that of a certain finite subquotient, we give different formulas allowing the calculation of the unramified algebraic Brauer group of a homogeneous space $V=G\backslash G'$ with $G'$ semisimple and simply connected, both over a finite field and over an arbitrary field of characteristic $0$.
A method of Gabber (2002) produces unramified cohomology classes in the products of certain varieties with an elliptic curve. The connection between third unramified cohomology and integral Hodge conjecture for codimension 2 cycles (2012, which builds upon results from algebraic K-Theory, then gives many examples of such a product for which this conjecture fails. The special case of the product with an Enriques surface was established by Benoist and Ottem (2018).
Using the notion of isoclinism introduced by P. Hall for finite p-groups, we show that many important classes of finite p-groups have stable cohomology detected by abelian subgroups, see Theorem 4.4. Moreover, we show that the stable cohomology of the n-fold wreath product of cyclic groups ZZ/p is detected by elementary abelian p-subgroups and we describe the resulting cohomology algebra explicitly. Some applications to the computation of unramified and stable cohomology of finite groups of Lie type are given.
We develop birational versions of Voevodsky's triangulated categories of motives over a field, and relate them with the pure birational motives studied in arXiv:0902.4902 [math.AG]. We also get an interpretation of unramified cohomology in this framework, leading to "higher derived functors of unramified cohomology".
We use A_{infinity}-formalism to study variation of cohomology spaces under formal deformations of coherent sheaves on projective varieties. As an application we describe formal neighborhoods of twisted Brill-Noether loci at some points. Another application is a computation of the Fourier-Mukai transform of some natural line bundles on symmetric powers of a curve.
In this manuscript we investigate the analouge of the Brill-Noether problem for smooth curves in the case of normal surface singularities. We determine the maximal possible value of $h^1$ of line bundles without fixed components in the Picard group $\pic^{l'}(\tX)$ in the following cases: for some special Chern classes $l'$ if $\tX$ is a resolution of a splice quotient singularity $(X, 0)$ and for arbitrary Chern classes in the case of weighted homogenous singularities. Motivated by this problem, we define the \emph{virtual cohomology numbers} $h^1_{virt}(l')$ for all Chern classes $l'$ such t…
Three-dimensional monomial Noether problem can have negative solutions for 8 groups by the suitable choice of the coefficients. We find the necessary and sufficient condition for the coefficients to have a negative solution. The results are obtained by two criteria of irrationality using Galois cohomology.
Let $k$ be any field, $G$ be a finite group acting on the rational function field $k(x_g : g\in G)$ by $h\cdot x_g=x_{hg}$ for any $h,g\in G$. Define $k(G)=k(x_g : g\in G)^G$. Noether's problem asks whether $k(G)$ is rational (= purely transcendental) over $k$. It is known that, if $\bC(G)$ is rational over $\bC$, then $B_0(G)=0$ where $B_0(G)$ is the unramified Brauer group of $\bC(G)$ over $\bC$. Bogomolov showed that, if $G$ is a $p$-group of order $p^5$, then $B_0(G)=0$. This result was disproved by Moravec for $p=3,5,7$ by computer computing. We will give a theoretic proof of the followin…
This is the first of a series of papers, where we investigate hierarchies of generalized {L}üroth problems on the hierarchy of rationality, starting with the obvious hierarchy between the rationality and the ruledness. Our primary goal here was to construct very general necessary conditions for a smooth, not necessary proper, scheme of finite type over the perfect base field $k$ to be "retract $(-i)$-rational". We achieve this goal by constructing "stably birationalized Nisnevich subsheaf" $S_{sb}$ inside any Morel's unramified sheaf $S,$ where $S_{sb}$ coincides with $S$ on proper smooth $k$-…
Let $X$ be a del Pezzo surface. When the degree of $X$ is at least 4, we compute the cohomology of a general sheaf in the moduli space of Gieseker semistable sheaves. We also classify the Chern characters for which the general sheaf in the moduli space is non-special, i.e. has at most one nonzero cohomology group. Our results hold for arbitrary polarizations, slope semistability, and semi-exceptional moduli spaces. When the degree of $X$ is at least 3, we further show our construction of certain vector bundles implies the existence of stable and semistable sheaves with respect to the anti-cano…
