We investigate the Tits buildings of the paramodular groups with or without canonical level structure, respectively. These give important combinatorical information about the boundary of the toroidal compactification of the moduli spaces of non-principally polarised Abelian varieties.
We give a full classification of the isotropic lines for all of these groups. Furthermore, for square-free, coprime polarisations without level structure we show that there is only one top-dimensional isotropic subspace.
In a sequel to this paper we will use this information to establish a general type result for the moduli space of non-principally polarised Abelian varieties with full level structure.
Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve over the complex numbers. We compute the Brauer group of the moduli stack of Bruhat-Tits group scheme $\mathcal{G}$-torsors on $X$. When $g(X) \geq 3$ we compute the Brauer group of the regularly stable locus of the coarse moduli space of semi-stable $\mathcal{G}$-torsors.
Let G be a semisimple algebraic group over a field k. We introduce the higher Tits indices of G as the set of all Tits indices of G over all field extensions K/k. In the context of quadratic forms this notion coincides with the notion of the higher Witt indices introduced by M. Knebusch and classified by N. Karpenko and A. Vishik. We classify the higher Tits indices for exceptional algebraic groups. Our main tools involve the Chow groups and the Chow motives of projective homogeneous varieties, Steenrod operations, and the notion of the J-invariant of algebraic groups.
The first author has recently shown that semisimple algebraic groups are classified up to motivic equivalence by the local versions of the classical Tits indexes over field extensions, known as Tits p-indexes. We provide in this article the complete description of the values of the Tits p-indexes over fields. From this exhaustive study, we also deduce criteria of motivic equivalence for semisimple groups of many types, hence giving a dictionary between classic algebraic structures, representation theory, cohomological invariants and Chow motives of the twisted flag varieties for those groups.
We consider the problem of deciding if a group is the fundamental group of a smooth connected complex quasi-projective (or projective) variety using Alexander-based invariants. In particular, we solve the problem for large families of Artin-Tits groups. We also study finiteness properties of such groups and exhibit examples of hyperplane complements whose fundamental groups satisfy $\text{F}_{k-1}$ but not $\text{F}_k$ for any $k$.
A connection between the indices of the Tits algebras of a split linear algebraic group G and the degree one parameters of its motivic J-invariant was introduced by Queguiner-Mathieu, Semenov and Zainoulline through use of the second Chern class map in the Riemann-Roch theorem without denominators. In this paper we extend their result to higher Chern class maps and provide applications to groups of inner type E6.
We show an analogous result of the famous Tits alternative for a group G of birational automorphisms of a projective hyperkäher manifold: Either G contains a non-commutative free group or G is an almost abelian group of finite rank. As an application, we show that the automorphism groups of the so-called singular K3 surfaces contain non-commutative free groups.
We describe the J-invariant of a semi-simple algebraic group G over a generic splitting field of a Tits algebra of G in terms of the J-invariant over a base field.
Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve over an algebraically closed field $k$. Let $\mathcal{G}$ be a Bruhat-Tits group scheme on $X$ which is generically semi-simple and trivial. We show that the étale fundamental group of the moduli stack $\mathcal{M}_X(\mathcal{G})$ of torsors under $\mathcal{G}$ is isomorphic to that of the moduli stack $\mathcal{M}_X(G)$ of principal $G$-bundles. For any smooth, noetherian and irreducible stack $\mathcal{X}$, we show that an inclusion of an open substack $\mathcal{X}^\circ$, whose complement has codimension at least two, will induce an isomorphism of étale …
In this note we make a universal construction of Bruhat-Tits group scheme on wonderful embeddings of adjoint groups in the absolute and relative settings and of adjoint Kac-Moody groups. These have natural classifying properties reflecting the orbit structure on the wonderful embeddings.
We prove a theorem of Tits type for automorphism groups of projective varieties over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic, which was first conjectured by Keum, Oguiso and Zhang for complex projective varieties.
Let G be a connected semisimple group over a non-Archimedean local field. For every faithful, geometrically irreducible linear representation of G we define a compactification of the associated Bruhat-Tits building X(G). This yields a finite family of compactifications of X(G) which contains the polyhedral compactification. Moreover, this family can be regarded as a non-Archimedean analogue of Satake compactifications for symmetric spaces.
We prove that the structure group of any Albert algebra over an arbitrary field is $R$-trivial. This implies the Tits-Weiss conjecture for Albert algebras and the Kneser-Tits conjecture for isotropic groups of type $\mathrm{E}_{7,1}^{78}, \mathrm{E}_{8,2}^{78}$. As a further corollary, we show that some standard conjectures on the groups of $R$-equivalence classes in algebraic groups and the norm principle are true for strongly inner forms of type $^1\mathrm{E}_6$.
This paper is dedicated to a problem raised by Jacquet Tits in 1956: the Weyl group of a Chevalley group should find an interpretation as a group over what is nowadays called $\mathbb{F}_1$, \emph{the field with one element}. Based on Part I of The geometry of blueprints, we introduce the class of \emph{Tits morphisms} between blue schemes. The resulting \emph{Tits category} $\textup{Sch}_\mathcal{T}$ comes together with a base extension to (semiring) schemes and the so-called \emph{Weyl extension} to sets. We prove for $\mathcal{G}$ in a wide class of Chevalley groups---which includes the spe…
We give a simplified proof of Tits' classification of semisimple algebraic groups that remains valid over semilocal rings. In particular, we provide explicit necessary and sufficient conditions that anisotropic groups of a given type appear as anisotropic kernels of semisimple groups of a given Tits index. We also give a new proof of the existence of all indices of exceptional inner type using the notion of canonical dimension of projective homogeneous varieties.
Given a semisimple group over a complete non-Archimedean field, it is well known that techniques from non-Archimedean analytic geometry provide an embedding of the corresponding Bruhat-Tits builidng into the analytic space associated to the group; by composing the embedding with maps to suitable analytic proper spaces, this eventually leads to various compactifications of the building. In the present paper, we give an intrinsic characterization of this embedding.
Given a semisimple group over a local field of residual characteristic p, its topological group of rational points admits maximal pro-p-subgroups. Quasi-split simply-connected semisimple groups can be described in the combinatorial terms of valued root groups, thanks to Bruhat-Tits theory. In this context, it becomes possible to compute explicitly a minimal generating set of the (all conjugated) maximal pro-p-subgroups thanks to parametrizations of a suitable maximal torus and of corresponding root groups. We show that the minimal number of generators is then linear with respect to the rank of…
Any group of type ${\rm F}_4$ is obtained as the automorphism group of an Albert algebra. We prove that such a group is $R$-trivial whenever the Albert algebra is obtained from the first Tits construction. Our proof uses cohomological techniques and the corresponding result on the structure group of such Albert algebras.
We survey some properties of the automorphism groups of compact Kaehler manifolds. In particular, we present recent results by Keum, Oguiso and Zhang on the structure of these groups from the Tits alternative point of view. Several other related results will be also discussed. This paper is written for the VIASM Annual Meeting 2012.
In this note we study the special fiber of the Rapoport-Zink space attached to a quaternionic unitary group. The special fiber is described using the so called Bruhat-Tits stratification and is intimately related to the Bruhat-Tits building of a split symplectic group. As an application we describe the supersingular locus of the related Shimura variety.
A celebrated theorem of Curtis and Tits on groups with finite BN-pair shows that roughly speaking these groups are determined by their local structure. This result was later extended to Kac-Moody groups by P.~Abramenko and B.~Mühlherr. Their theorem states that a Kac-Moody group $G$ is the universal completion of an amalgam of rank two (Levi) subgroups, as they are arranged inside $G$ itself. Taking this result as a starting point, we define a Curtis-Tits structure over a given diagram to be an amalgam of groups such that the sub-amalgam corresponding to a two-vertex sub-diagram is the Curtis-…
We extend (scheme-theoretic) Bruhat-Tits theory to quasi-reductive groups i.e. with trivial split unipotent radical over discretely valued henselian non-archimedean fields $K$, whose ring of integers is excellent and residue field is perfect, building on Bruhat-Tits I et II and the classification of pseudo-reductive groups by Conrad-Gabber-Prasad. The buildings had been constructed previously by Solleveld in a different manner, but they ultimately coincide with ours. We were motivated by the geometry of affine Grassmannians and give some applications at the end (compare also with previously su…
We construct a compactification of the Bruhat-Tits building associated to the group PGL(V) by attaching all the Bruhat-Tits buildings of PGL(W) for non-trivial subspaces W of V as a boundary.
Given a toric affine algebraic variety $X$ and a collection of one-parameter unipotent subgroups $U_1,\ldots,U_s$ of $\mathop{\rm Aut}(X)$ which are normalized by the torus acting on $X$, we show that the group $G$ generated by $U_1,\ldots,U_s$ verifies the following alternative of Tits' type: either $G$ is a unipotent algebraic group, or it contains a non-abelian free subgroup. We deduce that if $G$ is $2$-transitive on a $G$-orbit in $X$, then $G$ contains a non-abelian free subgroup, and so, is of exponential growth.
We describe the stabilizers of points in the Bruhat-Tits building of the group SL with tropical geometry. There are several compactifications of this building associated to algebraic representations of SL. We show that the fans used to compactify apartments in this theory are given by tropical Schur polynomials.
One of the goals of this article is to describe the isomorphism between Lubin-Tate and Drinfeld towers at the level of their skeletons after taking quotient by $\GL_n (Ø_F)\times Ø_D^\times$ or $I\timesØ_D^\times$ where $Ø_D$ is the maximal order in the division algebra with invariant $\frac{1}{n}$ over $F$ and $I$ a Iwahori subgroup of $\GL_n$. We give applications to the theory of canonical subgroups on Lubin-Tate spaces, the description of spherical Hecke orbits in those spaces, fundamental domains for Hecke correspondences and the Gross-Hopkins period mapping. We also study in details the …
Motivated by the splitting principle, we define certain simplicial complexes associated to an associative ring $A$, which have an action of the general linear group $GL(A)$. This leads to an exact sequence, involving Quillen's algebraic K-groups of $A$ and the symbol map. Computations in low degrees lead to another view on Suslin's theorem on the Bloch group, and perhaps show a way towards possible generalizations.
Given a quasi-reductive group $G$ over a local field $k$, using Berkovich geometry, we exhibit a family of $G(k)$-equivariant compactifications of the Bruhat-Tits building $\mathcal B(G, k)$, constructed and investigated by Solleveld and Lourenço. The compactification procedure consists in mapping the building in the analytification $G^{\mathrm{an}}$ of $G$, then composing this map with the projections from $G^{\mathrm{an}}$ to its (in general non-compact) pseudo-flag varieties $(G/P)^{\mathrm{an}}$, for $P$ ranging among the pseudo-parabolic subgroups of $G$. This generalises previous constru…
We construct a compactification of the Bruhat-Tits building associated to the group PGL(V) which can be identified with the space of homothety classes of seminorms on V endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence. Then we define a continuous map from the projective space to this compactification which extends the reduction map from Drinfeld's p-adic symmetric domain to the building.
We define and study a simplicial complex which is a homogeneous space for the group $PGL(2, K)$ over a two-dimensional local field $K$. The complex is a generalization of the tree studied by F. Bruhat, J. Tits, J.-P. Serre and P. Cartier in the 60's and early 70's. Such complex can be canonically attached to the triples $x \in C \subset X$ where $X$ is an algebraic surface, $C$ is an irreducible curve and $x$ is a smooth point on $C$ and $X$. This construction can be used for a description of the isomorphism set of vector bundles on $X$.
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…
