We prove two flat descent results in the setting of Artin n-stacks. First of all, a stack for the etale topology which is an Artin n-stack (in the sense of Simpson and Toën–Vezzosi) is also a stack for the flat (fppf) topology. Moreover, an n-stack, for the fppf topology, which admits a flat (fppf) n-atlas is an Artin n-stack (i.e. possesses a smooth n-atlas). We deduce from these two results a comparison between etale and fppf cohomologies (with coefficients in non-smooth group schemes and also non-abelian). This work is written in the setting of the derived stacks of Toën and Vezzosi, and all of these results are therefore also valid for derived Artin n-stacks.

We study the moduli space of a product of stable varieties over the field of complex numbers, as defined via the minimal model program. Our main results are: (a) taking products gives a well-defined morphism from the product of moduli spaces of stable varieties to the moduli space of a product of stable varieties; (b) this map is always finite étale; and (c) this map very often is an isomorphism. Our results generalize and complete the work of Van Opstall in dimension $1$. The local results rely on a study of the cotangent complex using some derived algebro-geometric methods, while the global ones use some differential-geometric input.

The classical Schläfli formula relates the variations of the dihedral angles of a smooth family of polyhedra in a space-form to the variation of the enclosed volume. We give higher analogues of this formula: for each p, we prove a simple formula relating the variation of the volumes of the codimension p faces to the variation of the ‘curvature’ – the volumes of the duals of the links in the convex case – of codimension p+2 faces. It is valid also for ideal polyhedra, or for polyhedra with some ideal vertices. This extends results of Suárez-Peiró. The proof is through analoguous smooth formulas. Some applications are described.

This paper introduces two new Burnside rings for a finite group G, called the slice Burnside ring and the section Burnside ring. They are built as Grothendieck rings of the category of morphisms of G-sets and of Galois morphisms of G-sets, respectively. The well-known results on the usual Burnside ring, concerning ghost maps, primitive idempotents, and description of the prime spectrum, are extended to these rings. It is also shown that these two rings have a natural Green biset functor structure. The functorial structure of unit groups of these rings is also discussed.

We introduce support varieties for rational representations of a linear algebraic group $G$ of exponential type over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$. These varieties are closed subspaces of the space $V(G)$ of all 1-parameter subgroups of $G$. The functor $M\mapsto V(G)_{M}$ satisfies many of the standard properties of support varieties satisfied by finite groups and other finite group schemes. Furthermore, there is a close relationship between $V(G)_{M}$ and the family of support varieties $V_{r}(G)_{M}$ obtained by restricting the $G$ action to Frobenius kernels $G_{(r)}\subset G$. These support varieties seem particularly appropriate for the investigation of infinite-dimensional rational $G$-modules.

Based on results obtained in [15], we construct groups of special S-units for function fields of characteristic p>0, and show that they satisfy Gras-type Conjectures. We use these results in order to give a new proof of Chinburg‘s Ω$_3$-Conjecture on the Galois module structure of the group of S-units, for cyclic extensions of prime degree of function fields.

We extend Følner’s amenability criterion to the realm of general topological groups. Building on this, we show that a topological group $G$ is amenable if and only if its left-translation action can be approximated in a uniform manner by amenable actions on the set  $G$ . As applications we obtain a topological version of Whyte’s geometric solution to the von Neumann problem and give an affirmative answer to a question posed by Rosendal.

A central problem in liaison theory is to decide whether every arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay subscheme of projective $n$-space can be linked by a finite number of arithmetically Gorenstein schemes to a complete intersection. We show that this can indeed be achieved if the given scheme is also generically Gorenstein and we allow the links to take place in an $(n+ 1)$-dimensional projective space. For example, this result applies to all reduced arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay subschemes. We also show that every union of fat points in projective 3-space can be linked in the same space to a union of simple points in finitely many steps, and hence to a complete intersection in projective 4-space.

We define an analytic index and prove a topological index theorem for a non-compact manifold M0 with poly-cylindrical ends. Our topological index theorem depends only on the principal symbol, and establishes the equality of the topological and analytical index in the group K0(C*(M)), where C*(M) is a canonical C*-algebra associated to the canonical compactification M of M0. Our topological index is thus, in general, not an integer, unlike the usual Fredholm index appearing in the Atiyah–Singer theorem, which is an integer. This will lead, as an application in a subsequent paper, to the determination of the K-theory groups K0(C*(M)) of the groupoid C*-algebra of the manifolds with corners M. We also prove that an elliptic operator P on M0 has an invertible perturbation P+R by a lower-order operator if and only if its analytic index vanishes.

Let $f\colon Y \to X$ be a proper flat morphism of locally noetherian schemes. Then the locus in $X$ over which $f$ is smooth is stable under generization. We prove that, under suitable assumptions on the formal fibers of $X$, the same property holds for other local properties of morphisms, even if $f$ is only closed and flat. Our proof of this statement reduces to a purely local question known as Grothendieck's localization problem. To answer Grothendieck's problem, we provide a general framework that gives a uniform treatment of previously known cases of this problem, and also solves this problem in new cases, namely for weak normality, seminormality, $F$-rationality, and the ‘Cohen–Macaulay and $F$-injective’ property. For the weak normality statement, we prove that weak normality always lifts from Cartier divisors. We also solve Grothendieck's localization problem for terminal, canonical, and rational singularities in equal characteristic zero.

In this paper we prove the mixed Ax–Schanuel theorem for the universal abelian varieties (more generally any mixed Shimura variety of Kuga type), and give some simple applications. In particular, we present an application for studying the generic rank of the Betti map.

For bicovariant differential calculi on quantum matrix groups a generalisation of classical notions such as metric tensor, Hodge operator, codifferential and Laplace–Beltrami operator for arbitrary k-forms is given. Under some technical assumptions it is proved that Woronowicz' external algebra of left-invariant differential forms either contains a unique form of maximal degree or it is infinite-dimensional. Using Jucys–Murphy elements of the Hecke algebra, the eigenvalues of the Laplace–Beltrami operator for the Hopf algebra ${\mathcal {O}}$(SLq(N)) are computed.

Given a manifold $M$ with a submanifold $N$, the deformation space ${\mathcal{D}}(M,N)$ is a manifold with a submersion to $\mathbb{R}$ whose zero fiber is the normal bundle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}(M,N)$, and all other fibers are equal to $M$. This article uses deformation spaces to study the local behavior of various geometric structures associated with singular foliations, with $N$ a submanifold transverse to the foliation. New examples include $L_{\infty }$-algebroids, Courant algebroids, and Lie bialgebroids. In each case, we obtain a normal form theorem around $N$, in terms of a model structure over $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}(M,N)$.

We introduce the τ-function of a difference rational connection (d-connection) and its isomonodromy transformations. We show that in a continuous limit ourτ-function agrees with the Jimbo–Miwa–Ueno τ-function. We compute the τ-function for the isomonodromy transformations leading to difference Painlevé V and difference Painlevé VI equations. We prove that the gap probability for a wide class of discrete random matrix type models can be viewed as the τ-function for an associated d-connection.

The morphic Abel–Jacobi map is the analogue of the classical Abel–Jacobi map one obtains by using Lawson and morphic (co)homology in place of the usual singular (co)homology. It thus gives a map from the group of $r$-cycles on a complex variety that are algebraically equivalent to zero to a certain ‘Jacobian’ built from the Lawson homology groups viewed as inductive limits of mixed Hodge structures. In this paper, we define the morphic Abel–Jacobi map, establish its foundational properties, and then apply these results to the study of algebraic cycles. In particular, we show the classical Abel–Jacobi map (when restricted to cycles algebraically equivalent to zero) factors through the morphic version, and show that the morphic version detects cycles that cannot be detected by its classical counterpart; that is, we give examples of cycles in the kernel of the classical Abel–Jacobi map that are not in the kernel of the morphic version. We also investigate the behavior of the morphic Abel–Jacobi map on the torsion subgroup of the Chow group of cycles algebraically equivalent to zero modulo rational equivalence.

We count how many ‘different’ Morse functions exist on the 2-sphere. There are several ways of declaring that two Morse functions f and g are ‘indistinguishable’ but we concentrate only on two natural equivalence relations: homological (when the regular sublevel sets f and g have identical Betti numbers) and geometric (when f is obtained from g via global, orientation-preserving changes of coordinates on S2 and ℝ). The count of homological classes is reduced to a count of lattice paths confined to the first quadrant. The count of geometric classes is reduced to a count of certain labeled trees, which is encoded by certain elliptic integrals.

Let k be an algebraically closed field of characteristic greater than 2, and let F=k((t)) and G=𝕊p2d. In this paper we propose a geometric analog of the Weil representation of the metaplectic group . This is a category of certain perverse sheaves on some stack, on which acts by functors. This construction will be used by Lysenko (in [Geometric theta-lifting for the dual pair S𝕆2m, 𝕊p2n, math.RT/0701170] and subsequent publications) for the proof of the geometric Langlands functoriality for some dual reductive pairs.

The purpose of this note is to present a somewhat unexpected relation between diophantine approximations and the geometric invariant theory. The link is given by Mumford's degree of contact. We show that destabilizing flags of Chow-unstable projective varieties provide systems of diophantine approximations which are better than those given by Schmidt's subspace theorem, and we give examples of these systems.

We prove several results showing that the algebraic $K$-theory of valuation rings behaves as though such rings were regular Noetherian, in particular an analogue of the Geisser–Levine theorem. We also give some new proofs of known results concerning cdh descent of algebraic $K$-theory.

We prove that there are finitely many families, up to isomorphism in codimension one, of elliptic Calabi–Yau manifolds $Y\rightarrow X$ with a rational section, provided that $\dim (Y)\leq 5$ and $Y$ is not of product type. As a consequence, we obtain that there are finitely many possibilities for the Hodge diamond of such manifolds. The result follows from log birational boundedness of Kawamata log terminal pairs $(X, \Delta )$ with $K_X+\Delta$ numerically trivial and not of product type, in dimension at most four.