Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2014
For any subfield $K\subseteq \mathbb{C}$, not contained in an imaginary quadratic extension of $\mathbb{Q}$, we construct conjugate varieties whose algebras of $K$-rational ($p,p$)-classes are not isomorphic. This compares to the Hodge conjecture which predicts isomorphisms when $K$ is contained in an imaginary quadratic extension of $\mathbb{Q}$; additionally, it shows that the complex Hodge structure on the complex cohomology algebra is not invariant under the Aut($\mathbb{C}$)-action on varieties. In our proofs, we find simply connected conjugate varieties whose multilinear intersection forms on $H^{2}(-,\mathbb{R})$ are not (weakly) isomorphic. Using these, we detect nonhomeomorphic conjugate varieties for any fundamental group and in any birational equivalence class of dimension $\geq $10.