Suppose $X$ is a smooth complex algebraic variety. A necessary condition for a complex topological vector bundle on $X$ (viewed as a complex manifold) to be algebraic is that all Chern classes must be algebraic cohomology classes, that is, lie in the image of the cycle class map. We analyze the question of whether algebraicity of Chern classes is sufficient to guarantee algebraizability of complex topological vector bundles. For affine varieties of dimension ${\leqslant}3$, it is known that algebraicity of Chern classes of a vector bundle guarantees algebraizability of the vector bundle. In contrast, we show in dimension ${\geqslant}4$ that algebraicity of Chern classes is insufficient to guarantee algebraizability of vector bundles. To do this, we construct a new obstruction to algebraizability using Steenrod operations on Chow groups. By means of an explicit example, we observe that our obstruction is nontrivial in general.

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 $\ell $ and any integer $n\geq 2$, a rationally connected, non-rational variety for which non-rationality is detected by a non-trivial degree $n$ unramified étale cohomology class with $\ell $-torsion coefficients. When $\ell = 2$, the varieties that are constructed are furthermore unirational and non-rationality cannot be detected by a torsion unramified étale cohomology class of lower degree.

Bondarko defines and studies the notion of weight structure and he shows that there exists a weight structure over the category of Voevodsky motives with rational coefficients (over a field of characteristic 0). In this paper we extend this weight structure to the category of Beilinson motives (for any scheme of finite type over a base scheme which is excellent of dimension at most two) introduced and studied by Cisinsky and Déglise. We also check the weight exactness of the Grothendieck operations.

In a recent paper, Bondarko [Weight structures vs. t-structures; weight filtrations, spectral sequences, and complexes (for motives and in general), Preprint (2007), 0704.4003] defined the notion of weight structure, and proved that the category DMgm(k) of geometrical motives over a perfect field k, as defined and studied by Voevodsky, Suslin and Friedlander [Cycles, transfers, and motivic homology theories, Annals of Mathematics Studies, vol. 143 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000)], is canonically equipped with such a structure. Building on this result, and under a condition on the weights avoided by the boundary motive [J. Wildeshaus, The boundary motive: definition and basic properties, Compositio Math. 142 (2006), 631–656], we describe a method to construct intrinsically in DMgm(k) a motivic version of interior cohomology of smooth, but possibly non-projective schemes. In a sequel to this work [J. Wildeshaus, On the interior motive of certain Shimura varieties: the case of Hilbert–Blumenthal varieties, Preprint (2009), 0906.4239], this method will be applied to Shimura varieties.

We introduce the notion of the boundary motive of a scheme X over a perfect field. By definition, it measures the difference between the motive ${\mathop{M_{\rm gm}}\nolimits} (X)$ and the motive with compact support ${\mathop{M_{\rm gm}^{\rm c}}\nolimits}(X)$, as defined and studied by Voevodsky et al. in Cycles, transfers, and motivic homology theories (Annals of Mathematics Studies, vol. 143 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000)). We develop three tools to compute the boundary motive in terms of the geometry of a compactification of X: co-localization; invariance under abstract blow-up; and analytical invariance. We then prove auto-duality of the boundary motive of a smooth scheme X. As a formal consequence of this, and of co-localization, we obtain a fourth computational tool, namely localization for the\break boundary motive. In a sequel to this work (J. Wildeshaus, On the boundary motive of a Shimura variety, Prépublications du Laboratoire d'Analyse, Géométrie et Applications de l'Université Paris 13, no. 2004-23), these tools will be applied to Shimura varieties.