We prove that on separated algebraic surfaces every coherent sheaf is a quotient of a locally free sheaf. This class contains many schemes that are neither normal, reduced, quasiprojective nor embeddable into toric varieties. Our methods extend to arbitrary two-dimensional schemes that are proper over an excellent ring.

Let (R,m) be a Noetherian local ring and UR=Spec(R)−{m} be the punctured spectrum of R. Gabber conjectured that if R is a complete intersection of dimension three, then the abelian group Pic(UR) is torsion-free. In this note we prove Gabber’s statement for the hypersurface case. We also point out certain connections between Gabber’s conjecture, Van den Bergh’s notion of non-commutative crepant resolutions and some well-studied questions in homological algebra over local rings.

We study the cones of pseudoeffective and nef cycles of higher codimension on the self product of an elliptic curve with complex multiplication, and on the product of a very general abelian surface with itself. In both cases, we find for instance the existence of nef classes that are not pseudoeffective, answering in the negative a question raised by Grothendieck in correspondence with Mumford. We also discuss several problems and questions for further investigation.

The main goal of this paper is to deduce (from a recent resolution of singularities result of Gabber) the following fact: (effective) Chow motives with ℤ[1/p]-coefficients over a perfect field k of characteristic p generate the category DMeffgm[1/p] (of effective geometric Voevodsky’s motives with ℤ[1/p]-coefficients). It follows that DMeffgm[1/p] can be endowed with a Chow weight structure wChow whose heart is Choweff[1/p] (weight structures were introduced in a preceding paper, where the existence of wChow for DMeffgmℚ was also proved). As shown in previous papers, this statement immediately yields the existence of a conservative weight complex functor DMeffgm[1/p]→Kb (Choweff [1/p])(which induces an isomorphism on K0-groups), as well as the existence of canonical and functorial (Chow)-weight spectral sequences and weight filtrations for any cohomology theory on DMeffgm[1/p] . We also mention a certain Chow t-structure for DMeff−[1/p]and relate it with unramified cohomology.

Green’s conjecture predicts than one can read off special linear series on an algebraic curve, by looking at the syzygies of its canonical embedding. We extend Voisin’s results on syzygies of K3 sections, to the case of K3 surfaces with arbitrary Picard lattice. This, coupled with results of Voisin and Hirschowitz–Ramanan, provides a complete solution to Green’s conjecture for smooth curves on arbitrary K3 surfaces.

We compare two known definitions for a relative family of effective zero cycles: one based on traces of functions and one based on norms of functions. In characteristic zero we show that both definitions agree. In the general setting we show that the norm map on functions can be expanded to a norm functor between certain categories of line bundles, thereby giving a third approach to families of zero cycles.

We study the slice filtration for the K-theory of a sheaf of Azumaya algebras A, and for the motive of a Severi-Brauer variety, the latter in the case of a central simple algebra of prime degree over a field. Using the Beilinson–Lichtenbaum conjecture, we apply our results to show the vanishing of SK2(A) for a central simple algebra A of square-free index (prime to the characteristic). This proves a conjecture of Merkurjev.

We study Cox rings of K3 surfaces. A first result is that a K3 surface has a finitely generated Cox ring if and only if its effective cone is rational polyhedral. Moreover, we investigate degrees of generators and relations for Cox rings of K3 surfaces of Picard number two, and explicitly compute the Cox rings of generic K3 surfaces with a non-symplectic involution that have Picard number 2 to 5 or occur as double covers of del Pezzo surfaces.

Using the middle convolution functor MCχ introduced by N. Katz, we prove the existence of rigid local systems whose monodromy is dense in the simple algebraic group G2. We derive the existence of motives for motivated cycles which have a motivic Galois group of type G2. Granting Grothendieck’s standard conjectures, the existence of motives with motivic Galois group of type G2 can be deduced, giving a partial answer to a question of Serre.

Let C be a family of curves over a non-singular variety S. We study algebraic cycles on the relative symmetric powers C[n] and on the relative Jacobian J. We consider the Chow homology CH*(C[∙]/S) := ⊕n CH*(C[n]/S) as a ring using the Pontryagin product. We prove that CH*(C[∙]/S) is isomorphic to CH*(J/S)[t]〈u〉, the PD-polynomial algebra (variable: u) over the usual polynomial ring (variable: t) over CH*(J/S). We give two such isomorphisms that over a general base are different. Further we give precise results on how CH*(J/S) sits embedded in CH*(C[∙]/S) and we give an explicit geometric description of how the operators and ∂u act. This builds upon the study of certain geometrically defined operators Pi,j (a) that was undertaken by one of us.

Our results give rise to a new grading on CH*(J/S). The associated descending filtration is stable under all operators [N]*, and [N]* acts on as multiplication by Nm. Hence, after − ⊗ ℚ this filtration coincides with the one coming from Beauville's decomposition. The grading we obtain is in general different from Beauville's.

Finally, we give a version of our main result for tautological classes, and we show how our methods give a simple geometric proof of some relations obtained by Herbaut and van der Geer–Kouvidakis, as later refined by one of us.

We show that the limit of a one-parameter admissible normal function with no singularities lies in a non-classical sub-object of the limiting intermediate Jacobian. Using this, we construct a Hausdorff slit analytic space, with complex Lie group fibres, which ‘graphs’ such normal functions. For singular normal functions, an extension of the sub-object by a finite group leads to the Néron models. When the normal function comes from geometry, that is, a family of algebraic cycles on a semistably degenerating family of varieties, its limit may be interpreted via the Abel–Jacobi map on motivic cohomology of the singular fibre, hence via regulators on K-groups of its substrata. Two examples are worked out in detail, for families of 1-cycles on CY and abelian 3-folds, where this produces interesting arithmetic constraints on such limits. We also show how to compute the finite ‘singularity group’ in the geometric setting.

We introduce in this paper a hypercohomology version of the resonance varieties and obtain some relations to the characteristic varieties of rank one local systems on a smooth quasi-projective complex variety M. A logarithmic resonance variety is also considered and, as an application, we determine the first characteristic variety of the configuration space of n distinct labeled points on an elliptic curve. Finally, for a logarithmic 1-form α on M we investigate the relation between the resonance degree of α and the codimension of the zero set of α on a good compactification of M. This question was inspired by the recent work by Cohen, Denham, Falk and Varchenko.

We study the asymptotical behaviour of the moduli space of morphisms of given anticanonical degree from a rational curve to a split toric variety, when the degree goes to infinity. We obtain in this case a geometric analogue of Manin’s conjecture about rational points of bounded height on varieties defined over a global field. The study is led through a generating series whose coefficients lie in a Grothendieck ring of motives, the motivic height zeta function. In order to establish convergence properties of this function, we use a notion of motivic Euler product. It relies on a construction of Denef and Loeser which associates a virtual motive to a first order logic ring formula.

We study some basic properties of schematic homotopy types and the schematization functor. We describe two different algebraic models for schematic homotopy types, namely cosimplicial Hopf alegbras and equivariant cosimplicial algebras, and provide explicit constructions of the schematization functor for each of these models. We also investigate some standard properties of the schematization functor that are helpful for describing the schematization of smooth projective complex varieties. In a companion paper, these results are used in the construction of a non-abelian Hodge structure on the schematic homotopy type of a smooth projective variety.

We show that under a suitable transversality condition, the intersection of two rational subtori in an algebraic torus (ℂ*)n is a finite group which can be determined using the torsion part of some associated lattice. We also give applications to the study of characteristic varieties of smooth complex algebraic varieties. As an example we discuss A. Suciu’s line arrangement, the so-called deleted B3-arrangement.

We use Hodge theoretic methods to study homotopy types of complex projective manifolds with arbitrary fundamental groups. The main tool we use is the schematization functor, introduced by the third author as a substitute for the rationalization functor in homotopy theory in the case of non-simply connected spaces. Our main result is the construction of a Hodge decomposition on . This Hodge decomposition is encoded in an action of the discrete group on the object and is shown to recover the usual Hodge decomposition on cohomology, the Hodge filtration on the pro-algebraic fundamental group, and, in the simply connected case, the Hodge decomposition on the complexified homotopy groups. We show that our Hodge decomposition satisfies a purity property with respect to a weight filtration, generalizing the fact that the higher homotopy groups of a simply connected projective manifold have natural mixed Hodge structures. As applications we construct new examples of homotopy types which are not realizable as complex projective manifolds and we prove a formality theorem for the schematization of a complex projective manifold.

Let be an abelian scheme over a scheme S which is quasi-projective over an affine noetherian scheme and let be a symmetric, rigidified, relatively ample line bundle on . We show that there is an isomorphism of line bundles on S, where d is the rank of the (locally free) sheaf . We also show that the numbers 24 and 12d are sharp in the following sense: if N>1 is a common divisor of 12 and 24, then there are data as above such that

We determine the dimension of the space of Hodge cycles for the generic fibers of the Kuga fiber varieties associated to certain quaternion algebras.