Using the cohomology theory of Dwork, as developed by Adolphson and Sperber, we exhibit a deterministic algorithm to compute the zeta function of a nondegenerate hypersurface defined over a finite field. This algorithm is particularly well suited to work with polynomials in small characteristic that have few monomials (relative to their dimension). Our method covers toric, affine, and projective hypersurfaces, and also can be used to compute the L-function of an exponential sum.

We give a necessary and sufficient condition in order for a hyperplane arrangement to be of Torelli type, namely that it is recovered as the set of unstable hyperplanes of its Dolgachev sheaf of logarithmic differentials. Decompositions and semistability of non-Torelli arrangements are investigated.

We compute the center of the ring of PD differential operators on a smooth variety over ℤ/pnℤ, confirming a conjecture of Kaledin (private communication). More generally, given an associative algebra A0 over ℤp and its flat deformation An over ℤ/pn+1ℤ, we prove that under a certain non-degeneracy condition, the center of An is isomorphic to the ring of length-(n+1) Witt vectors over the center of A0.

A famous theorem of D. Orlov describes the derived bounded category of coherent sheaves on projective hypersurfaces in terms of an algebraic construction called graded matrix factorizations. In this article, I implement a proposal of E. Segal to prove Orlov’s theorem in the Calabi–Yau setting using a globalization of the category of graded matrix factorizations (graded D-branes). Let X⊂ℙ be a projective hypersurface. Segal has already established an equivalence between Orlov’s category of graded matrix factorizations and the category of graded D-branes on the canonical bundle Kℙ to ℙ. To complete the picture, I give an equivalence between the homotopy category of graded D-branes on Kℙ and Dbcoh(X). This can be achieved directly, as well as by deforming Kℙ to the normal bundle of X⊂Kℙ and invoking a global version of Knörrer periodicity. We also discuss an equivalence between graded D-branes on a general smooth quasiprojective variety and on the formal neighborhood of the singular locus of the zero fiber of the potential.

This paper introduces the notion of a derived splinter. Roughly speaking, a scheme is a derived splinter if it splits off from the coherent cohomology of any proper cover. Over a field of characteristic 0, this condition characterises rational singularities, as suggested by the work of Kovács. Our main theorem asserts that over a field of characteristic p, derived splinters are the same as (underived) splinters, i.e. schemes that split off from any finite cover. Using this result, we answer some questions of Karen Smith concerning the extension of Serre/Kodaira-type vanishing results beyond the class of ample line bundles in positive characteristic; these are purely projective geometric statements independent of singularity considerations. In fact, we can prove ‘up to finite cover’ analogues in characteristic p of many vanishing theorems known in characteristic 0. All these results fit naturally in the study of F-singularities, and are motivated by a desire to understand the direct summand conjecture.

We give bounds for the Betti numbers of projective algebraic varieties in terms of their classes (degrees of dual varieties of successive hyperplane sections). We also give bounds for classes in terms of ramification volumes (mixed ramification degrees), sectional genus and, eventually, in terms of dimension, codimension and degree. For varieties whose degree is large with respect to codimension, we give sharp bounds for the above invariants and classify the varieties on the boundary, thus obtaining a generalization of Castelnuovo’s theory for curves to varieties of higher dimension.

The tempered fundamental group of a p-adic variety classifies analytic étale covers that become topological covers for Berkovich topology after pullback by some finite étale cover. This paper constructs cospecialization homomorphisms between the (p′) versions of the tempered fundamental group of the fibers of a smooth morphism with polystable reduction. We study the question for families of curves in another paper. To construct them, we will start by describing the pro-(p′) tempered fundamental group of a smooth and proper variety with polystable reduction in terms of the reduction endowed with its log structure, thus defining tempered fundamental groups for log polystable varieties.

In [M. Kontsevich and Y. Soibelman, Cohomological Hall algebra, exponential Hodge structures and motivic Donaldson–Thomas invariants, Preprint (2011), arXiv:1006.2706v2[math.AG]], the authors, in particular, associate to each finite quiver Q with a set of vertices I the so-called cohomological Hall algebra ℋ, which is ℤI≥0-graded. Its graded component ℋγ is defined as cohomology of the Artin moduli stack of representations with dimension vector γ. The product comes from natural correspondences which parameterize extensions of representations. In the case of a symmetric quiver, one can refine the grading to ℤI≥0×ℤ, and modify the product by a sign to get a super-commutative algebra (ℋ,⋆)(with parity induced by the ℤ-grading). It is conjectured in [M. Kontsevich and Y. Soibelman, Cohomological Hall algebra, exponential Hodge structures and motivic Donaldson–Thomas invariants, Preprint (2011), arXiv:1006.2706v2[math.AG]] that in this case the algebra (ℋ⊗ℚ,⋆)is free super-commutative generated by a ℤI≥0×ℤ-graded vector space of the form V =Vprim ⊗ℚ[x] , where x is a variable of bidegree (0,2)∈ℤI≥0×ℤ, and all the spaces ⨁ k∈ℤVprimγ,k, γ∈ℤI≥0. are finite-dimensional. In this paper we prove this conjecture (Theorem 1.1). We also prove some explicit bounds on pairs (γ,k)for which Vprimγ,k≠0(Theorem 1.2). Passing to generating functions, we obtain the positivity result for quantum Donaldson–Thomas invariants, which was used by Mozgovoy to prove Kac’s conjecture for quivers with sufficiently many loops [S. Mozgovoy, Motivic Donaldson–Thomas invariants and Kac conjecture, Preprint (2011), arXiv:1103.2100v2[math.AG]]. Finally, we mention a connection with the paper of Reineke [M. Reineke, Degenerate cohomological Hall algebra and quantized Donaldson–Thomas invariants for m-loop quivers, Preprint (2011), arXiv:1102.3978v1[math.RT]].

In this article, we apply the methods of our work on Fontaine’s theory in equal characteristics to the φ/𝔖-modules of Breuil and Kisin. Thanks to a previous article of Kisin, this yields a new and rather elementary proof of the theorem ‘weakly admissible implies admissible’ of Colmez and Fontaine.

The S-fundamental group scheme is the group scheme corresponding to the Tannaka category of numerically flat vector bundles. We use determinant line bundles to prove that the S-fundamental group of a product of two complete varieties is a product of their S-fundamental groups as conjectured by Mehta and the author. We also compute the abelian part of the S-fundamental group scheme and the S-fundamental group scheme of an abelian variety or a variety with trivial étale fundamental group.

Two major results in the theory of ℓ-adic mixed constructible sheaves are the purity theorem (every simple perverse sheaf is pure) and the decomposition theorem (every pure object in the derived category is a direct sum of shifts of simple perverse sheaves). In this paper, we prove analogues of these results for coherent sheaves. Specifically, we work with staggered sheaves, which form the heart of a certain t-structure on the derived category of equivariant coherent sheaves. We prove, under some reasonable hypotheses, that every simple staggered sheaf is pure, and that every pure complex of coherent sheaves is a direct sum of shifts of simple staggered sheaves.

We test R. van Luijk’s method for computing the Picard group of a K3 surface. The examples considered are the resolutions of Kummer quartics in ℙ3. Using the theory of abelian varieties, the Picard group may be computed directly in this case. Our experiments show that the upper bounds provided by van Luijk’s method are sharp when sufficiently many primes are used. In fact, there are a lot of primes that yield a value close to the exact one. However, for many but not all Kummer surfaces V of Picard rank 18, we have for a set of primes of density at least 1/2.

We compare the cohomology of (parabolic) Hitchin fibers for Langlands dual groups G and G∨. The comparison theorem fits in the framework of the global Springer theory developed by the author. We prove that the stable parts of the parabolic Hitchin complexes for Langlands dual group are naturally isomorphic after passing to the associated graded of the perverse filtration. Moreover, this isomorphism intertwines the global Springer action on one hand and Chern class action on the other. Our result is inspired by the mirror symmetric viewpoint of geometric Langlands duality. Compared to the pioneer work in this subject by T. Hausel and M. Thaddeus, R. Donagi and T. Pantev, and N. Hitchin, our result is valid for more general singular fibers. The proof relies on a variant of Ngô’s support theorem, which is a key point in the proof of the Fundamental Lemma.

We generalize Bondal and Orlov's Reconstruction Theorem for a Gorenstein scheme X and a projective morphism X → T whose (relative) dualizing sheaf is either T-ample or T-antiample.

Let p be a prime. We construct and study integral and torsion invariants, such as integral and torsion Weil–Deligne representations, associated to potentially semi-stable representations and torsion potentially semi-stable representations respectively. As applications, we prove the compatibility between local Langlands correspondence and Fontaine's construction for Galois representations attached to Hilbert modular forms, and Néron–Ogg–Shafarevich criterion of finite level for potentially semi-stable representations.

We introduce the idea of a geometric categorical Lie algebra action on derived categories of coherent sheaves. The main result is that such an action induces an action of the braid group associated to the Lie algebra. The same proof shows that strong categorical actions in the sense of Khovanov–Lauda and Rouquier also lead to braid group actions. As an example, we construct an action of Artin’s braid group on derived categories of coherent sheaves on cotangent bundles to partial flag varieties.

We prove that the Newton polygons of Frobenius on the crystalline cohomology of proper smooth varieties satisfy a symmetry that results, in the case of projective smooth varieties, from Poincaré duality and the hard Lefschetz theorem. As a corollary, we deduce that the Betti numbers in odd degrees of any proper smooth variety over a field are even (a consequence of Hodge symmetry in characteristic zero), answering an old question of Serre. Then we give a generalization and a refinement for arbitrary varieties over finite fields, in response to later questions of Serre and of Katz.

Let 𝒱 be a complete discrete valuation ring of mixed characteristic. We classify arithmetic 𝒟-modules on Spf(𝒱[[t]]) up to certain kind of ‘analytic isomorphism’. This result is used to construct canonical extensions (in the sense of Katz and Gabber) for objects of this category.

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.