Under the assumption that the adjusted Brill-Noether number $\widetilde {\rho }$ is at least $-g$, we prove that the Brill-Noether loci in ${\mathcal M}_{g,n}$ of pointed curves carrying pencils with prescribed ramification at the marked points have a component of the expected codimension with pointed curves having Brill-Noether varieties of pencils of the minimal dimension. As an application, the map from the Hurwitz scheme to ${\mathcal M}_g$ is dominant if $n+\widetilde {\rho } \geq 0$ and generically finite otherwise, settling a variation of a classical problem of Zariski.

In the second part of the paper, we study the analogous loci of curves in Severi varieties on $K3$ surfaces, proving existence of curves with nongeneral behaviour from the point of view of Brill-Noether theory. This extends previous results of Ciliberto and the first-named author to the ramified case. We apply these results to study correspondences and cycles on $K3$ surfaces in relation to Beauville-Voisin points and constant cycle curves.

We examine “stronger” versions of the Rost nilpotence principle, which hold in almost all cases where Rost nilpotence is known, and show that a direct sum of motives for which these stronger principles hold also satisfy it.

We show that a very general hypersurface of degree $d \geq 4$ and dimension $N \leq (d+1)2^{d-4}$ over a field of characteristic $\neq 2$ does not admit a decomposition of the diagonal; hence, it is neither stably nor retract rational, nor $\mathbb {A}^1$-connected. Similar results hold in characteristic $2$ under a slightly weaker degree bound. This improves earlier results in [44] and [33].

We prove cohomological vanishing criteria for the Ceresa cycle of a curve C embedded in its Jacobian J: (A) if $\mathrm{H}^3(J)^{\mathrm{Aut}(C)} = 0$, then the Ceresa cycle is torsion modulo rational equivalence; (B) if $\mathrm{H}^0(J, \Omega_J^3)^{\mathrm{Aut}(C)} = 0$, then the Ceresa cycle is torsion modulo algebraic equivalence, with criterion (B) conditional on the Hodge conjecture. We then use these criteria to study the simplest family of curves where (B) holds but (A) does not, namely the family of Picard curves $C \colon y^3 = x^4 + ax^2 + bx + c$. Criterion (B) and work of Schoen combine to show that the Ceresa cycle of a Picard curve is torsion in the Griffiths group. We furthermore determine exactly when it is torsion in the Chow group. As a byproduct, we deduce that there exist one-parameter families of plane quartic curves with torsion Ceresa Chow class; that the torsion locus in $\mathcal{M}_3$ of the Ceresa Chow class contains infinitely many components; and that the order of a torsion Ceresa Chow class of a Picard curve over a number field K is bounded, with the bound depending only on $[K\colon \mathbb{Q}]$. Finally, we determine which automorphism group strata are contained in the vanishing locus of the universal Ceresa cycle over $\mathcal{M}_3$.

Let $X$ be a curve of genus at least 4 that is very general or very general hyperelliptic. We classify all the ways in which a power $(JX)^k$ of the Jacobian of $X$ can be isogenous to a product of Jacobians of curves. As an application, we show that if $A$ is a very general principally polarized abelian variety of dimension at least 4 or the intermediate Jacobian of a very general cubic threefold, then no power $A^k$ is isogenous to a product of Jacobians of curves. This confirms various cases of the Coleman–Oort conjecture. We further deduce from our results some progress on the question of whether the integral Hodge conjecture fails for $A$ as above.

We study the Abel-Jacobi image of the Ceresa cycle $W_{k, e}-W_{k, e}^-$, where $W_{k, e}$ is the image of the k-th symmetric product of a curve X with a base point e on its Jacobian variety. For certain Fermat quotient curves of genus g, we prove that for any choice of the base point and $k \leq g-2$, the Abel-Jacobi image of the Ceresa cycle is non-torsion. In particular, these cycles are non-torsion modulo rational equivalence.

Let $X$ and $Y$ be compact hyper-Kähler manifolds deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of length $n$ subschemes of a $K3$ surface. A class in $H^{p,p}(X\times Y,{\mathbb {Q}})$ is an analytic correspondence, if it belongs to the subring generated by Chern classes of coherent analytic sheaves. Let $f:H^2(X,{\mathbb {Q}})\rightarrow H^2(Y,{\mathbb {Q}})$ be a rational Hodge isometry with respect to the Beauville–Bogomolov–Fujiki pairings. We prove that $f$ is induced by an analytic correspondence. We furthermore lift $f$ to an analytic correspondence $\tilde {f}: H^*(X,{\mathbb {Q}})[2n]\rightarrow H^*(Y,{\mathbb {Q}})[2n]$, which is a Hodge isometry with respect to the Mukai pairings and which preserves the gradings up to sign. When $X$ and $Y$ are projective, the correspondences $f$ and $\tilde {f}$ are algebraic.

We prove that any hyper-Kähler sixfold $K$ of generalized Kummer type has a naturally associated manifold $Y_K$ of $\mathrm {K}3^{[3]}$ type. It is obtained as crepant resolution of the quotient of $K$ by a group of symplectic involutions acting trivially on its second cohomology. When $K$ is projective, the variety $Y_K$ is birational to a moduli space of stable sheaves on a uniquely determined projective $\mathrm {K}3$ surface $S_K$. As an application of this construction we show that the Kuga–Satake correspondence is algebraic for the K3 surfaces $S_K$, producing infinitely many new families of $\mathrm {K}3$ surfaces of general Picard rank $16$ satisfying the Kuga–Satake Hodge conjecture.

We prove that the $p^\infty$-torsion of the transcendental Brauer group of an abelian variety over a finitely generated field of characteristic $p>0$ is bounded. This answers a (variant of a) question asked by Skorobogatov and Zarhin for abelian varieties. To do this, we prove a ‘flat Tate conjecture’ for divisors. We also study other geometric Galois-invariant $p^\infty$-torsion classes of the Brauer group which are not in the transcendental Brauer group. These classes, in contrast with our main theorem, can be infinitely $p$-divisible. We explain how the existence of these $p$-divisible towers is naturally related to the failure of surjectivity of specialisation morphisms of Néron–Severi groups in characteristic $p$.

We generalize Bloch’s map on torsion cycles from algebraically closed fields to arbitrary fields. While Bloch’s map over algebraically closed fields is injective for zero-cycles and for cycles of codimension at most two, we show that the generalization to arbitrary fields is only injective for cycles of codimension at most two but, in general, not for zero-cycles. Our result implies that Jannsen’s cycle class map in integral $\ell $-adic continuous étale cohomology is, in general, not injective on torsion zero-cycles over finitely generated fields. This answers a question of Scavia and Suzuki.

We introduce the notion of refined unramified cohomology of algebraic schemes and prove comparison theorems that identify some of these groups with cycle groups. This generalizes to cycles of arbitrary codimension previous results of Bloch–Ogus, Colliot-Thélène–Voisin, Kahn, Voisin, and Ma. We combine our approach with the Bloch–Kato conjecture, proven by Voevodsky, to show that on a smooth complex projective variety, any homologically trivial torsion cycle with trivial Abel–Jacobi invariant has coniveau $1$. This establishes a torsion version of a conjecture of Jannsen originally formulated $\otimes \mathbb {Q}$. We further show that the group of homologically trivial torsion cycles modulo algebraic equivalence has a finite filtration (by coniveau) such that the graded quotients are determined by higher Abel–Jacobi invariants that we construct. This may be seen as a variant for torsion cycles modulo algebraic equivalence of a conjecture of Green. We also prove $\ell$-adic analogues of these results over any field $k$ which contains all $\ell$-power roots of unity.

We prove the integral Hodge conjecture for one-cycles on a principally polarized complex abelian variety whose minimal class is algebraic. In particular, the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve over the complex numbers satisfies the integral Hodge conjecture for one-cycles. The main ingredient is a lift of the Fourier transform to integral Chow groups. Similarly, we prove the integral Tate conjecture for one-cycles on the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve over the separable closure of a finitely generated field. Furthermore, abelian varieties satisfying such a conjecture are dense in their moduli space.

Jannsen asked whether the rational cycle class map in continuous $\ell $-adic cohomology is injective, in every codimension for all smooth projective varieties over a field of finite type over the prime field. As recently pointed out by Schreieder, the integral version of Jannsen’s question is also of interest. We exhibit several examples showing that the answer to the integral version is negative in general. Our examples also have consequences for the coniveau filtration on Chow groups and the transcendental Abel-Jacobi map constructed by Schreieder.

We connect two developments that aim to extend Voevodsky's theory of motives over a field in such a way as to encompass non-$\mathbf {A}^1$-invariant phenomena. One is theory of reciprocity sheaves introduced by Kahn, Saito and Yamazaki. The other is theory of the triangulated category $\operatorname {\mathbf {logDM}}^{{\operatorname {eff}}}$ of logarithmic motives launched by Binda, Park and Østvær. We prove that the Nisnevich cohomology of reciprocity sheaves is representable in $\operatorname {\mathbf {logDM}}^{{\operatorname {eff}}}$.

In this paper, we show the existence of an action of Chow correspondences on the cohomology of reciprocity sheaves. In order to do so, we prove a number of structural results, such as a projective bundle formula, a blow-up formula, a Gysin sequence and the existence of proper pushforward. In this way, we recover and generalise analogous statements for the cohomology of Hodge sheaves and Hodge-Witt sheaves.

We give several applications of the general theory to problems which have been classically studied. Among these applications, we construct new birational invariants of smooth projective varieties and obstructions to the existence of zero cycles of degree 1 from the cohomology of reciprocity sheaves.

O’Grady’s generalised Franchetta conjecture (GFC) is concerned with codimension 2 algebraic cycles on universal polarised K3 surfaces. In [4], this conjecture has been studied in the Betti cohomology groups. Following a suggestion of Voisin, we investigate this problem in the Deligne-Beilinson (DB) cohomology groups. In this paper, we develop the theory of Deligne-Beilinson cohomology groups on (smooth) Deligne-Mumford stacks. Using the automorphic cohomology group and Noether-Lefschetz theory, we compute the 4th DB-cohomology group of universal oriented polarised K3 surfaces with at worst an $A_1$-singularity and show that GFC for such family holds in DB-cohomology. In particular, this confirms O’Grady’s original conjecture in DB cohomology.

Let $X/{\mathbb C}$ be a smooth projective variety. We consider two integral invariants, one of which is the level of the Hodge cohomology algebra $H^*(X,{\mathbb C})$ and the other involving the complexity of the higher Chow groups ${\mathrm {CH}}^*(X,m;{\mathbb Q})$ for $m\geq 0$. We conjecture that these two invariants are the same and accordingly provide some strong evidence in support of this.

We prove that torsion codimension $2$ algebraic cycles modulo rational equivalence on supersingular abelian varieties are algebraically equivalent to zero. As a consequence, we prove that homological equivalence coincides with algebraic equivalence for algebraic cycles of codimension $2$ on supersingular abelian varieties over the algebraic closure of finite fields.

Let $\mathbb {V}$ be a motivic variation of Hodge structure on a $K$-variety $S$, let $\mathcal {H}$ be the associated $K$-algebraic Hodge bundle, and let $\sigma \in \mathrm {Aut}(\mathbb {C}/K)$ be an automorphism. The absolute Hodge conjecture predicts that given a Hodge vector $v \in \mathcal {H}_{\mathbb {C}, s}$ above $s \in S(\mathbb {C})$ which lies inside $\mathbb {V}_{s}$, the conjugate vector $v_{\sigma } \in \mathcal {H}_{\mathbb {C}, s_{\sigma }}$ is Hodge and lies inside $\mathbb {V}_{s_{\sigma }}$. We study this problem in the situation where we have an algebraic subvariety $Z \subset S_{\mathbb {C}}$ containing $s$ whose algebraic monodromy group $\textbf {H}_{Z}$ fixes $v$. Using relationships between $\textbf {H}_{Z}$ and $\textbf {H}_{Z_{\sigma }}$ coming from the theories of complex and $\ell$-adic local systems, we establish a criterion that implies the absolute Hodge conjecture for $v$ subject to a group-theoretic condition on $\textbf {H}_{Z}$. We then use our criterion to establish new cases of the absolute Hodge conjecture.

We prove an extension of the Kato–Saito unramified class field theory for smooth projective schemes over a finite field to a class of normal projective schemes. As an application, we obtain Bloch’s formula for the Chow groups of $0$-cycles on such schemes. We identify the Chow group of $0$-cycles on a normal projective scheme over an algebraically closed field to the Suslin homology of its regular locus. Our final result is a Roitman torsion theorem for smooth quasiprojective schemes over algebraically closed fields. This completes the missing p-part in the torsion theorem of Spieß and Szamuely.