A cohomological classification of vector bundles on smooth affine threefolds

Abstract

We give a cohomological classification of vector bundles of rank $2$ on a smooth affine threefold over an algebraically closed field having characteristic unequal to $2$. As a consequence we deduce that cancellation holds for rank $2$ vector bundles on such varieties. The proofs of these results involve three main ingredients. First, we give a description of the first non-stable ${\mathbb A}^1$-homotopy sheaf of the symplectic group. Second, these computations can be used in concert with F. Morel's ${\mathbb A}^1$-homotopy classification of vector bundles on smooth affine schemes and obstruction theoretic techniques (stemming from a version of the Postnikov tower in ${\mathbb A}^1$-homotopy theory) to reduce the classification results to cohomology vanishing statements. Third, we prove the required vanishing statements.