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Burt Totaro

Publications and source records attributed to Burt Totaro.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

Bott vanishing for algebraic surfaces

Bott proved a strong vanishing theorem for sheaf cohomology on projective space. It holds for toric varieties, but not for most other varieties. We prove Bott vanishing for the quintic del Pezzo surface, also known as the moduli space M_{0,5}^bar of 5-pointed stable curves of genus zero. This is the first non-toric Fano variety for which Bott vanishing has been shown, answering a question by Achinger, Witaszek, and Zdanowicz. In another direction, we prove sharp results on which K3 surfaces satisfy Bott vanishing. For example, a K3 surface with Picard number 1 satisfies Bott vanishing if and only if the degree is 20 or at least 24. For K3 surfaces of any Picard number, we have complete results when the degree is big enough. We build on Beauville, Mori, and Mukai's work on moduli spaces of K3 surfaces, as well as recent advances by Arbarello-Bruno-Sernesi, Ciliberto-Dedieu-Sernesi, and Feyzbakhsh. The most novel aspect of the paper is our analysis of what happens when there is an elliptic curve of low degree. (In other terminology, this concerns K3 surfaces that are unigonal, hyperelliptic, trigonal, or tetragonal.) It turns out that the crucial issue is whether an elliptic fibration has a certain special type of singular fiber.

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arXiv2017

The failure of Kodaira vanishing for Fano varieties, and terminal singularities that are not Cohen-Macaulay

We show that the Kodaira vanishing theorem can fail on smooth Fano varieties of any characteristic p > 0. Taking cones over some of these varieties, we give the first examples of terminal singularities which are not Cohen-Macaulay. By a different method, we construct a terminal singularity of dimension 3 (the lowest possible) in characteristic 2 which is not Cohen-Macaulay.

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arXiv2017

Hodge theory of classifying stacks

We compute the Hodge and de Rham cohomology of the classifying space BG (defined as etale cohomology on the algebraic stack BG) for reductive groups G over many fields, including fields of small characteristic. These calculations have a direct relation with representation theory, yielding new results there. The calculations are closely analogous to, but not always the same as, the cohomology of classifying spaces in topology.

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arXiv2017

Essential dimension of the spin groups in characteristic 2

We determine the essential dimension of the spin group Spin(n) as an algebraic group over a field of characteristic 2, for n at least 15. In this range, the essential dimension is the same as in characteristic not 2. In particular, it is exponential in n. This is surprising in that the essential dimension of the orthogonal groups is smaller in characteristic 2. We also find the essential dimension of Spin(n) in characteristic 2 for n at most 10.

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arXiv2015

Hypersurfaces that are not stably rational

We show that a wide class of hypersurfaces in all dimensions are not stably rational. Namely, for all d at least about 2n/3, a very general complex hypersurface of degree d in P^{n+1} is not stably rational. The statement generalizes Colliot-Thelene and Pirutka's theorem that very general quartic 3-folds are not stably rational. The result covers all the degrees in which Kollar proved that a very general hypersurface is non-rational, and a bit more. For example, very general quartic 4-folds are not stably rational, whereas it was not even known whether these varieties are rational.

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arXiv2015

The integral cohomology of the Hilbert scheme of two points

The Hilbert scheme X^{[a]} of points on a complex manifold X is a compactification of the configuration space of a-element subsets of X. The integral cohomology of X^{[a]} is more subtle than the rational cohomology. In this paper, we compute the mod 2 cohomology of X^{[2]} for any complex manifold X, and the integral cohomology of X^{[2]} when X has torsion-free cohomology. The results of this paper are used in Voisin's work on the universal CH_0 group of cubic hypersurfaces, because the crucial point there is to study the 2-torsion in the Chow group.

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arXiv2015

Adjoint functors on the derived category of motives

Voevodsky's derived category of motives is the main arena today for the study of algebraic cycles and motivic cohomology. In this paper we study whether the inclusions of three important subcategories of motives have a left or right adjoint. These adjoint functors are useful constructions when they exist, describing the best approximation to an arbitrary motive by a motive in a given subcategory. We find a fairly complete picture: some adjoint functors exist, including a few which were previously unexplored, while others do not exist because of the failure of finite generation for Chow groups in various situations. For some base fields, we determine exactly which adjoint functors exist.

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arXiv2015

Complex varieties with infinite Chow groups modulo 2

We show that for a very general principally polarized complex abelian 3-fold, the Chow group of algebraic cycles is infinite modulo every prime number. In particular, this gives the first examples of complex varieties with infinite Chow groups modulo 2.

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arXiv2014

The motive of a classifying space

We give the first examples of finite groups G such that the Chow ring of the classifying space BG depends on the base field, even for fields containing the algebraic closure of Q. As a tool, we give several characterizations of the varieties which satisfy Kunneth properties for Chow groups or motivic homology. We define the (compactly supported) motive of a quotient stack in Voevodsky's derived category of motives. This makes it possible to ask when the motive of BG is mixed Tate, which is equivalent to the motivic Kunneth property. We prove that BG is mixed Tate for various "well-behaved" finite groups G, such as the finite general linear groups in cross-characteristic and the symmetric groups.

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arXiv2014

Hodge structures of type (n,0,...,0,n)

This paper determines all the possible endomorphism algebras for polarizable Q-Hodge structures of type (n,0,...,0,n). This generalizes the classification of the possible endomorphism algebras of abelian varieties by Albert and Shimura. As with abelian varieties, the most interesting feature of the classification is that in certain cases, every Hodge structure on which a given algebra acts must have extra endomorphisms.

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arXiv2013

Symmetric differentials and the fundamental group

Esnault asked whether every smooth complex projective variety with infinite fundamental group has a nonzero symmetric differential (a section of a symmetric power of the cotangent bundle). In a sense, this would mean that every variety with infinite fundamental group has some nonpositive curvature. We show that the answer to Esnault's question is positive when the fundamental group has a finite-dimensional representation over some field with infinite image. This applies to all known varieties with infinite fundamental group. Along the way, we produce many symmetric differentials on the base of a variation of Hodge structures. One interest of these results is that symmetric differentials give information in the direction of Kobayashi hyperbolicity. For example, they limit how many rational curves the variety can contain.

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arXiv2013

Pseudo-abelian varieties

Chevalley's theorem states that every smooth connected algebraic group over a perfect field is an extension of an abelian variety by a smooth connected affine group. That fails when the base field is not perfect. We define a pseudo-abelian variety over an arbitrary field k to be a smooth connected k-group in which every smooth connected affine normal k-subgroup is trivial. This gives a new point of view on the classification of algebraic groups: every smooth connected group over a field is an extension of a pseudo-abelian variety by a smooth connected affine group, in a unique way. We work out much of the structure of pseudo-abelian varieties. These groups are closely related to unipotent groups in characteristic p and to pseudo-reductive groups as studied by Tits and Conrad-Gabber-Prasad. Many properties of abelian varieties such as the Mordell-Weil theorem extend to pseudo-abelian varieties. Finally, we conjecture a description of Ext^2(G_a,G_m) over any field by generators and relations, in the spirit of the Milnor conjecture.

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arXiv2010

Algebraic surfaces and hyperbolic geometry

This is a survey of the Kawamata-Morrison cone conjecture on the structure of Calabi-Yau varieties and more generally Calabi-Yau pairs. We discuss the proof of the cone conjecture for algebraic surfaces, with plenty of examples. We show that the automorphism group of a K3 surface need not be commensurable with an arithmetic group, which answers a question by Mazur.

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arXiv2010

Line bundles with partially vanishing cohomology

Define a line bundle L on a projective variety to be q-ample, for a natural number q, if tensoring with high powers of L kills coherent sheaf cohomology above dimension q. Thus 0-ampleness is the usual notion of ampleness. Intuitively, a line bundle is q-ample if it is positive "in all but at most q directions". We show that q-ampleness of a line bundle on a projective variety in characteristic zero is equivalent to the vanishing of an explicit finite list of cohomology groups. It follows that q-ampleness is a Zariski open condition, which is not clear from the definition. We also show that a variant of q-ampleness defined by Demailly-Peternell-Schneider is equivalent to the naive notion. As a consequence, q-ampleness defines an open cone (not convex) in the Neron-Severi space N^1(X).

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arXiv2010

Jumping of the nef cone for Fano varieties

We construct Q-factorial terminal Fano varieties, starting in dimension 4, whose nef cone jumps when the variety is deformed. It follows that de Fernex and Hacon's results on deformations of 3-dimensional Fanos are optimal. The examples are based on the existence of high-dimensional flips which deform to isomorphisms, generalizing the Mukai flop. We also extend de Fernex and Hacon's positive results on deformations of Fano varieties. Toric Fano varieties which are smooth in codimension 2 and Q-factorial in codimension 3 are rigid. The divisor class group is deformation-invariant for klt Fanos which are smooth in codimension 2 and Q-factorial in codimension 3. The Cox ring deforms in a flat family when a terminal Fano which is Q-factorial in codimension 3 is deformed. A side result which seems to be new is that the divisor class group of a klt Fano variety maps isomorphically to ordinary homology.

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arXiv2009

The cone conjecture for Calabi-Yau pairs in dimension two

We prove the Morrison-Kawamata cone conjecture for klt Calabi-Yau pairs in dimension 2. That is, for a large class of rational surfaces as well as K3 surfaces and abelian surfaces, the action of the automorphism group of the surface on the convex cone of ample divisors has a rational polyhedral fundamental domain. More concretely: there many be infinitely many curves with negative self-intersection on the surface, but all such curves fall into finitely many orbits under the automorphism group of the surface. The proof uses the geometry of groups acting on hyperbolic space. We deduce a characterization of the surfaces in this class with finitely generated Cox ring.

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arXiv2008

Hilbert's fourteenth problem over finite fields, and a conjecture on the cone of curves

We give examples over arbitrary fields of rings of invariants that are not finitely generated. The group involved can be as small as three copies of the additive group, as in Mukai's examples over the complex numbers. The failure of finite generation comes from certain elliptic fibrations or abelian surface fibrations having positive Mordell-Weil rank. Our work suggests a generalization of the Morrison-Kawamata cone conjecture from Calabi-Yau varieties to klt Calabi-Yau pairs. We prove the conjecture in dimension 2 in the case of minimal rational elliptic surfaces.

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