This is a small note meant to be published in a Conference Proceedings. We discuss elementary rationality questions in the Grothendieck ring of varieties for the quotient of a finite dimensional vector space over a characteristic 0 field by a finite group. Part of it reproduces the content of a letter dated September 27, 2008 addressed to Johannes Nicaise
Grothendieck and Harder proved that every principal bundle over the projective line with split reductive structure group (and trivial over the generic point) can be reduced to a maximal torus. Furthermore, this reduction is unique modulo automorphisms and the Weyl group. In a series of six variations on this theme, we prove corresponding results for principal bundles over the following schemes and stacks: (1) a line modulo the group of nth roots of unity; (2) a football, that is, an orbifold of genus zero with two marked points; (3) a gerbe over a football whose structure group is the nth roots of unity; (4) a chain of lines meeting in nodes; (5) a line modulo an action of a split torus; and (6) a chain modulo an action of a split torus. We also prove that the automorphism groups of such bundles are smooth, affine, and connected.
Let $Xsubset mathbb{P}^r$ be an integral and non-degenerate variety. Let $sigma _{a,b}(X)subseteq mathbb{P}^r$, $(a,b)in mathbb{N}^2$, be the join of $a$ copies of $X$ and $b$ copies of the tangential variety of $X$. Using the classical Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem (case $b=0$) and a recent paper by H. Abo and N. Vannieuwenhoven (case $a=0$) we compute $dim sigma _{a,b}(X)$ in many cases when $X$ is the $d$-Veronese embedding of $mathbb{P}^n$. This is related to certain additive decompositions of homogeneous polynomials. We give a general theorem proving that $dim sigma _{0,b}(X)$ is the expected one when $X=Ytimes mathbb{P}^1$ has a suitable Segre-Veronese style embedding in $mathbb{P}^r$. As a corollary we prove that if $d_ige 3$, $1le i le n$, and $(d_1+1)(d_2+1)ge 38$ the tangential variety of $(mathbb{P}^1)^n$ embedded by $|mathcal{O} _{(mathbb{P} ^1)^n}(d_1,dots ,d_n)|$ is not defective and a similar statement for $mathbb{P}^ntimes mathbb{P}^1$. For an arbitrary $X$ and an ample line bundle $L$ on $X$ we prove the existence of an integer $k_0$ such that for all $tge k_0$ the tangential variety of $X$ with respect to $|L^{otimes t}|$ is not defective.
The first author constructed a $q$-parameterized spherical category $sC$ over $mathbb{C}(q)$ in [Liu15], whose simple objects are labelled by all Young diagrams. In this paper, we compute closed-form expressions for the fusion rule of $sC$, using Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, as well as the characters (including a generating function), using symmetric functions with infinite variables.
In this paper we study various aspects of the Ekedahl-Serre problem. We formulate questions of Ekedahl-Serre type and Coleman-Oort type for general weakly special subvarieties in the Siegel moduli space, propose a conjecture relating these two questions, and provide examples supporting these questions. The main new result is an upper bound of genera for curves over number fields whose Jacobians are isogeneous to products of elliptic curves satisfying the Sato-Tate equidistribution, and we also refine previous results showing that certain weakly special subvarieties only meet the open Torelli locus in at most finitely many points.
We prove a trace formula in stable motivic homotopy theory over a general base scheme, equating the trace of an endomorphism of a smooth proper scheme with the Euler characteristic integral of a certain cohomotopy class over its scheme of fixed points. When the base is a field and the fixed points are etale, we compute this integral in terms of Morels identification of the ring of endomorphisms of the motivic sphere spectrum with the Grothendieck-Witt ring. In particular, we show that the Euler characteristic of an etale algebra corresponds to the class of its trace form in the Grothendieck-Witt ring.