Serre–Tate theory for Calabi–Yau varieties

Classical Serre–Tate theory describes deformations of ordinary abelian varieties. It implies that every such variety has a canonical lift to characteristic zero and equips the base of its universal deformation with a Frobenius lifting and canonical multiplicative coordinates. A variant of this theory has been obtained for ordinary K3 surfaces by Nygaard and Ogus. In this paper, we construct canonical liftings modulo p 2 {p^{2}} of varieties with trivial canonical class which are ordinary in the weak sense that the Frobenius acts bijectively on the top cohomology of the structure sheaf. Consequently, we obtain a Frobenius lifting on the moduli space of such varieties. The quite explicit construction uses Frobenius splittings and a relative version of Witt vectors of length two. If the variety has unobstructed deformations and bijective first higher Hasse–Witt operation, the Frobenius lifting gives rise to canonical coordinates. One of the key features of our liftings is that the crystalline Frobenius preserves the Hodge filtration. We also extend Nygaard’s approach from K3 surfaces to higher dimensions, and show that no non-trivial families of such varieties exist over simply connected bases with no global one-forms.

Equivariant splitting of the Hodge–de Rham exact sequence

Let X be an algebraic curve with a faithful action of a finite group G over a field k. We show that if the Hodge–de Rham short exact sequence of X splits G-equivariantly then the action of G on X is weakly ramified. In particular, this generalizes the result of Köck and Tait for hyperelliptic curves. We discuss also converse statements and tie this problem to lifting coverings of curves to the ring of Witt vectors of length 2.

IS INFINITE DIMENSIONAL

Given a perfect valuation ring $R$ of characteristic $p$ that is complete with respect to a rank- $1$ nondiscrete valuation, we show that the ring $\mathbb{A}_{\inf }$ of Witt vectors of $R$ has infinite Krull dimension.

BLOCKS WITH NORMAL ABELIAN DEFECT AND ABELIAN p′ INERTIAL QUOTIENT

Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p$, and let ${\mathcal{O}}$ be either $k$ or its ring of Witt vectors $W(k)$. Let $G$ be a finite group and $B$ a block of ${\mathcal{O}} G$ with normal abelian defect group and abelian $p^{\prime}$ inertial quotient $L$. We show that $B$ is isomorphic to its second Frobenius twist. This is motivated by the fact that bounding Frobenius numbers is one of the key steps towards Donovan’s conjecture. For ${\mathcal{O}}=k$, we give an explicit description of the basic algebra of $B$ as a quiver with relations. It is a quantized version of the group algebra of the semidirect product $P\rtimes L$.

On higher direct images of convergent isocrystals

Let $k$ be a perfect field of characteristic $p>0$ and let $\operatorname{W}$ be the ring of Witt vectors of $k$. In this article, we give a new proof of the Frobenius descent for convergent isocrystals on a variety over $k$ relative to $\operatorname{W}$. This proof allows us to deduce an analogue of the de Rham complexes comparison theorem of Berthelot [$\mathscr{D}$-modules arithmétiques. II. Descente par Frobenius, Mém. Soc. Math. Fr. (N.S.) 81 (2000)] without assuming a lifting of the Frobenius morphism. As an application, we prove a version of Berthelot’s conjecture on the preservation of convergent isocrystals under the higher direct image by a smooth proper morphism of $k$-varieties.