Quaternionic Grassmannians and Borel classes in algebraic geometry

The quaternionic Grassmannian H Gr ⁡ ( r , n ) \operatorname {H Gr}(r,n) is the affine open subscheme of the usual Grassmannian parametrizing those 2 r 2r -dimensional subspaces of a 2 n 2n -dimensional symplectic vector space on which the symplectic form is nondegenerate. In particular, we have HP n = H Gr ⁡ ( 1 , n + 1 ) \operatorname {HP}^n = \operatorname {H Gr}(1,n+1) . For a symplectically oriented cohomology theory A A , including oriented theories but also the Hermitian K \operatorname {K} -theory, Witt groups, and algebraic symplectic cobordism, we have A ( HP n ) = A ( pt ) [ p ] / ( p n + 1 ) A(\operatorname {HP}^n) = A(\operatorname {pt})[p]/(p^{n+1}) . Borel classes for symplectic bundles are introduced in the paper. They satisfy the splitting principle and the Cartan sum formula, and they are used to calculate the cohomology of quaternionic Grassmannians. In a symplectically oriented theory the Thom classes of rank 2 2 symplectic bundles determine Thom and Borel classes for all symplectic bundles, and the symplectic Thom classes can be recovered from the Borel classes. The cell structure of the H Gr ⁡ ( r , n ) \operatorname {H Gr}(r,n) exists in cohomology, but it is difficult to see more than part of it geometrically. An exception is HP n \operatorname {HP}^n where the cell of codimension 2 i 2i is a quasi-affine quotient of A 4 n − 2 i + 1 \mathbb {A}^{4n-2i+1} by a nonlinear action of G a \mathbb {G}_a .

THE BOREL CHARACTER

The main purpose of this article is to define a quadratic analogue of the Chern character, the so-called Borel character, that identifies rational higher Grothendieck-Witt groups with a sum of rational Milnor-Witt (MW)-motivic cohomologies and rational motivic cohomologies. We also discuss the notion of ternary laws due to Walter, a quadratic analogue of formal group laws, and compute what we call the additive ternary laws, associated with MW-motivic cohomology. Finally, we provide an application of the Borel character by showing that the Milnor-Witt K-theory of a field F embeds into suitable higher Grothendieck-Witt groups of F modulo explicit torsion.

THE REAL GRADED BRAUER GROUP

We introduce a version of the Brauer–Wall group for Real vector bundles of algebras (in the sense of Atiyah) and compare it to the topological analogue of the Witt group. For varieties over the reals, these invariants capture the topological parts of the Brauer–Wall and Witt groups.