Documenta Mathematica Journal der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung Gegr¨undet 1996 Extra Volume

Documenta Mathematica

Journal der

Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung Gegr¨ undet 1996

Extra Volume

2015

A Collection of Manuscripts Written in Honour of

Alexander S. Merkurjev

on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday

Editors:

P. Balmer, V. Chernousov, I. Fesenko, E. Friedlander,

S. Garibaldi, U. Rehmann, Z. Reichstein

traditioneller Weise referiert. Es wird indiziert durch Mathematical Reviews, Science Citation Index Expanded, Zentralblatt f¨ur Mathematik.

Artikel k¨onnen als TEX-Dateien per E-Mail bei einem der Herausgeber eingereicht werden. Hinweise f¨ur die Vorbereitung der Artikel k¨onnen unter der unten angegebe- nen WWW-Adresse gefunden werden.

Documenta Mathematica, Journal der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, publishes research manuscripts out of all mathematical fields and is refereed in the traditional manner. It is indexed in Mathematical Reviews, Science Citation Index Expanded, Zentralblatt f¨ur Mathematik.

Manuscripts should be submitted as TEX -files by e-mail to one of the editors. Hints for manuscript preparation can be found under the following web address.

http://www.math.uni-bielefeld.de/documenta Gesch¨aftsf¨uhrende Herausgeber / Managing Editors:

Ulf Rehmann (techn.), Bielefeld rehmann@math.uni-bielefeld.de Stefan Teufel, T¨ubingen stefan.teufel@uni-tuebingen.de Otmar Venjakob, Heidelberg venjakob@mathi.uni-heidelberg.de Herausgeber / Editors:

Christian B¨ar, Potsdam baer@math.uni-potsdam.de Don Blasius, Los Angeles blasius@math.ucla.edu Joachim Cuntz, M¨unster cuntz@math.uni-muenster.de Patrick Delorme, Marseille delorme@iml.univ-mrs.fr Gavril Farkas, Berlin (HU) farkas@math.hu-berlin.de Friedrich G¨otze, Bielefeld goetze@math.uni-bielefeld.de Ursula Hamenst¨adt, Bonn ursula@math.uni-bonn.de Max Karoubi, Paris karoubi@math.jussieu.fr

Stephen Lichtenbaum, Providence Stephen Lichtenbaum@brown.edu Alfred K. Louis, Saarbr¨ucken louis@num.uni-sb.de

Eckhard Meinrenken, Toronto mein@math.toronto.edu Alexander S. Merkurjev, Los Angeles merkurev@math.ucla.edu Anil Nerode, Ithaca anil@math.cornell.edu

Thomas Peternell, Bayreuth Thomas.Peternell@uni-bayreuth.de Takeshi Saito, Tokyo t-saito@ms.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Stefan Schwede, Bonn schwede@math.uni-bonn.de Heinz Siedentop, M¨unchen (LMU) h.s@lmu.de

ISSN 1431-0635 (Print), ISSN 1431-0643 (Internet)

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Typesetting in TEX.

Extra Volume: Alexander S. Merkurjev’s Sixtieth Birthday, 2015

Preface 1

Merkurjev’s Faves 5

Aravind Asok and Jean Fasel Secondary Characteristic Classes

and the Euler Class 7–29

Asher Auel, R. Parimala, and V. Suresh

Quadric Surface Bundles over Surfaces 31–70 E. Bayer-Fluckiger, V. Emery, and J. Houriet

Hermitian Lattices and Bounds inK-Theory

of Algebraic Integers 71–83

Mikhail Borovoi and Boris Kunyavski˘ı

Stably Cayley Semisimple Groups 85–112

Baptiste Calm`es, Kirill Zainoulline, Changlong Zhong

Equivariant Oriented Cohomology of Flag Varieties 113–144 Denis-Charles Cisinski, Fr´ed´eric D´eglise

Integral Mixed Motives in Equal Characteristic 145–194 Jean-Louis Colliot-Th´el`ene

Descente galoisienne sur le second groupe de Chow :

mise au point et applications 195–220

Haruzo Hida

Limit Mordell–Weil Groups and their p-Adic Closure 221–264 Detlev W. Hoffmann

Motivic Equivalence

and Similarity of Quadratic Forms 265–275 Bruno Kahn, R. Sujatha

Birational Geometry and Localisation of Categories With Appendices by Jean-Louis Colliot-Th´el`ene

and Ofer Gabber 277–334

D. Kaledin

K-Theory as an Eilenberg-Mac Lane Spectrum 335–365 Nikita A. Karpenko

Minimal Canonical Dimensions

of Quadratic Forms 367–385

Max-Albert Knus and Jean-Pierre Tignol

Triality and algebraic groups of type³D₄ 387–405 Marc Levine, Girja Shanker Tripathi

Quotients of M GL,

Their Slices and Their Geometric Parts 407–442

Embedding in a Fixed Central Simple Algebra 443–459 A. S. Merkurjev

Divisible Abelian Groups are Brauer Groups (Translation of an article originally published in Russian in

Uspekhi Mat. Nauk, vol. 40 (1985), no. 2(242), 213–214) 461–463 Matthew Morrow

Zero Cycles on Singular Varieties

and Their Desingularisations 465–486

Manuel Ojanguren

Wedderburn’s Theorem for Regular Local Rings 487–490 I. Panin, V. Petrov

Rationally Isotropic Exceptional Projective

Homogeneous Varieties Are Locally Isotropic 491–500 Alena Pirutka and Nobuaki Yagita

Note on the Counterexamples for the Integral Tate Conjecture

over Finite Fields 501–511

Vladimir L. Popov

Around the Abhyankar–Sathaye Conjecture 513–528 Anne Qu´eguiner-Mathieu and Jean-Pierre Tignol

The Arason Invariant

of Orthogonal Involutions of Degree 12 and 8,

and Quaternionic Subgroups of the Brauer Group 529–576 David J. Saltman

Finite uInvariant and Bounds

on Cohomology Symbol Lengths 577–590

Preface

Alexander Sergeevich Merkurjev – or just Sasha to his friends – was born in 1955 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Russia. His mathematical talents manifested themselves at an early age. In 1972 he was a part of the eight member Soviet team that won the first prize at the International Mathematics Olympiad for high school students. (Sasha also won a silver medal for his individual performance.)

In the early 1980s Sasha burst on the research scene, first with a proof of a conjecture of John Tate about the K-theory of local fields, then with a proof of a long-standing conjecture relatingK2 of a field to the 2-torsion in its Brauer group. Then, still in his 20s, Sasha (jointly with Andrei Suslin) strengthended the latter result to settle a key conjecture in the theory of central simple alge- bras. The theorem they proved, now known as the Merkurjev-Suslin theorem, is generally recognized as a high point of 20th century algebra. It can be found in many textbooks and has opened the door to many subsequent developments, including Vladimir Voevodsky’s Fields medal winning proof of the Milnor Con- jecture in the 1990s.

In the subsequent three decades Sasha has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading algebraists. He has made fundamental contributions in a number of areas, including algebraic K-theory, quadratic forms, Galois coho- mology, algebraic groups, arithmetic and algebraic geometry (including higher class field theory and intersection theory), and essential dimension. His research accomplishments, too numerous to detail here, have been recognized with a prize of the St. Petersburg Mathematical Society (1982), a sectional lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians (1986), the Humboldt Prize (1995), a plenary lecture at the European Congress of Mathematics (1996), the AMS Cole Prize in algebra (2012) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2013-14).

At 60, Sasha is full of creative energy. His lectures are crystal clear and effort- lessly delivered, his papers are efficiently written and uniformly of the highest quality. The three research monographs he has coauthored are standard ref- erences in the subject. Sasha has been an inspiring thesis advisor to many graduate students, both at St. Petersburg University and at UCLA, where he has been on the faculty since 1997. According to the Mathematics Geneal- ogy Project, eight students have written their Ph.D. dissertations under his supervision at St. Petersburg University and fourteen at UCLA. Throughout his career Sasha devoted a great deal of his time to organizing and running high school mathematical competitions. He served as a member of the organiz- ing committee for the St. Petersburg mathematical olympiad (in 1980-1999) as well as of the national Soviet – and then Russian – olympiad (8 times).

We are happy to dedicate this volume to Sasha on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Documenta Mathematicais a particularly appropriate forum for this volume in view of Sasha’s nearly 20 years of service as an editor, since the first issue of Documenta in 1996. In addition to peer-reviewed papers submitted by his friends and colleagues, this issue includes a new crossword by one of Sasha’s PhD students who has published puzzles in venues such as theNew York Times, and also the first English translation of a brief note by Merkurjev that has previously appeared only in Russian.

Happy birthday, Sasha!

P. Balmer, V. Chernousov, I. Fesenko, E. Friedlander, S. Garibaldi, U. Rehmann, Z. Reichstein

At Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach¹ in 1982

Lecturing at the Fields Institute thematic programTorsors, Nonassociative Algebras and Cohomological Invariants in 2013.²

1Author: George M. Bergman; Source: Archives of the Mathematisches Forschungsinsti- tut Oberwolfach

2Author: Nikolai Vavilov

Merkurjev’s Faves

Alex Boisvert

1 14 17

22 29 32 35

45 51 54 58 64 67

2

23

46 3

24

47 4

20

33

42

55 5

30

52 18

25

36

59 65 68

6 15

37

60 7

34

43

56 8

26

38

48 9

27

49 21

44

57

66 69

10 16 19

31

53 11

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39

50

61 12

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63

(Published via Across Lite)

ACROSS 1. "___ mia!"

6. Burden 10. Singer Stefani 14. Sparkle, as in an eye 15. Prefix meaning "all"

16. "This is terrible!"

17. Merkurjev's favorite beer?

19. Encourage 20. Pelvic region

21. Mock-innocent question 22. Elman, Karpenko, and

Merkurjev, e.g.

25. Immediately

28. Princess's bane, in a fairy tale

29. "The Annotated Flatland"

author Stewart

30. Merkurjev's favorite toolbox item?

32. Ringmaster, for example 34. Lennart Carleson, for one 35. Brought into being 38. One doing the jitterbug,

maybe 42. Goods for sale 44. Chutzpah

45. Merkurjev's favorite rural pastime?

50. Slippery swimmer 51. "___ to it!"

52. Where we meet the characters in a play 53. Berserk

54. Wedding locale, at times 56. "Man, it's sweltering today!"

58. Svelte

59. Merkurjev's favorite formal event?

64. Sao ___ and Principe 65. Iron, Bronze, and Space,

notably

66. Root systems may be simply, doubly, or triply 67. Actor McGregor 68. Left, on a ship

69. Marine mammal that floats on its back

DOWN

1. ___ Grand (Las Vegas casino)

2. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" speaker

3. Voice actor Blanc of

"Looney Tunes"

4. Tropical smoothie staple 5. Love, in Latin 6. Nabokov novel 7. Foreboding 8. Little worker 9. Cube referenced in

probability classes 10. Vincent van ___

11. Actress Goldberg of "Ghost"

12. Tooth covering 13. "I reject your o!er!"

18. Lion's yell

21. Glass-stomping occasion 22. Knots, as shoes

23. Wheelchair-friendly feature 24. Ancient Peruvian 26. Goings-on 27. Workers on a ship 30. "Hit Me With Your Best

Shot" singer Pat 31. Descartes's first name 33. "Groooooooss!"

36. "Etale Homotopy of Simplicial Schemes" author Friedlander

37. Section: Abbr.

39. Increased in size 40. At any time 41. Depend (on)

43. "Snape kills Dumbledore", e.g.

45. Pure

46. Empty on the inside 47. They may be global or local 48. Deepest

49. Soft drink brand with a

"Blue Ice Cream" flavor 53. Plate appearance 55. Prayer ender 57. Site of an annual prize

announcement

59. Something a proof should not have

60. In the past 61. Make a move 62. Jeans brand

63. One in charge, for short

Secondary Characteristic Classes and the Euler Class

Aravind Asok and Jean Fasel¹

Received: September 18, 2014 Revised: March 10, 2014

Abstract. We discuss secondary (and higher) characteristic classes for algebraic vector bundles with trivial top Chern class. We then show that ifX is a smooth affine scheme of dimensiondover a fieldk of finite2- cohomological dimension (with char(k) 6= 2) and E is a rank d vector bundle overX, vanishing of the Chow-Witt theoretic Euler class ofE is equivalent to vanishing of its top Chern class and these higher classes. We then derive some consequences of our main theorem when k is of small 2-cohomological dimension.

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 14F42, 14C15, 13C10, 55S20

Contents

1 Introduction 7

2 A modification of the Pardon spectral sequence 11 3 Some properties of the differentials 16 4 Differentials, cohomology operations and the Euler class 24 1 Introduction

Suppose k is a field having characteristic unequal to 2, X = Spec(A) is a d- dimensional smooth affinek-scheme andEis a vector bundle of rankroverX. There is a well-defined primary obstruction toEsplitting off a free rank1summand given by “the” Euler classe(E)ofE (see [Mor12, Theorem 8.2], [Fas08, Chapitre 13] and

1Aravind Asok was partially supported by National Science Foundation Awards DMS-0966589 and DMS-1254892. Jean Fasel was partially supported by the DFG Grant SFB Transregio 45.

[AF13], which shows two possible definitions coincide for oriented vector bundles).

Whenr = d, Morel shows that this primary obstruction is the only obstruction to splitting off a trivial rank1summand, and we will focus on this case in this article.

Because the Euler class is defined using Chow-Witt theory, which is not part of an oriented cohomology theory (say in the sense of [LM07]), it is difficult to compute in general. The vanishing of the Euler class implies the vanishing of the top Chern classcd(E)inCH^d(X)[AF14c, Proposition 6.3.1], though the converse is not true in general. It is therefore natural to try to approximatee(E)using structures defined only in terms of oriented cohomology theories. More precisely, we now explain the strategy involved in studying such “approximations” as developed in Section2.2.

IfXis as above, let us fix a line bundleLonX. One can define theL-twisted unram- ified Milnor-Witt K-theory sheafK^MW_d (L), which is a sheaf on the small Nisnevich site ofX. TheL-twisted Chow-Witt groupCHg^d(X,L)can be defined as the Nis- nevich cohomology groupH^d(X,K^MW_d (L)). WithE as above, the Euler classe(E) lives in this group withL= detE^∨.

If K^M_d is the d-th unramified Milnor K-theory sheaf, then by Rost’s formula H^d(X,K^M_d) ∼= CH^d(X). There is a natural morphism of sheaves on X of the form K^MW_d (L) → K^M_d , which furnishes a comparison morphismCHg^d(X,L) → CH^d(X)whose study is the main goal of this paper.

By a result of F. Morel, the kernel of the morphism of sheavesK^MW_d (L)→ K^M_d is the(d+ 1)st power of the fundamental ideal in the Witt sheaf (twisted byL), denoted I^d+1(L). The sheafI^d+1(L)is filtered by subsheaves of the formI^r(L)forr≥d+ 1:

. . .⊂I^n+d(L)⊂I^n+d−1(L)⊂. . .⊂I^d+1(L)⊂K^MW_d (L).

This filtration induces associated long exact sequences in cohomology and gives rise to a spectral sequenceE(L,MW)^p,q computing the cohomology groups with coeffi- cients inK^MW_d (L).

When p = d = dim(X), we obtain a filtration of the group H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) by subgroups FⁿH^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) for n ∈ N such that F⁰H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) = H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) and where the successive subquo- tients FⁿH^d(X,K^MW_d (L))/Fⁿ⁺¹H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) are computed by the groups E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ arising in the spectral sequence. If furthermorek has finite 2- cohomological dimension, then only finitely many of the groupsE(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ are nontrivial and we obtain the following theorem.

Theorem1 (See Theorem2.2.6). Supposekis a field having finite2-cohomological dimension (and having characteristic unequal to2). SupposeXis a smoothk-scheme of dimensiondand supposeLis line bundle onX. For anyα∈H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)), there are inductively defined obstructionsΨⁿ(α)∈E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ forn≥0such thatα= 0if and only ifΨⁿ(α) = 0for anyn≥0.

The groupsE(L,MW)^p,q₂ are cohomology groups with coefficients either inK^M_d or inK^M_j /2 forj ≥ d+ 1, and thus they are theoretically easier to compute than the cohomology groups with coefficients inK^MW_d ; this is the sense in which we have

“approximated” our original non-oriented computation by “oriented” computations.

The upshot is that ifkhas finite2-cohomological dimension, we can use a vanishing result from [AF14b] (which appeals to Voevodsky’s resolution of the Milnor conjec- ture on the mod2norm-residue homomorphism) to establish the following result.

Corollary 2. Letkbe a field having2-cohomological dimensions(and having characteristic unequal to2). IfX is a smooth affinek-scheme of dimensiondand ξ:E →Xis a rankd-vector bundle onX withcd(E) = 0, thenEsplits off a trivial rank1summand if and only ifΨⁿ(E) = 0forn≤s−1.

The problem that arises then is to identify the differentials in the spectral sequence, which provide the requisite “higher obstructions”, in concrete terms. To this end, we first observe that there is a commutative diagram of filtrations by subsheaves

. . . //I^d+n(L) //I^d+n−1(L) //. . . //I^d+1(L) //K^MW_d (L)

. . . //I^d+n(L) //I^d+n−1(L) //. . . //I^d+1(L) //I^d(L).

The filtration on the bottom gives rise to (a truncated version of) the spectral sequence Pardon studied [Par, 0.13]; this spectral sequence was further analyzed in [Tot03].

Totaro showed that the differentials on the main diagonal in theE2-page of the Pardon spectral sequence are given by Voevodsky’s Steenrod squaring operationSq². Using the diagram above, we see that the differentials in the spectral sequence we define are essentially determined by the differentials in the Pardon spectral sequence, and we focus on the latter. We extend Totaro’s results and obtain a description of the differentials just above the main diagonal as well and, more generally, the differentials in ourL-twisted spectral sequence (see Theorem4.1.4).

We identify, using the Milnor conjecture on the mod2norm-residue homomorphism, the (mod2) Milnor K-cohomology groups appearing in the pages of the spectral se- quence above in terms of motivic cohomology groups. Via this identification, the differentials appearing just above the main diagonal in our spectral sequence can be viewed as operations on motivic cohomology groups. Bi-stable operations of mod 2 motivic cohomology groups have been identified by Voevodsky [Voe10] (ifk has characteristic0) or Hoyois-Kelly-Østvaer [HKØ13] (ifk has characteristic unequal to2). It follows from these identifications that the differentials in question are either the trivial operation or the (twisted) Steenrod square. In Section 3.3, we compute an explicit example to rule out the case that the operation is trivial. Finally, we put everything together in the last section to obtain, in particular, the following result.

Theorem3. Letkbe a field having2-cohomological dimensions(and having char- acteristic unequal to2). SupposeX is a smooth affinek-scheme of dimensiondand ξ:E →X is a rankd-vector bundle onX withcd(E) = 0. The secondary obstruc- tionΨ¹(α)toE splitting off a trivial rank1summand is the class in the cokernel of the composite map

H^d−1(X,K^M_d )−→H^d−1(X,K^M_d/2)^Sq

2+c1(L)∪

−→ H^d(X,K^M_d+1/2),

(the first map is induced by reduction mod2) defined as follows: choose a lift of the classe(ξ)∈H^d(X,I^d+1(detE))and look at its image inH^d(X,K^M_d+1/2)under the mapI^d+1(detE))→K^M_d+1/2. Furthermore: (i) ifkhas cohomological dimension1, then the secondary (and all higher) obstructions are automatically trivial and (ii) ifk has cohomological dimension2, then the triviality of the secondary obstruction is the only obstruction toEsplitting off a trivial rank1summand.

For the sake of perspective, recall that Bhatwadekar and Sridharan asked whether the only obstruction to splitting a trivial rank1summand off a rank(2n+1)vector bundle E on a smooth affine(2n+ 1)-foldX = SpecAis vanishing of a variant of the top Chern class living in a groupE0(A)[BS00, Question 7.12]. The groupE0(A)housing their obstruction class is isomorphic to the Chow group of0-cycles onSpecAin some cases; see, e.g., [BS99, Remark 3.13 and Theorem 5.5]. It is an open problem whether the groupE0(A)is isomorphic to the Chow group of zero cycles in general. A natural byproduct of their question is whether (or, perhaps, when) vanishing of the top Chern class is sufficient to guarantee that E splits off a free rank1 summand. In view of Theorem4.2.1, the sufficiency of the vanishing of the top Chern class is equivalent to all the higher obstructions vanishing, which from our point of view seems rather unlikely. Nevertheless, Bhatwadekar, Das and Mandal have shown that whenk=R, there are situations when vanishing of the top Chern class is sufficient to guarantee splitting [BDM06, Theorem 4.30].

Remark 4. Throughout this paper, we will assume thatkhas characteristic unequal to2, but a result can be established ifkhas characteristic2as well. Indeed, one can first establish a much stronger version of Corollary2. More precisely, supposekis a perfect field having characteristic2. IfXis a smoothk-scheme of dimensiond, and ξ :E → X is a rankdvector bundle onX, thene(ξ) = 0if and only ifcd(ξ) = 0.

Establishing this result requires somewhat different arguments, and we will write a complete proof elsewhere.

Preliminaries

When mentioning motivic cohomology, we will assumekis perfect. Thus, for sim- plicity, the reader can assume that k is perfect and has characteristic unequal to 2 throughout the paper. The proof of Theorem4.1.4in positive characteristic depends on the main result of the preprint [HKØ13], which, at the time of writing, depends on several other pieces of work that are still only available in preprint form. We refer the reader to [Fas08] for results regarding Chow-Witt theory, [MVW06] for general properties of motivic cohomology, and [MV99] for results aboutA¹-homotopy theory.

We will consider cohomology of strictlyA¹-invariant sheaves on a smooth schemeX (see Section2.1for some recollections about the sheaves considered in this paper). In the introduction, we considered these sheaves on the small Nisnevich site ofX, but below we will consider only sheaves in the Zariski topology. By, e.g., [Mor12, Corol- lary 5.43] the cohomology of a strictly A¹-invariant sheaf computed in the Zariski topology coincides with cohomology computed in the Nisnevich topology.

Acknowledgements

We thank Burt Totaro for a discussion related to the proof of Theorem 4.1.4. We would also like to thank the referees for their thorough reading of the first version of this paper and a number of useful remarks.

2 A modification of the Pardon spectral sequence

In this section, we recall the definition of twisted Milnor-Witt K-theory sheaves and various relatives. We then describe a standard filtration on twisted Milnor-Witt K- theory sheaves and analyze the associated spectral sequence.

2.1 Unramified powers of the fundamental ideal and related sheaves

Let k be a field of characteristic different from 2 and let Smk be the category of schemes that are separated, smooth and have finite type overSpec(k). LetWbe the (Zariski) sheaf onSmkassociated with the presheafX7→W(X), whereW(X)is the Witt group ofX([Kne77], [Knu91]). IfXis a smooth connectedk-scheme, then the restriction ofWto the small Zariski site ofX admits an explicit flasque resolution, the so called Gersten-Witt complexC(X,W)([BW02], [BGPW02]):

W(k(X)) // M

x∈X⁽¹⁾

Wf l(k(x))^d1// M

x∈X⁽²⁾

Wf l(k(x))^d2// M

x∈X⁽³⁾

Wf l(k(x)) //. . . .

Here, Wf l(k(x)) denotes the Witt group of finite length O^X,x-modules ([Par82],[BO87]), which is a freeW(k(x))-module of rank one.

For any n ∈ Z, let Iⁿ(k(x)) ⊂ W(k(x))be the n-th power of the fundamental ideal (with the convention thatIⁿ(k(x)) =W(k(x))ifn≤0) and letI_{f l}ⁿ(k(x)) :=

Iⁿ(k(x))·Wf l(k(x)). The differentialsdi of the Gersten-Witt complex respect the subgroupsI_{f l}ⁿ(k(x))in the sense thatdi(I_{f l}ⁿ(k(x))) ⊂ I_{f l}ⁿ⁻¹(k(y))for anyi ∈ N, x ∈ X⁽ⁱ⁾, y ∈ X⁽ⁱ⁺¹⁾ andn ∈ Z([Gil07],[Fas08, Lemme 9.2.3]). This yields a Gersten-Witt complexC(X,I^j):

I^j(k(X)) // M

x∈X⁽¹⁾

I_{f l}^j−1(k(x))^d1// M

x∈X⁽²⁾

I_{f l}^j−2(k(x)) // M

x∈X⁽³⁾

I_{f l}^j−2(k(x)) //. . .

for any j ∈ Z which provides a flasque resolution of the sheaf I^j, i.e., the sheaf associated with the presheafX 7→ H⁰(C(X,I^j)). There is an induced filtration of the sheafWby subsheaves of the form:

. . .⊂I^j ⊂I^j−1⊂. . .⊂I⊂W;

the successive quotients are usually given special notation: I^j := I^j/I^j+1 for any j∈N.

The exact sequence of sheaves

0−→I^j+1−→I^j−→I^j −→0

yields an associated flasque resolution ofI^jby complexesC(X,I^j)[Fas07, proof of Theorem 3.24] of the form:

I^j(k(X)) // M

x∈X⁽¹⁾

I^j−1(k(x))^d1// M

x∈X⁽²⁾

I^j−2(k(x)) // M

x∈X⁽³⁾

I^j−2(k(x)) //. . . . The subscript f l appearing in the notation above has been dropped in view of the canonical isomorphism

I^j(k(x)) :=I^j(k(x))/I^j+1(k(x))−→I_{f l}^j(k(x))/I_{f l}^j+1(k(x)) =:I^j_{f l}(k(x)) induced by any choice of a generator of Wf l(k(x)) as W(k(x))-module ([Fas08, Lemme E.1.3, Proposition E.2.1]).

Suppose now thatX is a smoothk-scheme andLis a line bundle onX. One may define the sheafW(L)on the category of smooth schemes overX as the sheaf asso- ciated with the presheaf{f : Y → X} → W(Y, f^∗L), where the latter is the Witt group of the exact category of coherent locally freeO^X-modules equipped with the dualityHom_OX(,L). The constructions above extend to this “twisted” context and we obtain sheavesI^j(L)for anyj ∈ Zand flasque resolutions of these sheaves by complexes that will be denotedC(X,I^j(L)).

There are canonical isomorphismsI^j=I^j(L)/I^j+1(L)and we thus obtain a filtration . . .⊂I^j(L)⊂I^j−1(L)⊂. . .⊂I(L)⊂W(L)and long exact sequences

0−→I^j+1(L)−→I^j(L)−→I^j −→0. (2.1.1) LetF^kbe the class of finitely generated field extensions ofk. As usual, writeK_n^M(F) for then-th MilnorK-theory group as defined in [Mil70] (with the convention that K_n^M(F) = 0ifn < 0). The assignmentF 7→ K_n^M(F)defines a cycle module in the sense of [Ros96, Definition 2.1]. We denote byK^M_n the associated Zariski sheaf ([Ros96, Corollary 6.5]), which has an explicit Gersten resolution by flasque sheaves ([Ros96, Theorem 6.1]). The same ideas apply for MilnorK-theory modulo some integer and, in particular, we obtain a sheafK^M_n/2.

For any F ∈ F^k and any n ∈ N, there is a surjective homomorphism sn : K_n^M(F)/2→Iⁿ(F)which, by the affirmation of the Milnor conjecture on quadratic forms [OVV07], is an isomorphism. The homomorphismssnrespect residue homo- morphisms with respect to discrete valuations (e.g. [Fas08, Proposition 10.2.5]) and thus induce isomorphisms of sheavesK^M_n/2→Iⁿfor anyn∈N.

For anyn∈Z, then-th Milnor-WittK-theory sheafK^MW_n can (and will) be defined as the fiber product

K^MW_n //

Iⁿ

K^M_n //Iⁿ

where the bottom horizontal morphism is the compositeK^M_n → K^M_n/2 →^sn Iⁿ and the right-hand vertical morphism is the quotient morphism. It follows from [Mor04, Th´eor`eme 5.3] that this definition coincides with the one given in [Mor12,§3.2].

IfLis a line bundle on some smooth schemeX, then we define theL-twisted sheaf K^MW_n (L)on the small Zariski site ofX analogously usingL-twisted powers of the fundamental ideal. Again, the resulting sheaf has an explicit flasque resolution ob- tained by taking the fiber products of the flasque resolutions mentioned above ([Fas07, Theorem 3.26]), or by using the Rost-Schmid complex of [Mor12,§5]. The above fiber product square yields a commutative diagram of short exact sequences of the following form:

0 //Iⁿ⁺¹(L) //K^MW_n (L) //

K^M_n //

0

0 //Iⁿ⁺¹(L) //Iⁿ(L) //Iⁿ //0.

(2.1.2)

2.2 The Pardon spectral sequence

Continuing to assumekis a field having characteristic unequal to2, letXbe a smooth k-scheme and supposeLis a line bundle overX. The filtration

. . .⊂I^j(L)⊂I^j−1(L)⊂. . .⊂I(L)⊂W(L)

yields a spectral sequence that we will refer to as the Pardon spectral sequence. We record the main properties of this spectral sequence here, following the formulation of [Tot03, Theorem 1.1].

Theorem 2.2.1. Assumek is a field having characteristic unequal to 2, X is a smooth k-scheme, and L is a line bundle onX. There exists a spectral sequence E(L)^p,q₂ = H^p(X,I^q) ⇒ H^p(X,W(L)). The differentialsd(L)r are of bidegree (1, r−1)forr≥2, and the groupsH^p(X,I^q)are trivial unless0 ≤p≤q. There are identificationsH^p(X,I^p) =CH^p(X)/2and the differentiald^pp₂ :H^p(X,I^p)→ H^p+1(X,I^p+1)coincides with the Steenrod square operationSq²as defined by Vo- evodsky ([Voe03b]) and Brosnan ([Bro03]) whenLis trivial. Finally, ifkhas finite 2-cohomological dimension, the spectral sequence is bounded.

Proof. All the statements are proved in [Tot03, proof of Theorem 1.1] except the last one, which follows from the cohomology vanishing statement contained in [AF14b, Proposition 5.1].

Remark 2.2.2. We will describe the differential d(L)^pp₂ : H^p(X,I^p) → H^p+1(X,I^p+1)forLnontrivial in Theorem3.4.1.

Since W(L) = I⁰(L) by convention, truncating the above filtration allows us to construct a spectral sequence abutting to the cohomology ofI^j(L)for arbitraryj≥0:

. . .⊂I^n+j(L)⊂I^n+j−1(L)⊂. . .⊂I^j+1(L)⊂I^j(L).

The resulting spectral sequenceE(L, j)^p,q is very similar to the Pardon spectral se- quence. Indeed, E(L, j)^p,q₂ = 0 if q < j and E(L, j)^p,q₂ = E(L)^p,q₂ otherwise.

Similarly d(L, j)^p,q₂ = 0 if q < j and d(L, j)^p,q₂ = d(L)^p,q₂ otherwise. We call this spectral sequence thej-truncated Pardon spectral sequence and it will be one of the main objects of study in this paper. Using the description of theE2-page of this spectral sequence and the associated differentials, the proof of the following lemma is straightforward (and left to the reader).

Lemma 2.2.3. Assumekis a field having characteristic unequal to2and suppose X is a smoothk-scheme of dimensiond. There are identifications E(L, d)^d,d_∞ = CH^d(X)/2 and, for anyn ≥ 1,E(L, d)^d,d+n_m = E(L)^d,d+n_m if m ≤ n+ 1and exact sequences

E(L)^d−1,d_n+1 ^d(L)

d−1,d

n+1 //E(L)^d,d+n_n+1 //E(L, d)^d,d+n_∞ //0.

Using the monomorphismI^j+1(L)⊂K^MW_j (L)described in the previous section, we can consider the filtration ofI^j+1(L)as a filtration ofK^MW_j (L)of the form:

. . .⊂I^n+j(L)⊂I^n+j−1(L)⊂. . .⊂I^j+1(L)⊂K^MW_j (L).

Once again, the spectral sequenceE(L,MW)^p,qassociated with this filtration is very similar to thej-truncated Pardon spectral sequence. Indeed, there are identifications E(L,MW)^p,q₂ = E(L, j)^p,q₂ ifq 6= j andE(L,MW)^p,j₂ = H^p(X,K^M_j ). In order to describe the termsE(L,MW)^j,q_∞ in the situation of interest, we first need a few definitions.

Consider the commutative diagram of sheaves with exact rows from Diagram2.1.2 0 //I^j+1(L) //K^MW_j (L) //

K^M_j //

0

0 //I^j+1(L) //I^j(L) //I^j //0.

The right vertical homomorphismK^M_j → I^j is described in the previous subsection and yields, in particular, a homomorphismH^j−1(X,K^M_j ) → H^j−1(X,I^j)whose image we denote byG2(j). Now,H^j−1(X,I^j) = E(L, j)^j₂^−1,j =E(L)^j₂^−1,j and there is a differential

d(L)^j₂^−1,j:E(L)^j₂^−1,j−→E(L)^j,j+1₂ .

We setG3(j) :=G2(j)∩ker(d(L)^j₂^−1,j)and writeG3(j)for its image inE(L)^j₃^−1,j. There is also a differential

d(L)^j₃^−1,j:E(L)^j₃^−1,j−→E(L)^j,j+2₃

and we setG4(j) := G3(j)∩ker(d(L)^j₃^−1,j)and defineG4(j)to be its image in E(L)^j−1,j₄ . Continuing inductively, we can define a sequence of subgroupsGn(j)⊂ E(L)^j_n^−1,jfor anyn≥2.

Lemma 2.2.4. Ifkis a field having characteristic unequal to2, andX is a smooth k-scheme of dimensiond, then there are isomorphismsE(L,MW)^d,d_∞ = CH^d(X), andE(L,MW)^d₂^−1,d =H^d−1(X,K^M_d ). Furthermore, for any integern ≥1, there are identificationsE(L,MW)^d,d+n_m =E(L)^d,d+n_m ifm≤n+ 1and exact sequences of the form

Gn+1(d) ^d(L)

d−1,d

n+1 //E(L)^d,d+n_n+1 //E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ //0.

Proof. The morphism of sheaves K^MW_d (L) → I^d(L)is compatible with the filtra- tions:

. . . //I^d+n(L) //I^d+n−1(L) //. . . //I^d+1(L) //K^MW_d (L)

. . . //I^d+n(L) //I^d+n−1(L) //. . . //I^d+1(L) //I^d(L) In particular, the induced maps of quotient sheaves are simply the identity map, except at the last spot where they fit into the commutative diagram

0 //I^d+1(L) //K^MW_d (L) //

K^M_d //

0

0 //I^d+1(L) //I^d(L) //I^d //0

The result now follows from the definition of the groupsGi(d)and Lemma2.2.3.

Remark 2.2.5. By construction, there are epimorphisms E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ → E(L, d)^d,d+n_∞ for any n ≥ 0. Indeed, Gn+1(d) is, by definition, a subgroup of E(L)^d−1,d_n+1 and the diagram

Gn+1(d) //

E(L)^d,d+n_n+1 //E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ //

0

E(L)^d−1,d_n+1 //E(L)^d,d+n_n+1 //E(L, d)^d,d+n_∞ //0 commutes.

Suppose thatX is a smoothk-scheme of dimensiondsuch that the Chow group of 0-cyclesCH^d(X)is2-torsion free. In that case, we claim that the dotted arrow in the above diagram is an isomorphism. To see this, observe that the exact sequence of sheaves

0−→2K^M_d −→K^M_d −→K^M_d/2−→0 yields an exact sequence

H^d−1(X,K^M_d ) //H^d−1(X,K^M_d/2) //H^d(X,2K^M_d) //

//H^d(X,K^M_d) //H^d(X,K^M_d /2) //0.

The epimorphism K^M_d →² 2K^M_d yields an isomorphism H^d(X,K^M_d) → H^d(X,2K^M_d) and we deduce the following exact sequence from Rost’s formula and the definition ofG2(d):

0→G2(d)→H^d−1(X,K^M_d /2)→CH^d(X)−→² CH^d(X)−→CH^d(X)/2→0.

SinceCH^d(X)is2-torsion free, it follows thatG2(d) = H^d−1(X,K^M_d /2)and by inspection we obtain an identificationGn+1(d) =E(L)^d_n+1^−1,d. We therefore conclude that the dotted arrow in the above diagram is an isomorphism.

Theorem 2.2.6. Supposekis a field having characteristic unequal to2and finite 2-cohomological dimension,X is a smoothk-scheme of dimensiondandLis a line bundle overX. For anyα∈H^d(X,K^MW_d (L))there are inductively defined obstruc- tionsΨⁿ(α)∈E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ forn≥0such thatα= 0if and only ifΨⁿ(α) = 0 for anyn≥0.

Proof. The filtration

. . .⊂I^n+d(L)⊂I^n+d−1(L)⊂. . .⊂I^d+1(L)⊂K^MW_d (L)

to which the spectral sequence E(L,MW)^p,q is associated yields a filtration FⁿH^d(X,K^MW_d (L))forn ≥ 0 of the cohomology groupH^d(X,K^MW_d (L))with F⁰H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) =H^d(X,K^MW_d (L))and

FⁿH^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) = Im(H^d(X,I^d+n(L))−→H^d(X,K^MW_d (L))) for n ≥ 1. Further, FⁿH^d(X,K^MW_d (L))/Fⁿ⁺¹H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) :=

E(L,MW)^d,d+n_∞ and the cohomological vanishing statement of [AF14b, Propo- sition 5.1] implies that only finitely many of the groups appearing above can be non-trivial. If we define the obstructionsΨⁿ(α)to be the image ofαin the successive quotients, the result is clear.

The above result gives an inductively defined sequence of obstructions to decide whether an element of H^d(X,K^MW_d (L)) is trivial. Our next goal is to provide a

“concrete” description of the differentials appearing in the spectral sequence. Lem- mas2.2.3and2.2.4imply that these differentials are essentially the differentials in the Pardon spectral sequence, and it is for that reason that we focus on the latter in the remaining sections.

3 Some properties of the differentials

In this section, we establish some properties of the differentials in the Pardon spectral sequence and thus the spectral sequence constructed in the previous section abutting to cohomology of twisted Milnor-Witt K-theory sheaves. We first recall how these differentials are defined and then show that, essentially, they can be viewed as bi- stable operations in motivic cohomology.

3.1 The operation Φi,j

SupposeX is a smoothk-scheme andLis a line bundle onX. Recall that for any j ∈ N, the sheafI^j(L)comes equipped with a reduction mapI^j(L) →¯I^j and that there is a canonical isomorphismK^M_j /2 → ¯I^j; we use this identification without mention in the sequel. The exact sequence

0−→I^j+1(L)−→I^j(L)−→¯I^j −→0 yields a connecting homomorphism

Hⁱ(X,¯I^j)−→^∂L Hⁱ⁺¹(X,I^j+1(L)).

The reduction map gives a homomorphism

Hⁱ⁺¹(X,I^j+1(L))−→Hⁱ⁺¹(X,¯I^j+1).

Taking the composite of these two maps yields a homomorphism that is precisely the differentiald(L)^i,j₂ . We state the following definition in order to avoid heavy notation.

Definition 3.1.1. IfXis a smooth scheme, andLis a line bundle onX, write Φ_i,j,L:Hⁱ(X,¯I^j)−→Hⁱ⁺¹(X,¯I^j+1).

for the composite of the connecting homomorphism∂L and the reduction map just described. IfLis trivial, suppress it from the notation and writeΦi,jfor the resulting homomorphism. Anticipating Theorem 4.1.4, we sometimes refer to Φi,j,L as an operation.

When i = j, via the identification¯I^j ∼= K^M_j /2, the map Φi,i can be viewed as a morphismChⁱ(X) → Chⁱ⁺¹(X), where Chⁱ(X) = CHⁱ(X)/2. As stated in Theorem 2.2.1, Totaro identified this homomorphism asSq². More generally, we observe that the homomorphismsΦ_i,j,L are functorial with respect to pull-backs by definition.

3.2 Bi-stability of the operations Φi,j

We now study bi-stability, i.e., stability with respect toP¹-suspension, of the opera- tionsΦi,j. IfXis a smooth scheme, we then need to compare an operation onXand a corresponding operation on the spaceX+∧P¹. The reader unfamiliar to this nota- tion can take the following ad hoc definition. IfFis a sheaf, thenHⁱ(X+∧P¹,F)is defined to be the cokernel of the pull-back homomorphism

Hⁱ(X,F)−→Hⁱ(X×P¹,F).

In caseF = ¯I^j, we use the projective bundle formula in¯I^j-cohomology (see, e.g., [Fas13,§4]) to identify this group in terms of cohomology onX. Indeed, we have an identification

Hⁱ(X×P¹,¯I^j)∼=Hⁱ(X,¯I^j)⊕Hⁱ⁻¹(X,¯I^j−1)·c¯1(O(−1)),

wherec¯1(O(−1))is the first Chern class ofO(−1)inH¹(X,K^M₁ /2) =CH¹(X)/2.

Unwinding the definitions, this corresponds to an isomorphism of the form Hⁱ(X+∧P¹,¯I^j)∼=Hⁱ⁻¹(X,¯I^j−1)

that is functorial inX. Using this isomorphism, we can compare the operationΦi,j

onHⁱ(X+∧P¹,¯I^j)with the operationΦi−1,j−1onHⁱ⁻¹(X,¯I^j−1).

Proposition3.2.1. There is a commutative diagram of the form Hⁱ(X+∧P¹,¯I^j) ^Φi,j //

Hⁱ⁺¹(X+∧P¹,¯I^j+1)

Hⁱ⁻¹(X,¯I^j−1)

Φi−1,j−1

//Hⁱ(X,¯I^j),

where the vertical maps are the isomorphisms described before the statement.

Proof. The operationΦi,j is induced by the composite morphism of the connecting homomorphism associated with the short exact sequence

0−→I^j+1−→I^j−→¯I^j −→0

and the reduction mapI^j+1 →¯I^j+1. The contractions ofI^j and¯I^j are computed in [AF14a, Lemma 2.7 and Proposition 2.8] and our result follows immediately from the proofs of those statements.

Remark 3.2.2. Because of the above result, we will abuse terminology and refer to Φi,jas a bi-stable operation.

3.3 Non-triviality of the operation Φi−1,i,L

Our goal in this section is to prove that the operationΦi−1,iis nontrivial. By definition, the operationΦ_i−1,ican be computed as follows: given an elementα∈Hⁱ⁻¹(X,¯Iⁱ), we choose a lift to Cⁱ⁻¹(X,Iⁱ), apply the boundary homomorphism to obtain an element d_i−1(α) ∈ Cⁱ(X,Iⁱ) which becomes trivial under the homomorphism Cⁱ(X,Iⁱ) → Cⁱ(X,¯Iⁱ) (since α is a cycle). There exists thus a unique lift of d_i−1(α)∈Cⁱ(X,Iⁱ⁺¹), which is a cycle sincedid_i−1= 0. Its reduction inHⁱ(X,¯Iⁱ) isΦ_i−1,i(α)by definition. We use the identificationHⁱ⁻¹(X,¯Iⁱ)∼=Hⁱ⁻¹(X,K^M_i /2) and the computations of Suslin in the case whereX =SL3to provide explicit gen- erators. More precisely, [Sus91, Theorem 2.7] shows thatH¹(SL3,K^M₂ /2) = Z/2, H²(SL3,K^M₃ /2) =Z/2. We begin by finding explicit generators of the groups con- sidered by Suslin and transfer those generators under the isomorphisms just described to obtain explicit representatives of classes inH¹(SL3,¯I²)andH²(SL3,¯I³). Then, we explicitly compute the connecting homomorphism and the reduction. Our method and notation will follow closely [Sus91,§2].

For any n ∈ N, let Q2n−1 ⊂ A²ⁿ be the hypersurface given by the equation Pn

i=1xiyi = 1. Let SLn = Spec(k[(tij)1≤i,j≤n]/hdet(tij) −1i) and write

αn = (tij)1≤i,j≤n for the universal matrix onSLn, and(t^ij)1≤i,j≤n for its inverse α⁻_n¹. Forn ≥ 2, we embedSLn−1into SLn as usual by mapping a matrixM to diag(1, M), and we observe that the quotient is preciselyQ_2n−1by means of the ho- momorphismf : SLn → Q_2n−1 given byf^∗(xi) = t1i andf^∗(yi) = tⁱ¹. Now Q_2n−1 is covered by the affine open subschemes Ui := D(xi)and the projection f : SLn → Q_2n−1 splits over eachUi by means of a matrix γi ∈ En(Ui)given for instance in [Sus91,§2]. The only properties that we will use here are that these sections induce isomorphismsf⁻¹(Ui)≃Ui×SLn−1mapping(αn)_|f⁻¹(Ui)γ_i⁻¹to diag(1, αn−1). Recall next from [Gil81,§2], that one can define Chern classes

ci:K1(X)−→Hⁱ(X,K^M_i+1/2)

functorially in X. In particular, we have Chern classes ci : K1(SLn) → Hⁱ(SLn,K^M_i+1/2)and we setdi,n:=ci(αn).

The stage being set, we now proceed to our computations. We will implicitly use the Gersten resolution of the sheavesK^M_i /2in our computations below. Observe first that the equationsx2 = . . . = xn = 0define an integral subschemeZn ⊂Q_2n−1, and that the global sectionx1is invertible onZn. It follows that it defines an element in (K^M₁ /2)(k(Zn))and a cycleθn∈Hⁿ⁻¹(Q_2n−1,K^M_n).

Lemma 3.3.1. For any smooth schemeX, theH^∗(X,K^M_∗/2)-moduleH^∗(Q2n−1× X,K^M_∗/2)is free with basis1, θn.

Proof. Apply the proof of [Sus91, Theorem 1.5] mutatis mutandis.

SinceQ3 = SL2, we can immediately deduce a basis for the cohomology ofSL2. However, we can reinterpretθ2as follows.

Lemma 3.3.2. If X is a smooth scheme, then H^∗(SL2 × X,K^M_∗ /2) is a free H^∗(X,K^M_∗ /2)-module generated by 1 ∈ H⁰(X,K^M₀/2) and d1,2 ∈ H¹(SL2,K^M₂ /2).

Proof. Again, this is essentially [Sus91, proof of Proposition 1.6].

Before stating the next lemma, recall that we have a projection morphismf :SL3→ Q5, yielding a structure ofH^∗(Q5,K^M_∗ /2)-module on the cohomology ofSL3. Lemma 3.3.3. The H^∗(Q5,K^M_∗ /2)-module H^∗(SL3,K^M_∗ /2) is free with basis1 andd1,3.

Proof. Using Mayer-Vietoris sequences in the spirit of [Sus91, Lemma 2.2], we see that it suffices to check locally that1andd1,3is a basis. LetUi⊂Q2n−1be the open subschemes defined above. We know that we have an isomorphismf⁻¹(Ui)≃Ui× SL2mapping(α3)_|f⁻¹(Ui)γ_i⁻¹todiag(1, α2). The Chern classc1 being functorial, we have a commutative diagram

K1(SL3) ^c1 //

i^∗

H¹(SL3,K^M₂/2)

i^∗

K1(f⁻¹(Ui)) _c1 //H¹(f⁻¹(Ui),K^M₂ /2)