Cancellation of vector bundles of rank 3 with trivial Chern classes on smooth affine fourfolds (Q2125168): Difference between revisions

One of the fascinating questions in the area of projective modules is the study of cancellation problems. Let \(R\) be a commutative Noetherian ring of finite (Krull) dimension. It asks that if two finitely generated projective \(R\)-modules \(P\) and \(Q\) of same (and constant) rank are stably isomorphic then is \(P\) isomorphic to \(Q\)? Let \(\text{Um}(P)\) be the set of all \(R\)-linear surjections \(P\to R\). It is well documented in the literature that the study of the cancellation problem turns out to be the study of the orbit space \(\text{Um}(P\oplus R)/\Aut(P\oplus R)\). Let \(R\) be a smooth affine algebra over an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from \(2\) and \(3\), and \(P_0\) be a projective \(R\)-module of rank \(2\) with trivial determinant. Let \(E(P_0\oplus R)\) be the subgroup of \(\Aut(P_0\oplus R)\), generated by all elementary automorphisms. If \(\text{dim}(R)\le 3\) then the author gave [Ann. \(K\)-Theory 4, No. 4, 671--706 (2019; Zbl 1445.13013)] an abelian group structure on the orbit space \(\text{Um}(P_0\oplus R)/\text{E}(P_0\oplus R)\). If \(\text{dim}(R)=2\) and \(P_0=R^2\), then the group structure coincides with the existing group structure on \(\text{Um}(R^{3})/\text{E}(R^{3})\), which was due to Vaserstein. In the paper under review, the author proves a ``projective'' version of \textit{R. A. Rao}'s Antipodal Lemma \textit{R. A. Rao} [Invent. Math. 93, No. 3, 609--618 (1988; Zbl 0652.13009)]. The proof reinterprets the group structure in terms of motivic homotopy theory and uses various ideas from Grothendieck-Witt groups. As one of the consequences, if \(\text{dim}(R)=4\), then the author settles the cancellation problem in affirmative for rank \(3\) projective \(R\)-modules whose Chern classes are trivial. This generalizes a seminal result of \textit{J. Fasel} et al. [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 116, 223--243 (2012; Zbl 1256.13008)] in dimension \(4\).