On the S-fundamental group scheme (Q416018)

There have been several generalizations of the concept of a fundamental group for algebraic varieties. Grothendieck defined the étale fundamental group by considering finite étale covers of the variety. In the complex case, under suitable hypotheses, this turns out to be the profinite completion of the topological fundamental group. Later, Nori defined the fundamental group scheme of a scheme \(X\) over a perfect field \(k\) as the affine group scheme associated to the neutral Tannaka category of essentially finite vector bundles over \(X\). If \(k\) is algebraically closed, this has the étale fundamental group as its quotient, and is in fact equal to it if \(k\) has characteristic 0. In addition to these two fundamental groups, Simpson defined the universal complex pro-algebraic group as the inverse limit of the directed system of representations \(\rho: \pi_1(X,x) \to G\) for complex algebraic groups \(G\), such that the image of \(\rho\) is Zariski-dense in \(G\). This group can also be described as being associated to the neutral Tannaka category of semistable Higgs bundles with vanishing rational Chern classes. \textit{I. Biswas}, \textit{A. J. Parameswaran} and \textit{S. Subramanian} [Duke Math. J. 132, No. 1, 1--48 (2006; Zbl 1106.14032)] defined the S-fundamental group scheme of a smooth, projective curve \(X\) over an algebraically closed field as the affine group scheme associated to the neutral Tannaka category of strongly semistable vector bundles of degree zero over \(X\). In the paper under review, the author seeks to study the S-fundamental group scheme for a general complete, connected, reduced \(k\)-scheme \(X\). This is defined as the affine group scheme associated to the neutral Tannaka category of strongly semistable vector bundles with vanishing Chern classes over \(X\), directly generalizing the definition given in Biswas. We note that, for a smooth and projective variety \(X\), this category can also be described as the category of numerically flat vector bundles. Here, a vector bundle \(E\) on \(X\) is called numerically flat if both \(E\) and \(E^*\) are nef. For \(G\) a connected reductive \(k\)-group and \(E_G\) a numerically flat principal \(G\)-bundle on \(X\), the monodromy group scheme of \(E_G\) is defined and it is shown that this is the smallest subgroup scheme of \(G\) to which \(E_G\) has a reduction of structure group. Next, the author discusses basic properties of the S-fundamental group scheme. Among these, we have that the S-fundamental group scheme of the projective space is trivial, and the S-fundamental group scheme is well-behaved under blow-ups and base change. The author also conjectures that the S-fundamental group scheme of a product of complete \(k\)-varieties is the product of the corresponding S-fundamental group schemes. (The author proves this result in a sequel to this paper.) After two vanishing theorems for the cohomology of strongly semistable sheaves with vanishing Chern classes, the author proves Lefschetz-type theorems for the S-fundamental group scheme, with similar statements for Nori's and étale fundamental groups deriving as a corollary.