The weight filtration for real algebraic varieties. II: Classical homology (Q742206)

Following the classical article by \textit{F. Guillén} and \textit{V. Navarro Aznar} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 95, 1--91 (2002; Zbl 1075.14012)], \textit{B. Totaro} [in: Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians, ICM 2002, Beijing, China, August 20--28, 2002. Vol. II: Invited lectures. Beijing: Higher Education Press; Singapore: World Scientific/distributor. 533--541 (2002; Zbl 1057.14030)] proved the existence of a functorial weight filtration for the cohomology with compact supports of a real analytic variety with a given compactification. In their previous work [in: Topology of stratified spaces. Based on lectures given at the workshop, Berkeley, CA, USA, September 8--12, 2008. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 121--160 (2011; Zbl 1240.14012)], the authors developed this theory in detail for real algebraic varieties, working with Borel-Moore homology. Notice that, in contrast with classical homology, Borel-Moore homology enjoys the strong additivity property, which makes the results in the present paper more involved. In the article under review, the authors define the weight filtration of a smooth, possibly noncompact, variety \(X\) in terms of a good compactification \(\overline{X}\). They define first the corner compactification \(X'\) of \(X\); it is a semialgebraic compactification contained in a principal bundle over \(\overline{X}\) with group a discrete torus \(\{-1,+1\}^N\). The action of this group is used to define the corner filtration of the semialgebraic chain group of \(X'\), and the filtered weight complex is obtained from the corner filtration by the Deligne shift. After, the extension theorems of Guillén and Navarro Aznar quoted above are used to extend the definition of filtered weight complex to singular varieties. Remarkably, the authors prove that the filtered complex is independent of the chosen good compactification of \(X\) up to quasi-isomorphism, and the weight complex enjoys a generalized blowup property. For compact varieties the weight complex agrees with the previous definition given by the authors for Borel-Moore homology. To finish, the article includes some elementary but very illuminating examples.