Chern invariants of some flat bundles in the arithmetic Deligne cohomology (Q938260)

Let \(X\) be a projective algebraic manifold, and let \(\text{ CH}^r(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}}\) be the Chow group of codimension \(r\) algebraic cycles on \(X\) modulo rational equivalence, and tensored with \({\mathbb{Q}}\). There is a conjecturally, a descending filtration \(\{F^{\nu}\text{ CH}^r(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}}\;| \;\nu=0,\dots,r\}\) whose graded pieces are described in terms of motivic extension datum. It is unique (if it exists) and is referred to as the Bloch-Beilinson (B-B) filtration. There are many candidate filtrations in the literature. One such candidate can be described as follows. Using the notion of arithmetic variations of Hodge structure and M. Saito's theory of mixed Hodge modules, there are arithmetic Deligne cohomology groups \(H_{\mathcal AD}^{\bullet}(X,{\mathbb{Q}}(\bullet))\) and a cycle class map \(\psi^r_{\mathcal AD} : \text{ CH}^r(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}} \to H_{\mathcal AD}^{2r}(X,{\mathbb{Q}}(r))\) which factors the cycle class map \(\psi_{\mathcal D}^r : \text{ CH}^r(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}} \to H_{\mathcal D}^{2r}(X,{\mathbb{Q}}(r))\) into ordinary (rational) Deligne cohomology. A Leray filtration on \(H_{\mathcal AD}^{2r}(X,{\mathbb{Q}}(r))\), arising from a suitable \({\mathbb{Q}}\)-spread of \(X\), pulls back to a corresponding candidate B-B filtration on \(\text{ CH}^r(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}}\). Conjecturally \(\psi^r_{\mathcal AD}\) is injective, and accordingly this induced filtration on \(\text{ CH}^r(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}}\) is the B-B filtration. If \(E\) is a flat vector bundle on \(X\) (i.e. equipped with a connection \(\nabla\) satisfying \(\nabla^2=0\)) , then the Chern-Weil theory says that the de Rham Chern classes of \(E\) are zero. This turns out to be the case in rational Deligne cohomology as well (conjectured by Bloch and proven by Reznikov). A conjecture of Bloch says that \(c_i(E)\in F^i\text{ CH}^i(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}}\). The author's current paper provides some evidence in support of the conjectured injectivity of \(\psi^r_{\mathcal AD}\) as well as constructing interesting non-trivial classes in \(F^i\text{ CH}^i(X)\otimes{\mathbb{Q}}\), by detecting them in \(H_{\mathcal AD}^{2i}(X,{\mathbb{Q}}(i))\). Indeed the author constructs an example of a flat vector bundle over an abelian variety \(A\) for which \(c_i(E)\in H_{\mathcal AD}^{2i}(A,{\mathbb{Q}}(i))\) is nonzero, for a given range of \(i\). Other examples in this paper include certain products of smooth complex projective varieties.