Upper bounds for the essential dimension of the moduli stack of SL\(_{n}\)-bundles over a curve (Q848896)

Let \(k\) be a field, \(\text{Fields}_k\) be the category of field extensions of \(k\), and \(Sets\) be the category of sets. Let \(F:\text{Fields}_k \rightarrow \text{Sets}\) be a functor. The essential dimension of \(F\), denoted by \(\text{ed}(F)\), is defined as \(\text{ed}(F)= \sup_{a}\text{ ed}(a)\) where \(a\) runs over all \(a \in F(K)\) and \(K\) varies over all objects in the category \(\text{Fields}_k\), while \(\text{ed}(a)\) is defined as \(\text{ed}(a)=\min \{\mathrm{tr} \, \deg_{k} K' : K'/k \subset K/k, \, a \in \text{Image} \{ F(K') \rightarrow F(K) \} \}\). In particular, for an algebraic stack \(\mathcal{X}\) \(\rightarrow\) Aff\(_{k}\), associate a functor \(F:\text{Fields}_k \rightarrow \text{Sets}\) where \(F(K)\) is defined as the set of isomorphism classes of objects in \(\mathcal{X}\)\((K)\). The essential dimension of this functor is called the essential dimension of \(\mathcal{X}\), denoted by \(\text{ed}_{k}(\mathcal{X})\). When the ground field \(k\) is understood from the context, we simply write \(\text{ed}(\mathcal{X})\). The essential dimensions of various algebraic stacks of complete smooth algebraic curves of a fixed genus (respectively, abelian varieties of a fixed dimension) are studied in the paper by Brosnan, Reichstein and Vistoli [\url{arXiv:math/0907.024}, to appear in J. Eur. Math. Soc.]. The purpose of this paper under review is to find an upper bound for the essential dimension of \(\text{Bun}^{\xi}_{\text{SL}_n}\), the moduli stack of SL\(_n\) bundles with a fixed isomorphism of the top exterior power with \(\xi\), over a smooth projective geometrically connected curve of genus \(g\) defined over \(k\) (where \(k\) is a field with \(\text{char} k=0\) and \(g \geq 2\)). In order to state the main result, we define a function \(h_g\) first where \(g\) is the genus of the curve. Define \(h_g(1)=1\), and \(h_g(n)-h_g(n-1)=(n^3-n^2)+n^2(g-1)/4+n/2+n^2g^2/4+1/4\). One of the main results of this paper is the following: \(\text{ed} (\text{Bun}^{\xi}_{\text{SL}_n}) \leq [h_g(n)]+1\). The main idea of the proof of this theorem is to estimate first \(\text{ed}(\text{Bun}^{\xi,s}_{\text{SL}_n})\), the essential dimension of the stack of stable bundles; then estimate \(\text{ed}(\text{Bun}^{\xi,ss}_{\text{SL}_n})\), the essential dimension of the stack of semi-stable bundles; then the general case. The proof for the stack of stable bundles is given in Theorem 8.2. It relies on two results proved by Brosnan, Reichstein and Vistoli [loc. cit.], i.e. the genericity theorem and the period exponent theorem of a gerbe (see Theorem 6.1 and Theorem 4.1; for the latter theorem, also see papers of Karpenko and Merkurjev in the references of this paper). Moreover, it is pointed out that the inequality of Theorem 8.2 is actually an equality in some special case; thus this provides examples that the essential dimension is not equal to the dimension of the stack. To ascend from the stack of stable bundles to that of semi-stable ones, the authors use the Jordan-Hölder filtration. The essential dimension of the stack of semi-stable bundles is determined in Section 10. Since the field of definition of a Jordan-Hölder filtration may be different from the original one, Section 9 of this paper is devoted to study the Galois theory of semi-stable bundles. Then the general theorem is proved in Section 11. This paper is carefully written. Preliminary results about algebraic stacks and moduli stacks of vector bundles are provided, and appropriate references are also given.