Tame distillation and desingularization by \(p\)-alterations (Q2364594)

In the mid-1990's, \textit{A. J. de Jong} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 83, 51--93 (1996; Zbl 0916.14005); Ann. Inst. Fourier 47, No. 2, 599--621 (1997; Zbl 0868.14012)] proved, among other things, a weak version of resolution of singularities of an algebraic variety \(X\) valid in any characteristic. Namely, that there is an \textit{alteration} \(b:X' \to X\), i.e., a proper dominant generically finite morphism of integral schemes, with \(X'\) smooth. The ``classical'' resolution problem requires that \(b\) be birrational, but de Jong's version is sufficient for many important applications. Improvements of these results were found afterwards, an important one is due to Gabber (see [\textit{L. Illusie} and \textit{M. Temkin}, in: Travaux de Gabber sur l'uniformisation locale et la cohomologie étale des schémas quasi-excellents. Séminaire à l'École Polytechnique 2006--2008. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (SMF). 167--212 (2014; Zbl 1327.14072)]), who showed that it is possible to somewhat control the degree deg\((b)\) of the morphism \(b\), this enlarges the range of applications of the theorem. The present paper contains relevant generalizations of Gabber's result. For instance, if \(X\) and \(S\) are integral schemes, with \(S\) quasi excellent (qe) of dimension \(\leq 3\), \(Z \subset X\) a nowhere dense closed subset, and there is a morphism \(f:X \to S\) of finite type, then there is a projective alteration \(b:X' \to X\), with \(X'\) regular, such that \(Z'=b^{-1}(Z)\) is a simple normal crossings divisor. Moreover, \(b\) can be chosen to be a \(\mathrm{char}(X)\)-alteration, i.e., if \(n=\)deg(\(b)\) and \(p\) is a prime divisor of \(n\), then \(p=\mathrm{char}(k(x))\) for a suitable point \(x \in X\). If \(S\) is the spectrum of a perfect field, in addition \(b\) can be chosen separable. This result is a consequence of more general and technical result (Theorem 4.7.1 of the paper.) In it, the base scheme \(S\) must satisfy a resolvability condition that is satisfied if \(S\) is of dimension at most 3, by a recent result of \textit{V. Cossart} and \textit{O. Piltant} [Resolution of singularities of arithmetical threefolds, \url{arXiv:1412.0868}]. \textit{M. Temkin} [J. Algebra 373, 65--119 (2013; Zbl 1276.14021)] also proved a theorem on ``desingularization'' of a morphism, where one uses the notion of log smoothness (this is also a consequence of Theorem 4.7.1.) The proof follows the line of Gabber's, but there is an important new ingredient: the notion of \textit{tame distillation}. At the field level, a \textit{separable distillation} of a field extension \(l/k\) is a factorization \(l/l_i/k\), where \(l/l_i\) is separable and \(l_i/k\) purely inseparable. As explained in the paper, there are variants of this notion, e.g., for valued fields and also for alterations. The author proves the \textit{Tame Distillation Theorem}, saying that, after enlarging if necessary, an alteration of \(X\) can be expressed as a composition of a tame Galois alteration and a \(\mathrm{char}(X)\)-alteration. This result plays an important role in the proof of Theorem 4.7.1. It this work the author uses many techniques from Valuation Theory. Although the material is quite technical, the paper is very well written.