Projectively simple rings. (Q2497324)

An infinite dimensional graded algebra \(A\) is `projectively simple' if every quotient of \(A\) with respect to a graded ideal is finite dimensional. Every such algebra is prime, and just infinite in the usual sense, that all quotients are finite dimensional. One class of examples are graded prime PI algebras of Gelfand-Kirillov dimension \(1\) (and all PI finitely generated examples have this form). The paper studies another source of examples: given a projective scheme \(X\) with an automorphism \(\sigma\) and a line bundle \(L\) on \(X\), the `twisted homogeneous coordinate ring' \(B=B(X,L,\sigma)\) is the direct sum \(\bigoplus H^0(L_n)\), where \(L_n=L\otimes\sigma^*L\otimes\cdots\otimes(\sigma^{n-1})^*L\). When \(L\) is \(\sigma\)-ample (namely \(H^i(F\otimes L_n)=0\) for every coherent sheaf \(F\) on \(X\), every \(i>0\), and \(n\) sufficiently large), \(B\) is projectively simple iff \(\sigma\) is `wild', namely has no reduced closed subscheme of \(X\). Let \(A\) be a projectively simple Noetherian \(k\)-algebra, where \(k\) is algebraically closed. If \(A\) is strongly Noetherian (namely \(A\otimes_kR\) is Noetherian for every Noetherian \(k\)-algebra \(R\)), generated in degree \(1\), and has a point module, then \(A\) has finite codimension in some projectively simple \(B=B(X,L,\sigma)\) where \(X\) is smooth, \(\sigma\) is wild, and \(L\) is \(\sigma\)-ample. The authors thus study the following problems: (1) Classify the pairs \((X,\sigma)\), where \(X\) is a projective variety and \(\sigma\) a wild automorphism; (2) Given \((X,\sigma)\) as above, find \(\sigma\)-ample line bundles on \(X\). These problems are completely solved when \(X\) is an Abelian variety over an algebraically closed field in characteristic zero: write \(\sigma=T_b\cdot\alpha\), where \(\alpha\) is an automorphism preserving the group structure and \(T_b\) is the translation by \(b\). Then \(\sigma\) is wild iff \(\beta=\alpha-1\) is nilpotent and \(b\) generates \(X/\beta(X)\). Furthermore, any ample invertible sheaf on \(X\) is \(\sigma\)-ample. To complete the picture, the authors conjecture that every irreducible projective variety \(X\) which admits a wild automorphism must be Abelian. This is shown to be the case when \(\dim(X)\leq 2\).