The Galois action on geometric lattices and the mod-\(\ell \) I/OM (Q1656351)

Let \(E\) be a field, \(E_{\mathrm{sep}}\) a separable closure of \(E\), and \(\mathcal{G}_E = \mathcal{G}(E_{\mathrm{sep}}/E)\) the absolute Galois group of \(E\). The paper under review is inspired by several variants of the Ihara-Oda-Matsumoto conjecture (briefly, I/OM). Motivated by the problem of finding a combinatorial description of \(\mathcal{G}_{\mathbb{Q}}\) (as usual, \(\mathbb{Q}\) is the field of rational numbers), as well as by \textit{A. Grothendieck}'s [Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 242, 5--48 (1997; Zbl 0901.14001)], Ihara has asked whether \(\mathcal{G}_{\mathbb{Q}}\) is isomorphic to the automorphism group of the geometric fundamental group functor on \(\mathbb{Q}\)-varieties, and Oda-Matsumoto (see [\textit{M. Matsumoto}, ``Topological methods in studying Galois actions'', Presentation at Oberwolfach Workshop Galois Groups and Fundamental Groups (1997)]) have later conjectured that the answer is affirmative, on the basis of motivic evidence. The original (or ``absolute'') I/OM deals with the full geometric fundamental group (abbr., GFG); it has been proved by F. Pop (in an unpublished manuscript). Later Pop has formulated and proved a strengthening of the absolute I/OM, which instead deals with the maximal pro-\(\ell\) abelian-by-central quotient of the GFG (and implies the absolute I/OM). Both contexts are treated in his manuscript ``On I/OM'' (of 2014, available at \url{https://www.math.upenn.edu/~pop/Research/Papers.html}; see also [\textit{F. Pop}, Invent. Math. 216, No. 3, 745--797 (2019; Zbl 1477.14041)]. The paper under review develops and proves a further strengthening of I/OM (the pro-\(\ell\) abelian-by-central and the absolute variants), which deals with the mod-\(\ell\) abelian-by-central quotient of the GFG. In addition, the noted quotient is the smallest possible functorial (pro-\(\ell\)) continuous homomorphic image of the GFG, which remains non-abelian; in this sense, the mod-\(\ell\) context yields the strongest possible results that one could hope for. Most importantly however, the mod-\(\ell\) abelian-by-central context gets much closer to the spirit of Ihara's original question of finding a combinatorial description of absolute Galois groups. Indeed, the GFG of a variety and its pro-\(\ell\) abelian-by-central quotient are both finitely-generated profinite (respectively, pro-\(\ell\)) groups, and their topology plays a crucial role in both situations. In contrast to this, the mod-\(\ell\) abelian-by-central quotient of a GFG can be viewed as an object of a purely combinatorial nature, being a finite-dimensional linear space over \(\mathbb{Z}/\ell\) endowed with some extra linear structure. The precise presentation of the main objects considered in the reviewed paper as well as of the obtained results is rather involved. The main result states that if \(k_0\) is a perfect field of characteristic different from \(\ell\), and \(\mathcal{V}\) is a ``sufficiently large'' category of normal geometrically-integral \(k_0\)-varieties, then there is a canonical isomorphism of \(\mathcal{G}_{k_{0}}\) on a group arising from the set of those automorphisms of the maximal modulo \(\ell\) abelian quotient of the GFG \(\bar \pi_1(X)\) of a variety \(X \in \mathcal{V}\) which are induced by some automorphisms of the maximal modulo \(\ell\) abelian-by-central quotient of \(\bar \pi_1(X)\). The notion of sufficiently large is formalized in Section 1.7 of the paper, essentially, by the condition of being \(5\)-connected. The main result is obtained as a product of the four main theorems of the paper (namely, Theorems A, B, C and D). These theorems all require some variant of a ``dimension \(\ge 5\)'' assumption (which seems impossible to drop); for example, Theorem A concerns certain categories constructed from a birational system of dimension \(\ge 5\) and a (possibly, empty) finite tuple of elements of \(k_0 ^ {\ast }\). The author gives a proof of Theorem D; then he shows that Theorem D is equivalent to Theorem C (its ``Milnor-variant''); next, he deduces Theorem A from Theorem C (its birational-Galois variant), and finally, he proves that Theorem A implies Theorem B (which is stated for \(5\)-connected categories). He presents the main ideas and ingredients of the proof with care for the reader and helpful references.