Specialization of birational types (Q2315187)

The main result of this paper shows the following striking result: Let \(\pi:\mathcal{X}\rightarrow B\) and \(\pi':\mathcal{X}'\rightarrow B\) be smooth proper morphisms to a smooth connected curve \(B\), over a field of characteristic zero. Assume that the generic fibers of \(\pi\) and \(\pi '\) are birational over the function field of \(B\). Then, for every closed point \(b\in B\), the fibers of \(\pi\) and \(\pi '\) over \(b\) are birational over the residue field at \(b\). One of the main tools for their proof is a new invariant, the \textit{Burnside ring} of \(k\), denoted by \(\mathrm{Burn}(k)\). As an abelian group it is freely generated by isomorphism classes of function fields over \(k\), is naturally graded by the transcendence degree, and admits a surjection \(\mathrm{Burn}(k)\rightarrow\mathrm{gr}(\mathrm{K}_0(\mathrm{Var}_k))\) onto the associated graded ring of the Grothendieck ring \(\mathrm{K}_0(\mathrm{Var}_k)\). The crucial step of their proof is based on the existence of a specialization homomorphism \(\rho:\mathrm{Burn}(K)\rightarrow \mathrm{Burn}(k)\), where \(K\) (resp. \(k\)) is the fraction field (resp. residue field) of a complete discrete valuation ring. Once the map \(\rho\) is constructed, their proof of the main theorem is rather straightforward.