The Brauer group of desingularization of moduli spaces of vector bundles over a curve (Q2392883)

Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, \(C\) a smooth, irreducible, projective curve over \(K\) of genus \(g \geq 2\). Let \(\mathcal{L}\) be a degree \(d\) line bundle on \(C\) consider the scheme \(M(r,\mathcal{L})\), the coarse moduli space of semistable rank \(r\) vector bundles with determinant \(\mathcal{L}\) on \(C\). It is an important open problem to determine whether these varieties are (stably) rational (rationality is only known for \(r\) and \(d\) coprime (see \textit{A. King} and \textit{A. Schofield} [Indag. Math., New Ser. 10, No. 4, 519--535 (1999; Zbl 1043.14502)]). In this article a necessary condition for being stably rational, namely the vanishing of the Brauer group of any desingularization of \(M(r,\mathcal{L})\), is shown. In the case of rank two bundles, this also follows from earlier work (see [\textit{N. Nitsure}, Compos. Math. 69, No. 3, 309--339 (1989; Zbl 0702.14007)] and [\textit{V. Balaji}, Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Math. Sci. 98, No. 1, 1--24 (1988; Zbl 0687.14014)]), but the methods used in this article are new and rely on gerbes instead of the specific geometry of the rank two situation.