The value ring of geometric motivic integration, and the Iwahori Hecke algebra of \(\text{SL}_2\). With an appendix by Nir Avni. (Q2427032)

Fix a valued field \(F\) of residue characteristic 0. Motivic integration is a way of associating, to each semi-algebraic set \(X\) over \(F\) with volume form \(\omega\), a ``volume'' \(\int_X d\omega\) in a suitable (fixed) target ring \(R\). One would like the volume to capture as much information about \(X\) as possible, under the constraint that the usual rules of integration hold. Formally, this can easily be achieved by taking \(R\) to be a suitable Grothendieck ring. However, for this to be useful one then needs to be able to describe \(R\). The authors already gave such a description in [``Integration in valued fields'', in: V. Ginzburg (ed.), Algebraic geometry and number theory. In honor of Vladimir Drinfeld's 50th birthday. Basel: Birkhäuser. Progress in Mathematics 253, 261--405 (2006; Zbl 1136.03025)]; the present article makes this description more explicit in a slightly more special case. In an appendix, this formalism is then used to define and describe a motivic version of the Iwahori-Hecke algebra of \(\text{SL}_2\). Here are some details: A semi-algebraic subset of an \(F\)-variety \(V\) is a Boolean combination of sets of the form \(\{x \in U : \text{val} f(x) \leq \text{val} g(x)\}\), where \(U\) is a closed subvariety of \(V\) and \(f\), \(g\) are regular functions on \(U\). More precisely, if \(X\) is a semi-algebraic subset of \(V\), then we obtain a set \(X(K) \subseteq V(K)\) for each valued field \(K\) containing \(F\). This is a category whose morphisms are maps with semi-algebraic graph. (In the language of model theory, by quantifier elimination, semi-algebraic sets are just \(F\)-definable sets in the theory of algebraically closed valued fields.) Define \(\text{Vol}_F\) to be the category of pairs \((X, \omega)\), where \(X\) is a semi-algebraic set and \(\omega\) is a (semi-algebraic) volume form on \(X\). A morphism in \(\text{Vol}_F\) is a semi-algebraic map which is defined outside a subset of smaller dimension and whose Jacobian has valuation \(0\) outside a subset of smaller dimension. The target ring of motivic integration is the Grothendieck ring \(\text{K}(\text{Vol}_F)\) of this category. Note that the choice of morphisms of \(\text{Vol}_F\) ensures that the integral does not to depend on subsets of smaller dimension and that it satisfies the change of variables formula. The main result of the present article (Theorems~1.1 and 3.22) gives a homomorphism \(I\) from a certain localization \(\text{K}_{\mathbb{Q}}(\text{Vol}_F)_{\text{loc}}\) of \(\text{K}(\text{Vol}_F) \otimes \mathbb{Q}\) into a \(\mathbb{Q}\)-algebra \(S\), and if the value group of \(F\) is divisible, then \(I\) is even an isomorphism. The algebra \(S\) is a localization of \(\text{K}(\text{Var}_{\mathbf{F}}) \otimes T\), where \(\text{K}(\text{Var}_{\mathbf{F}})\) is the Grothendieck ring of varieties over the residue field \(\mathbf{F}\) of \(F\) and \(T\) is a \(\mathbb{Q}\)-algebra which can easily be described in terms of generators and relations. Let me describe the map \(I\) more precisely. There is a canonical map \(J: \text{K}(\text{Var}_{\mathbf{F}}) \to \text{K}(\text{Vol}_F)\) which sends the class of an open subvariety \(V \subseteq \mathbb{A}^n_{\mathbf{F}}\) to the class of the semi-algebraic set \(\{x \in \mathcal{O}^n : \text{res}(x) \in V\}\), with the standard volume form \(dx_1\dots dx_n\). Here, \(\mathcal{O}\) denotes the semi-algebraic subset of \(\mathbb{A}^1_{F}\) defined by \(v(x) \geq 0\) (i.e., \(\mathcal{O}(K)\) is the valuation ring of \(K\) for any valued field \(K \supseteq F\)). The map \(I\) is essentially a left inverse of \(J\), i.e., the composition \(I \circ J\) is equal to the canonical map \(\text{K}(\text{Var}_{\mathbf{F}}) \to S\). Now, for simplicity assume that the value group of \(F\) is divisible. For each \(\gamma\) in that value group, in \(\text{K}(\text{Vol}_F)\) we have an element \(u(\gamma) := [(\{x \in \mathbb{A}^1 : v(x) = \gamma\}, dx)]\). Since, among others, we are localizing at \(u(0)\), in \(\text{K}_{\mathbb{Q}}(\text{Vol}_F)_{\text{loc}}\) we have elements \(q(\gamma) := u(\gamma)/u(0)\) and \(t(\gamma) := [(\{x \in \mathbb{A}^1 : 0 \leq v(x) < \gamma\}, dx/x)]/u(0)\). The \(\mathbb{Q}\)-algebra \(T\) is given by the generators \(I(q(\gamma))\) and \(I(t(\gamma))\) (for any \(\gamma\)) and the relations \(I(q(\gamma + \gamma')) = I(q(\gamma))\cdot I(q(\gamma'))\) and \(I(t(\gamma + \gamma')) = I(t(\gamma)) + I(t(\gamma'))\). A particularly simple case is the one where the value group of \(F\) is isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}^n\). If \(\gamma_1, \dots, \gamma_n\) are generators, then we can take for \(T\) the free \(\mathbb{Q}\)-algebra in the generators \(I(q(\gamma_i))\), \(I(t(\gamma_i))\), i.e., \(S\) is a localization of \(\text{K}_{\mathbb{Q}}(\text{Var}_{\mathbf{F}})[q_1,\dots, q_n,t_1,\dots,t_n]\). (However, maybe \(I\) is not injective in that case.) Note that motivic integration in the sense of the present article differs from the one in the sense of Cluckers-Denef-Loeser (see e.g. [\textit{R. Cluckers} and \textit{F. Loeser}, ``Constructible motivic functions and motivic integration'', Invent. Math. 173, No.~1, 23--121 (2008; Zbl 1179.14011)]), since integration is done on different categories of sets. (In model theoretic terms, Cluckers-Denef-Loeser work in the theory of Henselian fields with discrete valuation.) In the authors' paper cited above [loc. cit.], the ring \(\text{K}(\text{Vol}_F) \otimes \mathbb{Q}\) has already been described in terms of a category involving the residue field and the value group of \(F\). The main work in the present article consists in describing the value group part explicitly.