On Albanese torsors and the elementary obstruction (Q2476178)

The main object of the paper under review is the elementary obstruction \(ob(X)\) for the existence of a rational point (or, more generally, of a zero-cycle of degree 1), on a smooth, geometrically integral variety \(X\) defined over an arbitrary field \(k\), as well as its various analogues. The elementary obstruction \(ob(X)\), first introduced and studied by \textit{J.-L.~Colliot-Thélène and J.-J.~Sansuc} [Duke Math. J. 54, 375--492 (1987; Zbl 0659.14028)] and revisited by \textit{M.~Borovoi, J.-L.~Colliot-Thélène and A.~N.~Skorobogatov} [Duke Math. J. 141, 321--364 (2008; Zbl 1135.14013)], is defined as the class in \({\text{Ext}}^1_{\mathfrak g}(\bar k(X)^*/\bar k^*, \bar k^*)\) of the extension of \(\mathfrak g\)-modules \[ 1\to \bar k^*\to \bar k(X)^* \to \bar k(X)^*/\bar k^*\to 1 \] (here \(\mathfrak g\) stands for the Galois group \({\text{Gal}}(\bar k/k)\) of a separable closure of \(k\)). The author compares the order of \(ob(X)\) with the following invariants of \(X\): the index \(I(X)\), the greatest common divisor of the degrees of the closed points on \(X\); the period \(P(X)\), the order of the class of the Albanese torsor \({\text{Alb}}^1_{X/k}\) in the Galois cohomology group \(H^1(k, {\text{Alb}}^0_{X/k})\) (in the appendix to the paper the author proves that \({\text{Alb}}^1_{X/k}\) and \({\text{Alb}}^0_{X/k}\) exist for any geometrically integral variety \(X\) over an arbitrary field \(k\)); the generic period \(P_{\text{gen}}(X)\), the supremum of \(P(U)\) where \(U\) ranges over all dense open subsets of \(X\). The first result of the paper states that 1) \(P(X) | P_{\text{gen}}(X) | I(X)\); 2) the order of \(ob(X)\) divides \(P_{\text{gen}}(X)\); 3) these invariants satisfy no further divisibility relations. This result has interesting applications in the cases where \(k\) is a \(p\)-adic field, a real closed field, a number field, or a field of dimension \(\leq 1\). Some of these results are related to the above cited paper by Borovoi et al. and answer some questions raised there. Among the topics discussed here one can note the behaviour of the elementary obstruction under extensions of the ground field. Finally, motivated by the fact that \(ob(X)=0\) if and only if the Yoneda equivalence class of a certain 2-extension \(e(X)\) of \({\text{Pic}}(X\otimes _k\bar k)\) by \(\bar k^*\) (viewed as Galois modules) is trivial, the author considers a generalization of the elementary obstruction related to an analogous 2-extension \(E(X)\) of the relative Picard functor \({\text{Pic}}_{X/k}\) by the multiplicative group \({\mathbb G}_{\text{m}}\). In particular, he shows that the Yoneda equivalence class of \(E(X)\) is trivial if and only if \(P_{\text{gen}}(X)=1\). Some of results obtained in the course of the proof are interesting by their own (in particular, an explicit Poincaré sheaf on any abelian variety is exhibited).