Affine stacks (Q2505586)

This comprehensive memoir provides a profound contribution to the currently developing topic of homotopical and higher categorical structures in algebraic geometry. Its main purpose is to generalize the concept of affine schemes to an adequate construction in homotopical algebraic geometry, namely to the concept of affine stacks, and to show how these new objects can be used to treat several questions in rational and \(p\)-adic homotopy theory from a novel point of view. One of the motivating ideas of the present work can be traced back to A. Grothendieck's monumental, visionary manuscript ``Pursuing Stacks'' (unpublished) from the early 1980s. In this famous program, Grothendieck sketched a problem which he called the ``schematization problem for homotopy types'' stating that for any affine scheme \(\text{Spec\,}A\) there should be an appropriate notion of ``\(\infty\)-stack in groupoids over \(\text{Spec\,}A\)'' generalizing all sheaves and stacks in groupoids over the grand fpqc-site of \(\text{Spec\,}A\). Later on, it was shown by \textit{A. Joyal} (Letter to Grothendieck, 1984, unpublished) and by \textit{J. F. Jardine} [Homology Homotopy Appl. 3, No. 2, 361--384 (2001; Zbl 0995.18006)] that an adequate model for a theory of \(\infty\)-stacks in groupoids would be given by the theory of simplicial presheaves. According to this fundamental insight, the word ``stack'' in the present memoir, is used for an object in the homotopical category of simplicial sheaves (à la A. Joyal and J. F. Jardine). After a thorough introduction to the contents of the present treatise, including a historical sketch of the developments leading to its subject, explanations of the basic conceptual framework, and an, outline of the links to related works by other researchers in the field. Section 1 recalls the fundamentals from the theory of simplicial presheaves on a Grothendieck site, that is from the theory of general stacks in the sense made precise above. Apart from an introduction to the basic definitions and results, homotopic limits, Postnikov decompositions, the cohomology of simplicial presheaves, and schemes in affine groups are the main topics of this preparatory section. Section 2 introduces the first of the two novel fundamental notions of the memoir under review: affine stacks. These objects appear as a homotopic version of ordinary affine schemes, obtained from a model category with simplicial structure over the category of co-simplicial \(A\)-algebras. This model category is then used to define a derived functor of the Spec-functor, which in turn induces a certain functor from the homotopical category of co-simplicial \(A\)-algebras to the homotopical category of simplicial sheaves over the site \((\text{Aff}/A)_{\text{fpgc}}\). The category of affine stacks is then defined to be the essential image category of the latter functor. In the sequel, it is proved that the category of affine stacks is equivalent to the opposite category of the homotopical category of co-simplicial \(A\)-algebras, thereby generalizing the analoguous property of the category of ordinary affine schemes. Finally, the author invents another important construction, namely that of the ``affinization of a simplicial presheaf'', which appears to be significant for the study of homotopy sheaves, and he gives a concrete criterion for the existence of affinizations. In the special case of a base scheme \(\text{Spec\,}k\), where \(k\) is a field, the affine stacks are completely characterized, and analogues of the standard theorems on rational and \(p\)-adic homotopy of algebraic varieties are deduced by using affine stacks. Section 3 deals with the second crucial novelty provided by the author's work. More precisely, he introduces the notion of so-called ``affine \(\infty\)-gerbes'' and the concept of ``schematic homotopy type''. The underlying idea is to use affine stacks in order to define a homotopical version of affine gerbes in the Tannakian formalism (à la P. Deligne). This is done by glueing affine stacks to obtain so-called ``\(\infty\)-geometric stacks'', which may be seen as a generalization of ordinary algebraic stacks assed in algebraic moduli theory and non-abelian Hodge theory (à la C. Simpson). This framework is then applied to give two different solutions to A. Grothendieck's ``schematization problem for homotopy types of algebraic varieties'' mentioned above. In this context, homotopy types with respect to various cohomology theories (Betti, de Rham, crystalline, \(\ell\)-adic, etc.) are described in greater detail. The concluding Section 4 is exclusively devoted to the study of ``\(\infty\)-geometric stacks'' over a ground field \(k\), with applications to the construction of analogues of some moduli stacks in this extended homotopical context. In an appendix of the present memoir, the author recalls A. Grothendieck's ``schematization problem for homotopy types'', together with his interpretation and reflection of Grothendieck's vague sketches. Without any doubt, this memoir is of utmost fundamental and propelling character with regard to further developments in homotopical algebraic geometry. A wealth of significant new concepts, methods, and applications is presented in a very detailed and lucid manner, and an important new point of view towards Grothendieck's program of pursuing stacks is strikingly exhibited.