On a canonical class of Green currents for the unit sections of abelian schemes (Q273512)

Let \(\mathcal{S}\) be an arithmetic variety over an arithmetic ring in the sense of Gillet-Soulé and let \(\pi: \mathcal{A}\to \mathcal{S}\) be an abelian scheme over \(\mathcal{S}\) of relative dimension \(g\). Let \(\mathcal{P}\) be the Poincaré bundle on \(\mathcal{A}\times_\mathcal{S} \mathcal{A}^\vee\) which is equipped with the unique metric \(h_\mathcal{P}\) such that the canonical rigidification of \(\mathcal{P}\) along the zero-section \(\mathcal{A}^\vee\to \mathcal{A}\times_\mathcal{S} \mathcal{A}^\vee\) is an isometry and such that the curvature form of \(h_\mathcal{P}\) is translation invariant along the fibres of the map \(\mathcal{A}(\mathbb{C})\times_{\mathcal{S}(\mathbb{C})} \mathcal{A}^\vee(\mathbb{C})\to \mathcal{A}^\vee(\mathbb{C})\). Denote by \(S_0\) (resp. \(S_0^\vee\)) the image of the zero-section of \(\mathcal{A}\to \mathcal{S}\) (resp. \(\mathcal{A}^\vee\to \mathcal{S}\)). Then the main theorem in the article under review states that there is a unique class of currents \(\mathfrak{g}_\mathcal{A}\in \widetilde{D}^{g-1, g-1}(\mathcal{A}_\mathbb{R}^\vee)\) with the following three properties: (a) Any element of \(\mathfrak{g}_\mathcal{A}\) is a Green current for \(S_0^\vee(\mathbb{C})\). (b) The identity \(({S_0}^\vee, \mathfrak{g}_\mathcal{A})=(-1)^g p_{2,*}(\widehat{ \mathrm{ch}}(\overline{\mathcal{P}}))^{(g)}\) holds in \(\widehat{ \mathrm{CH}}^g(\mathcal{A}^\vee)_\mathbb{Q}\). (c) The identity \(\mathfrak{g}_\mathcal{A}=[n]_*\mathfrak{g}_\mathcal{A}\) holds for all \(n\geq 2\). where \(p_2\) is the second projection \(\mathcal{A}\times_\mathcal{S} \mathcal{A}^\vee\to \mathcal{A}^\vee\) and the other notations without explanations are standard notations in Arakelov geometry. The authors show that on an elliptic curve, the above current specialises to a Siegel function contained in the classical theory of elliptic units. They proceed to show several generalisations of classical properties of Siegel functions, like distribution relations and reciprocity laws. Furthermore, as an application of a refined version of the arithmetic Riemann-Roch theorem, the authors showed that the above current, when restricted to a torsion section, is the realisation in analytic Deligne cohomology of an element of the Quillen's algebraic \(K_1\) group of the base, the corresponding denominator being given by the denominator of a Bernoulli number. This result generalises the second Kronecker limit formula and the denominator 12 computed by Kubert, Lang and Robert in the case of Siegel units (see [\textit{D. S. Kubert} and \textit{S. Lang}, Modular units. Springer, Berlin (1981; Zbl 0492.12002)]). Finally, the authors prove an analog in Arakelov theory of a Chern class formula of Bloch and Beauville (see [\textit{A. Beauville}, Math. Ann. 273, 647--651 (1986; Zbl 0566.14003)]), where the canonical current plays a key role.