Transcendence degree of zero-cycles and the structure of Chow motives (Q424078)

The so-called `decomposition of the diagonal' discovered in [\textit{S. Bloch} and \textit{V. Srinivas}, ``Remarks on correspondences and algebraic cycles'', Am. J. Math. 105, 1235--1253 (1983; Zbl 0525.14003)] says that if the 0-cycles of an \(n\)-dimensional smooth projective algebraic variety \(X\) are supported on a strictly smaller closed algebraic subset \(Y\) up to rational equivalence, then the class of the diagonal \(\Delta_X\) in \(CH^n(X\times X)\) has a decomposition into the sum of two cycles with one supported on \(X\times Y\) and the other supported on \(Y'\times X\), where \(Y'\) is another strictly smaller algebraic subset. As remarked by the authors, such a decomposition amounts to that the Chow motive of \(X\) is degenerated: it is a direct summand of a direct sum of Tate twists of Chow motives of varieties of strictly smaller dimensions. In this paper, the authors provide an equivalent condition for the existence of the above `decomposition of diagonal' (or degeneration of motive) in terms of the `transcendence degree' of certain canonically defined 0-cycle. Let us explain it more precisely. Using the same notation, let \(\mathrm{Spec} \Omega \to X\) be the geometric generic point, where \(\Omega\) is a universal domain, e.g. the algebraic closure of the function field, and consider the 0-cycle \(P\in CH^n(X_\Omega)\) which is defined to be the pull back of the diagonal class \(\Delta_X\) by the morphism \(X_\Omega \to X\times X\) induced by the generic point. The canonically defined 0-cycle \(P\) is in some sense the non-degenerate part of the diagonal. The transcendence degree of a 0-cycle in \(CH_0(X_\Omega)\) is by definition the smallest integer \(l\) such that there is a rational equivalent representative with the image in \(X\) of each appeared point has transcendence degree of the residue field at most \(l\). The main theorem of this paper claims the equivalence between the following two conditions (i) and (ii):\newline (i) There exists a decomposition of diagonal for \(X\);\newline (ii) The transcendence degree of the 0-cycle \(P\) defined above is strictly smaller than the \(\dim(X)\) Using this theorem, one can reduce Bloch's conjecture on 0-cycles of surfaces to the rational equivalence of two \(\mathbb C\)-points. This condition can be made fairly explicit, if the surface is constructed concretely. The author believe that this reformulation could be useful in approaching Bloch's conjecture.