Perverse sheaves on semiabelian varieties (Q481030)

In [J. Algebraic Geom. 24, 531--568 (2015; Zbl 1338.14023)], the author and \textit{R. Weissauer} proved a generic vanishing theorem for the hypercohomology of character twists of perverse sheaves on a complex abelian variety. The first main result of the present paper is an extension of this theorem to semiabelian varieties. The proof is by reduction to the cases of abelian varieties and tori, the latter having been treated by \textit{O. Gabber} and \textit{F. Loeser} [Duke Math. J. 83, No. 3, 501--606 (1996; Zbl 0896.14009)] using Artin's affine vanishing theorem. As a consequence of the above vanishing theorem, the author proves that the convolution product on perverse sheaves on semiabelian varieties descends to a certain triangulated quotient of the category of perverse sheaves and equips it with a rigid tensor structure. On the rigid abelian tensor subcategory generated by the class of a single perverse sheaf \(P\) the \(H^0\) functor induces a neutral fibre functor, whence a Tannakian fundamental group associated with \(P\). Again this construction gives back the ones previously studied in the above references for abelian varieties and tori. The above constructions extend without change to an algebraically closed base field of positive characteristic, provided that the generic vanishing theorem for abelian varieties holds over that field. In a final section the author shows that the nearby cycles functor induces a product-preserving specialization map on a certain full subcategory of the category of perverse sheaves on the generic fibre of a strictly henselian base scheme and deduces a map on the associated Tannakian groups.