Generic points of quadrics and Chow groups (Q946870)

Let \(Y\) be a smooth variety defined over a field \(k\). In some situation, one needs to know if some classes of the Chow groups of \(Y\) over \(\overline{k}\) are actually defined over \(k\). In this article the author studies sufficient conditions for \(\overline{k}\)-defined elements of the Chow groups of a smooth variety to be \(k\)-rational. The principal result of this paper says that for a class \(\overline{y}\in CH^m(Y| _{\bar{k}})/2\) where \(m<[\text{dim}(\mathbb Q)+\frac{1}{2}]\), \(\bar{y}\) is defined over \(k\) if and only if \(\bar{y}| _{\overline{k(Q)}}\) is defined over \(k(Q)\) where \(Q\) is a quadric. The proof uses algebraic cobordism constructed by \textit{M. Levine} and \textit{F. Morel} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 332, 723--728 (2001; Zbl 0991.19001), C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 332, 815--820 (2001; Zbl 1009.19002)]. For a smooth variety \(X\), there is a natural surjective map \(pr:\Omega^*(X) \rightarrow \mathrm{CH}^*(X)\) from the ring of algebraic cobordism \(\Omega^*(X)\) of \(X\) to Chow groups of \(X\). The author constructs some cohomology operations on algebraic cobordism which are called symmetric operations \(\Phi^{t^r}:\Omega^d(X) \rightarrow \Omega^{2d+r}(X)\) for \(r\geq 0\). The symmetric operations are related to some Steenrod operations \(S^*\) and the author shows that if \(\overline{y}| _{\overline{k(Q)}}\) is defined over \(k(Q)\), and \(m-[\dim (Q)+\frac{1}{2}]<j\), then \(S^j(\bar{y})\) is defined over \(k\). The proof of the main result is based on the observation that over \(\bar{k}\), the quadric \(Q\) becomes a cellular variety, hence the algebraic cobordism and Chow groups of the product \(Q\times Y| _{\bar{k}}\) have a compatible decomposition. The methods and results of this paper serve as a main tool in the uniform construction of fields with all known \(\mu\)-invariants which also gives some new \(\mu\)-invariants.