On a rationality question in the Grothendieck ring of varieties (Q977137)

Let \(k\) be a field and let \(K_{0}(\text{Var}_{k})\) denote the Grothendieck group of varieties over \(k\). In [Séminaire Bourbaki 1999/2000, Astérisque 276, 267--297 (2002; Zbl 0996.14011)], \textit{E. Looijenga} showed that if \(k\) is an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, and if \(G\) is a finite abelian group acting linearly on a finite dimensional \(k\)-vector space \(V\), then \([V/G]=\mathbb{L}^{\dim_{k}V}\), where \(\mathbb{L}\) denotes the class of the affine line over \(k\). In this paper the authors investigate possible generalizations of this formula when \(k\) is not assumed to be algebraically closed. For example they show that if \(dim_{k}V\leq2\), then Looijenga's formula holds true. Their proof makes it clear that the main reason for the restriction to the case when \(\dim_{k}V\leq2\) is that in this case \(\mathbb{P}(V)\cong\mathbb{P}_{k}^{1}\) and hence \(\mathbb{P}(V)/G\cong\mathbb{P}_{k}^{1}\) as well.