Quotient singularities in the Grothendieck ring of varieties

Abstract: Let

G

be a finite group,

X

be a smooth complex projective variety with a faithful

G

-action, and

Y

be a resolution of singularities of

X / G

. Larsen and Lunts asked whether

[X / G] - [Y]

is divisible by

[m a t h b b A^{1}]

in the Grothendieck ring of varieties. We show that the answer is negative if

B G

is not stably rational and affirmative if

G

is abelian. The case when

X = Z^{n}

for some smooth projective variety

Z

and

G = S_{n}

acts by permutation of the factors is of particular interest. We make progress on it by showing that

[Z^{n} / S_{n}] - [Z l a n g l e n a n g l e / S_{n}]

is divisible by

[m a t h b b A^{1}]

, where

Z l a n g l e n a n g l e

is Ulyanov's polydiagonal compactification of the

n

-th configuration space of

Z

.

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