HOLOMORPHIC VECTOR FIELDS AND RATIONALITY

arXiv:1911.04717v1 [math.AG] 12 Nov 2019

WENCHUAN HU

Abstract. We show that a nonsingular irreducible complex projective variety

admitting a holomorphic vector field with nonempty isolated zeroes, is rational
using Harvey-Lawson techniques on finite volume flows. This statement was
conjectured by J. Carrell.

1. Introduction
The action of group actions on manifolds is one of long lasting research subject
in mathematics. Almost every topic in algebra, geometry and topology, there is a
corresponding version with group actions, e.g., for a cohomology theory there is an
equivariant cohomology theory. In particular, the action of 1-parameter group on
manifolds is one of the simplest and widest concerned interesting branches in the
field of group actions on topological spaces.
There are lots of significant results related the structure of a complex analytic
space or a complex manifold to its fixed point set under the action of a com-
plex 1-parameter group. The topological and analytic invariants between a com-
pact Kähler manifold or a singular projective variety and those of the fixed point
set under an analytic action of a complex multiplicative group can be found in
[B-B1],[CG],[Fr], etc. and the references therein.
Bialynicki-Birula showed that any nonsingular projective variety X under a com-
plex multiplicative group Gm action admits a canonical decomposition into Gm -
invariant locally closed subvarieties. In particular, the algebro-geometric invariants
of the variety can be read from those of the fixed point set. When the fixed point set
is isolated, all the cohomology theories on X (e.g., Chow groups, algebraic cycles
modulo algebraic equivalence, Lawson homology, singular homology) are naturally
isomorphic (see [B-B1], [ES], [Fr], [LF]). Moreover, such a variety X must be a
rational variety.
However, the situation is much more subtle for a projective variety under the
action of an algebraic additive group. Lieberman’s philosophy is the following:
the understanding of the structure of a nonsingular complex projective variety
X through the fixed point set under an additive group action amounts to the
understanding of the structure of X through the zero locus of a holomorphic vector
field. The reason is that the structure of a nonsingular projective variety under the
action of multiplicative group is clearly understood through the information of the
fixed point set (see [Li2]).
Now let V be a holomorphic vector field defined on a nonsingular complex pro-
jective algebraic variety X. The zero subscheme Z is the subspace of X defined by
the ideal generated by V OX .

Key words and phrases. Holomorphic vector field, rationality, Chow variety.
1
2 WENCHUAN HU

Contrary to the real case, there are a lot of topological obstructions to the
existence of a holomorphic vector field on a complex projective variety. Moreover,
the structure of X are closely related to that of Z. For examples, the rational
cohomological ring of X can be determined by those of Z and the fundamental
group of X is perfect if Z is simple (see [CL]).
A fundamental problem in algebraic geometry is to determine which varieties
are rational. One of the most famous problems in the direction, formulated by J.
Carrell, is the following conjecture.
Conjecture 1.1 ([C], p.33). A smooth (or nonsingular) irreducible projective alge-
braic variety X admitting a holomorphic vector field with nonempty isolated zeroes,
is rational.
This conjecture stated in an open problem format, can be found in an earlier
literature (see [Li1]).
During last fourty years, there have been lots of progress in all kinds of special
cases. For surfaces, this conjecture is proved in [CHK], [Li2, p.99]. For X with
dim X ≤ 5, it was proved by Hwang (see [Hw1]). Hwang also mentioned in his paper
that M. Koras had proved the conjecture for dimension less than or equals to 4 in an
unpublished paper in a possibly quite different way. Under the assumption that the
automorphism group of the manifold is semisimple, it was proved by Deligne (see
[C, p.32]). Under the assumption that the induced action on the tangent space at
the isolated zero has a single Jordan block, it was proved by Konarski ([K]). Under
the assumption that the holomorphic vector field has a totally degenerate zero, it
was proved by Hwang ([Hw2]). This conjecture has been studied by Lieberman
(see [Li1], [Li2]), who had shown that it holds if every point in Z is non-degenerate.
Recall that a point in Z is called non-degenerate if it is a nonsingular point on
Z and the OX,Z -linear map LV : IZ /IZ2 → IZ /IZ2 has nonzero determinant on Z.
Note that a holomorphic vector field obtained from the flow of a multiplicative
group action is always non-degenerate.
The above conjecture, as is well known, is equivalent to the following([Li1],[K]):
Conjecture 1.2. If X is a nonsingular projective variety admitting an algebraic
additive group action having exactly one fixed point, then X is rational.
We will show below this conjecture to be true by applying techniques developed
by Harvey and Lawson to the ring OX,p of local regular functions of a point on X,
to get an isomorphism between OX,p and that of a point on Pn .

2. The main result and its proof

In this section we will show Conjecture 1.2 and hence Conjecture 1.1 hold. From
now on, let X be a smooth complex projective variety of dimension n admitting
a C-action with exactly one fixed point p, i.e, X C = p. A theorem of Blanchard
says that X can be C-equivariantly embedded in PN for some positive integer N
(cf. [Li2]). Through a C-equivariant projection, we get a C-equivariant morphism
ψ : X → Pn with a dense image. In fact the morphism is surjective. It induces a
C-algebra injective homomorphism ψ ∗ : OPn ,q → OX,p between local rings, where
q = φ(p) (see [Sh, Ch. I, §5.3]). Note that OPn ,q ∼ = OCn ,o as C-algebras, where
o ∈ Cn is the origin.
 Holomorphic vector fields and rationality 3

Let mp ⊂ OX,p (resp. mo ⊂ OCn ,o ) be the corresponding maximal ideal of local

algebras. Then ψ ∗ (m0 ) ⊂ mp under the identification OPn ,q ∼
= OCn ,o .
Note that the flow φt induced from the C-action generates a finite volume com-
plex graph T in the sense of Harvey and Lawson (see [HL, §9]), where
T := {(t, φt (x), x) ∈ C × X × X|t ∈ C and x ∈ X} ⊂ P1 × X × X
and its closure T ⊂ P1 × X × X is a projective variety. According to their theory,
this T provides us an operator equation
I − P = d ◦ T + T ◦ d : E k (X) → D′k (X)
for k ≥ 0, where E k (X) is the space of smooth k-forms on X, D′k (X) is the space
of k-currents on X, I is the identity operator, P : E k (X) → D′k (X) is given by
P α = limt→∞ φ∗t (α) and T : E k (X) → Dk−1 (X) is the operator given by T (see
[HL, §2]),
When restricting to the local ring of C-algebra OX,p , we get the formula
I − P = T ◦ d : OX,p → OX,p
since T = 0 on E 0 (X) = C ∞ (X) the set of smooth functions on X and hence T = 0
on OX,p since an element f in OX,p can be extended to a smooth function on X.
The operator P on f ∈ C ∞ (X) is the value f (p) since
(P f )(x) = lim φ∗t (f )(x) = lim f ◦ φt (x) = f ( lim φt (x)) = f (p).
t→∞ t→∞ t→∞
Therefore, we have the following formula when restricted on OX,p
(2.1) f − f (p) = T ◦ df, f ∈ OX,p .
Moreover, when restricted on mp , we have
(2.2) f = T ◦ df, f ∈ mp
since f (p) = 0 for f ∈ mp .
Let Ω1X,p be the space of local 1-forms with coefficients in OX,p , i.e., Ω1X,p =
= Ω1X,p ⊗OX,p C ∼
{df |f ∈ OX,p }. Since X is a nonsingular variety, we have Tp∗ X ∼ =
mp /m2p as C-vector spaces, where Tp∗ X is the cotangent space of X at p. Since
dim X = n, mp /m2p is a C-vector space of dimension n. Note that when restricting
on Ω1X,p , the operator T : Ω1X,p → mp is a C-linear operator and Ω1X,p is a free
OX,p -module.
Consider the following diagram
d T0
(2.3) OPn ,q / Ω1 n / OPn ,q
P ,q

ψ∗ ψ∗ ψ∗
  
d / Ω1 T / OX,p ,
OX,p X,p

where T0 is the induced operator for the induced C-action on Pn with the fixed
point ψ(p) = q.
The first square in Equation 2.3 is commutative since the differential d is a
natural map, i.e., d ◦ ψ ∗ = ψ ∗ ◦ d, while the second square in Equation 2.3 is
commutative since T ◦ d = Id − P . To see this, we take α = df where f (p) = 0,
then T0 (α) = f . Hence ψ ∗ T0 (α) = ψ ∗ (f ) = T (d(ψ ∗ (f ))) = T (ψ ∗ (df )) = T (ψ ∗ (α))
since the pullback ψ ∗ : OPn ,q → OX,p and ψ ∗ : Ω1Pn ,q → Ω1X,p are natural maps.
4 WENCHUAN HU

Note that there are natural C-linear isomorphisms

M
∞
mip mp
Ω1X,p ∼
= ⊗
i=0
mi+1
p m2p

and
M
∞
mip
OX,p ∼
= .
i=0
mi+1
p

mip mp
Under these isomorphisms, we see the image of mi+1
⊗ m2p under the map
p

T
Ω1X,p → OX,p
mi+1
is in p
mi+2
. Moreover,
p

mip mp mi+1
p
T( ⊗ ) =
mi+1
p m2p mi+2
p

since mip · mp = mi+1

p .
Now from Equation (2.3), we have the following exact sequence of commutative
diagram

d T0
(2.4) 0 / ker(T0 ) / Ω1 n / mo /0
P ,q

ψ∗ ψ∗ ψ∗
 
0 / ker(T ) d / Ω1 T / m p / 0,
X,p

where mo = mPn ,q as before.

Lemma 2.5. The pullback map ψ ∗ : Ω1Pn ,q → Ω1X,p is surjective.
L ∞ mp i L∞ mo i
Proof. Note that Ω1X,p ∼ ⊗ mp2 and Ω1Pn ,q ∼
m
= i=0 mi+1 = i=0 mi+1 ⊗m m2o .
o
p p o
Since dim X = n, ψ ∗ induces an isomorphism ψ ∗ : Tq∗ (Pn ) ∼ = Tp∗ X of C-vector
i mip
spaces, i.e., ψ ∗ : m2o ∼
m mo m
mo= p2 . In other words, ψ ∗ : i+1
mp ⊗ m20 → i+1 ⊗ 2p is an mo m0 mp mp
isomorphism for i = 0.
mio m0 mip mp
Now we use inductions on i. Suppose that ψ ∗ : mi+1
⊗ m20
→ mi+1
⊗ m2p is
o p
surjective for i = k.
Consider the following commutative diagram
mk m0 T0
/ mk+1 /0
0
mk+1
⊗ m20
0
mk+2
0 0

ψ∗ ψ∗
 
mk mp T mk+1
p
⊗ / p / 0,
mk+1
p
m2p mk+2
p

we get from Equation (2.4) both T and T0 are surjective. By the inductive hypoth-
esis, the first column ψ ∗ is isomorphism. Hence we know ψ ∗ on the second column
 Holomorphic vector fields and rationality 5

is surjective. Therefore,
mk+1 m0 mk+1
p mp
ψ∗ : 0
k+2
⊗ 2 → k+2
⊗ 2
m0 m0 mp mp
is also surjective. This completes the induction and hence the proof of the lemma.

Lemma 2.6. The pullback map ψ ∗ : mo → mp is an isomorphism.
Proof. Since ψ ∗ : mo → mp is a prior injective as we explained above, we only need
to show it is surjective. Note that in Equation (2.4), both T and T0 are surjective.
Moreover, ψ ∗ on the middle column is surjective by Lemma 2.5. Therefore, ψ ∗ on
the third column is surjective. This completes the proof of the lemma. 
Remark 2.7. Harvey and Lawson applied to their techniques to the flow given by a
C∗ -action on a compact Kähler manifold to obtain a complex graph T . Moreover,
they obtained that T is of finite volume, T are of an analytic subvariety (see [So]).
Theorem 2.8. If X is a nonsingular irreducible projective variety admitting a
C-action with nonempty isolated fixed point, then X is rational.
Proof. Since ψ ∗ : OPn ,o → OX,p is a prior an injective C-algebraic homomorphism.
By Lemma 2.6, ψ ∗ : mo → mp is surjective. Since ψ ∗ maps constants in OPn ,o
exactly onto constants in OX,p , we obtain that ψ ∗ : OPn ,o → OX,p is also surjective.
Hence ψ ∗ : OPn ,o → OX,p is an isomorphism. Since the rational function field K(X)
(resp. K(Pn )) of X (resp. Pn ) is the fractional field of OX,p (resp. OPn ,o ), ψ ∗ :
K(X) → K(Pn ) is an isomorphism as a field. This implies that X is birational to
Pn (see [Ha]) and hence X is rational. This completes the proof of the theorem. 
Remark 2.9. Since the condition of regularity of X is a key part in the proof of
Theorem 2.8, it obviously does not work for varieties with singularity. Moreover,
cones over nonsingular projective varieties are counterexamples which prevent gen-
eralizing Theorem 2.8 to the singular case.
Acknowledgements
This work is partially supported by NSFC(11771305,11521061).

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School of Mathematics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China

E-mail address: [email protected]