Burt Totaro’s research while affiliated with University of California, Los Angeles and other places

Immediately following the commentary below, this previously published article is reprinted in its entirety: B. Mazur, Arithmetic on curves.

We compute the Hodge and the de Rham cohomology of the classifying space BG (defined as étale cohomology on the algebraic stack BG) for reductive groups G over many fields, including fields of small characteristic. These calculations have a direct relation with representation theory, yielding new results there. The calculations are closely analogous to, but not always the same as, the cohomology of classifying spaces in topology.

We show that the Kodaira vanishing theorem can fail on smooth Fano varieties of any characteristic p > 0. Taking cones over some of these varieties, we give the first examples of terminal singularities which are not Cohen-Macaulay. By a different method, we construct a terminal singularity of dimension 3 (the lowest possible) in characteristic 2 which is not Cohen-Macaulay.

We show that the Kodaira vanishing theorem can fail on smooth Fano varieties of any characteristic p > 0. Taking cones over some of these varieties, we give the first examples of terminal singularities which are not Cohen-Macaulay. By a different method, we construct a terminal singularity of dimension 3 (the lowest possible) in characteristic 2 which is not Cohen-Macaulay.

We survey the history of the Tate conjecture on algebraic cycles. The conjecture is closely related with other big problems in arithmetic and algebraic geometry, including the Hodge and Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjectures. We conclude by discussing the recent proof of the Tate conjecture for K3 surfaces over finite fields.

We compute the Hodge and de Rham cohomology of the classifying space BG (defined as a simplicial scheme) for reductive groups G over many fields, including fields of small characteristic. These calculations have a direct relation with representation theory, yielding new results there. The calculations are closely analogous to, but not always the same as, the cohomology of classifying spaces in topology.

We determine the essential dimension of the spin group Spin(n) as an algebraic group over a field of characteristic 2, for n at least 15. In this range, the essential dimension is the same as in characteristic not 2. In particular, it is exponential in n. This is surprising in that the essential dimension of the orthogonal groups is smaller in characteristic 2. We also find the essential dimension of Spin(n) in characteristic 2 for n at most 10.

We determine the essential dimension of the spin group Spin(n) as an algebraic group over a field of characteristic 2, for n at least 15. In this range, the essential dimension is the same as in characteristic not 2. In particular, it is exponential in n. This is surprising in that the essential dimension of the orthogonal groups is smaller in characteristic 2. We also find the essential dimension of Spin(n) in characteristic 2 for n at most 10.

A limit of rational varieties need not be rational, even if all varieties in the family are projective and have at most terminal singularities.

The Hilbert scheme X^{[a]} of points on a complex manifold X is a compactification of the configuration space of a-element subsets of X. The integral cohomology of X^{[a]} is more subtle than the rational cohomology. In this paper, we compute the mod 2 cohomology of X^{[2]} for any complex manifold X, and the integral cohomology of X^{[2]} when X has torsion-free cohomology. The results of this paper are used in Voisin's work on the universal CH_0 group of cubic hypersurfaces, because the crucial point there is to study the 2-torsion in the Chow group.