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# Two-dimensional 𝑡-𝐽 model at moderate doping

## 1 Introduction

The two-dimensional $`t`$-$`J`$ model was proposed by Anderson Anderson  for the description of strong electron correlations in CuO2 planes of perovskite high-$`T_c`$ superconductors. In Ref. FZhang  the similarity of the low-energy part of its spectrum with the spectrum of the realistic three-band Hubbard model was demonstrated. Nowadays the $`t`$-$`J`$ model is one of the most frequently used models for the interpretation of experimental results in cuprates (for a review, see Ref. Izyumov ). Different numerical and analytical methods were used for the investigation of the model. Among these methods are the exact diagonalization of small clusters Dagotto ; Jaklic , Monte Carlo simulations SZhang , density matrix renormalization group calculations White , spin-wave Sherman98 ; Plakida  and mean-field slave-boson approximations Kane . In spite of the considerable progress made towards the understanding of the properties of the model, the basic issues of its behavior at moderate doping have not yet been completely resolved.

Aiming at a description for this range of concentration in Ref. Sherman02  a new analytical method was developed which has merits of retaining the rotation symmetry of spin components in the paramagnetic state and of the absence of any preset magnetic ordering. Since the description is carried out in terms of the Hubbard operators, the method takes proper account of the kinematic interaction. The method is based on Mori’s projection operator technique Mori  which allows one to represent Green’s functions in the form of continued fractions and gives a way for calculating their elements. The residual term of the fraction is approximated by the decoupling which reduces this many-particle Green’s function to a product of the sought-for functions. Using the idea of Ref. Kondo  the decoupling is corrected by introducing a vertex correction, a multiplier which is determined from the sum rule of the considered problem, the constraint of zero site magnetization in the paramagnetic state. Test calculations with this method for small clusters and high temperatures demonstrated good agreement of the obtained results with the exact diagonalization and Monte Carlo data. Notice that close approaches which use equations of motion and Tserkovnikov’s formalism were developed in Ref. Shimahara91  to consider magnetic properties of the 2D $`t`$-$`J`$ model.

This article contains results of calculations carried out with the method of Ref. Sherman02  for a 20$`\times `$20 lattice and parameters $`J=0.1`$ eV, $`t=0.5`$ eV where $`J`$ and $`t`$ are the exchange and hopping constants of the $`t`$-$`J`$ model. Test calculations with lattices of other sizes showed that the considered lattice is large enough to avoid finite-size effects in spectral functions. The parameters chosen correspond to hole-doped cuprate perovskites Mcmahan . The considered range of hole concentrations $`0x0.16`$ spans the cases from light to moderate doping. The temperature range of the calculations $`0.01t58\mathrm{K}T0.2t1200\mathrm{K}`$ embraces the range of temperatures used in experiment.

The calculated Green’s functions reveal a number of peculiarities in the hole and spin excitation spectrum. For low $`x`$ and $`T`$, besides the spin-polaron peak Izyumov , a series of less intensive and broader maxima is observed at higher frequencies in the hole spectral function. These maxima are nearly equidistant which allows us to connect them with vibrations of a hole in a region of the perturbed short-range antiferromagnetic order. This region arises due to the hole movement. The lowest of these maxima with a dispersion which mimics the dispersion of the spin-polaron peak is apparently observed in lightly doped Ca2CuO2Cl2. For low hole concentrations only the spin-polaron band crosses the Fermi level which leads to the Fermi surface consisting of four ellipses around $`(\pm \pi /2,\pm \pi /2)`$. For $`x0.05`$ the second band, which arises below the Fermi level in the used hole picture, crosses the Fermi level and the Fermi surface acquires new elements – large rhombuses around $`(0,0)`$ and $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. However, due to the peculiar dispersion of the spin-polaron band and its larger spectral intensity parts of this large Fermi surface near $`(0,\pi )`$ and $`(\pi ,0)`$ are hidden which looks like a pseudogap, a decrease of the low-frequency spectral intensity in these regions of the Brillouin zone. The magnitude of the pseudogap – the energy distance between the spin-polaron peak and the Fermi level – decreases with $`x`$ and at $`x0.12`$ the pseudogap disappears. The symmetry, magnitude and concentration dependence of the calculated pseudogap are similar to those observed in Bi-based cuprates.

As mentioned, the method used has no preset magnetic ordering which opens the way to investigate whether the strong electron correlations described by the $`t`$-$`J`$ model are responsible for the charge and magnetic inhomogeneities observed in some cuprates Tranquada . In the considered ranges of hole concentrations and temperatures only the homogeneous solutions were found which indicates that other interactions have to be invoked to explain these inhomogeneities.

The calculated spectrum of spin excitations contains a gap near $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ which is directly connected with the correlation length of the short-range antiferromagnetic order. The dependence of the correlation length on $`x`$ reproduces the relation observed experimentally in La2-xSrxCuO4 Keimer . With increasing $`x`$ the branch of spin excitations is destroyed near $`(0,0)`$, whereas at the periphery of the Brillouin zone the excitations remain well defined. The calculated magnetic susceptibility and its dependencies on $`x`$ and $`T`$ are similar to those observed in neutron scattering and NMR experiments. This similarity allows us to offer explanations for the observed scaling of the static uniform susceptibility and for the changes in the spin-lattice relaxation and spin-echo decay rates in terms of the temperature and doping variations in the spin excitation spectrum of the $`t`$-$`J`$ model.

For convenience main formulas of Ref. Sherman02 , which were used in the calculations, are reproduced in Sec. II. In Sec. III and IV peculiarities of the hole and spin excitation spectra are discussed. The spin susceptibility, spin correlations, spin-lattice relaxation and spin-echo decay rates are considered in Sec. V. Our conclusions are given in Sec. VI.

## 2 Main formulas

The Hamiltonian of the 2D $`t`$-$`J`$ model reads Izyumov

$$H=\underset{\mathrm{𝐧𝐦}\sigma }{}t_{\mathrm{𝐧𝐦}}a_{𝐧\sigma }^{}a_{𝐦\sigma }+\frac{1}{2}\underset{\mathrm{𝐧𝐦}}{}J_{\mathrm{𝐧𝐦}}\left(s_𝐧^zs_𝐦^z+s_𝐧^{+1}s_𝐦^1\right),$$
(1)
where $`a_{𝐧\sigma }=|𝐧\sigma 𝐧0|`$ is the hole annihilation operator, n and m label sites of the square lattice, $`\sigma =\pm 1`$ is the spin projection, $`|𝐧\sigma `$ and $`|𝐧0`$ are site states corresponding to the absence and presence of a hole on the site. These states may be considered as linear combinations of the products of the $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$ copper and $`2p_\sigma `$ oxygen orbitals of the extended Hubbard model Sherman98 ; Jefferson . In this work we take into account nearest neighbor interactions only, $`t_{\mathrm{𝐧𝐦}}=t_𝐚\delta _{𝐧,𝐦+𝐚}`$ and $`J_{\mathrm{𝐧𝐦}}=J_𝐚\delta _{𝐧,𝐦+𝐚}`$ where the four vectors a connect nearest neighbor sites. The spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ operators can be written as $`s_𝐧^z=\frac{1}{2}_\sigma \sigma |𝐧\sigma 𝐧\sigma |`$ and $`s_𝐧^\sigma =|𝐧\sigma 𝐧,\sigma |`$.

Due to the complicated commutation relations the diagram technique for the operators $`a_{𝐧\sigma }`$, $`s_𝐧^z`$, and $`s_𝐧^\sigma `$ is very intricate Skryabin . In this case the use of Mori’s projection operator technique Mori  for the derivation of self-energy equations for Green’s functions constructed from such operators is especially fruitful. In this way the following equations were found for the hole $`G(𝐤t)=a_{𝐤\sigma }|a_{𝐤\sigma }^{}=i\theta (t)\{a_{𝐤\sigma }(t),a_{𝐤\sigma }^{}\}`$ and spin $`D(𝐤t)=i\theta (t)[s_𝐤^z(t),s_𝐤^z]`$ Green’s functions Sherman02 :

$`D(𝐤\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{[4J\alpha (\mathrm{\Delta }+1+\gamma _𝐤)]^1\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )+4JC_1(\gamma _𝐤1)}{\omega ^2\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )\omega _𝐤^2}},`$
$`G(𝐤\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi [\omega \epsilon _𝐤+\mu \mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐤\omega )]^1,`$
where $`D(𝐤\omega )=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{exp}(i\omega t)D(𝐤t)𝑑t`$,

$`a_{𝐤\sigma }`$ $`=`$ $`N^{1/2}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐧}{}}\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{𝐤𝐧})a_{𝐧\sigma },`$
$`s_𝐤^z`$ $`=`$ $`N^{1/2}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐧}{}}\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{𝐤𝐧})s_𝐧^z,`$
$`a_{𝐤\sigma }(t)=\mathrm{exp}(it)a_{𝐤\sigma }\mathrm{exp}(it)`$, $`N`$ is the number of sites, $`=H\mu _𝐧X_𝐧`$, $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential, $`X_𝐧=|𝐧0𝐧0|`$, the angular brackets denote averaging over the grand canonical ensemble, $`\gamma _𝐤=\frac{1}{4}_𝐚\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{𝐤𝐚})`$, $`\varphi =\frac{1}{2}(1+x)`$, and

$`\omega _𝐤^2`$ $`=`$ $`16J^2\alpha |C_1|(1\gamma _𝐤)(\mathrm{\Delta }+1+\gamma _𝐤),`$
$`\epsilon _𝐤`$ $`=`$ $`(4\varphi t+6C_1\varphi ^1t+3F_1\varphi ^1J)\gamma _𝐤.`$
In the present calculations the parameter of vertex correction $`\alpha `$, which improves the decoupling in the residual term, is set equal to its value in the undoped case, $`\alpha =1.802`$ \[this value differs slightly from that reported in Refs. Sherman02 ; Shimahara  due to an artificial broadening introduced in $`D(𝐤\omega )`$, see below\]. The parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ which describes a gap in the spectrum of spin excitations at $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ \[see Eq. (LABEL:seed)\] is determined by the constraint of zero site magnetization $`s_𝐥^z=0`$ in the paramagnetic state. The constraint can be written in the form

$$\frac{1}{2}(1x)=\frac{2}{N}\underset{𝐤}{}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega \mathrm{coth}\left(\frac{\omega }{2T}\right)B(𝐤\omega ),$$
(4)
where $`B(𝐤\omega )=\pi ^1\mathrm{Im}D(𝐤\omega )`$ is the spin spectral function. Notice that in accord with the Mermin-Wagner theorem Mermin  in the considered 2D system the long-range antiferromagnetic ordering is destroyed at any nonzero $`T`$ and, as will be seen below, for $`T=0`$ and $`x>x_c0.02`$. The value of $`x`$ and the nearest neighbor correlations $`C_1=s_𝐥^{+1}s_{𝐥+𝐚}^1`$ and $`F_1=a_𝐥^{}a_{𝐥+𝐚}`$ are connected with Green’s functions (LABEL:se) by the following relations:

$`x`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega n_F(\omega )A(𝐤\omega ),`$
$`F_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\gamma _𝐤{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega n_F(\omega )A(𝐤\omega ),`$ (5)
$`C_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\gamma _𝐤{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega \mathrm{coth}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{2T}}\right)B(𝐤\omega ),`$
where $`A(𝐤\omega )=\pi ^1\mathrm{Im}G(𝐤\omega )`$ is the hole spectral functions and $`n_F(\omega )=[\mathrm{exp}(\omega /T)+1]^1`$.

The self-energies in Eq. (LABEL:se) read

$`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{16\pi t^2J}{N}}(\mathrm{\Delta }+1+\gamma _𝐤){\displaystyle \underset{𝐤^{}}{}}(\gamma _𝐤\gamma _{𝐤+𝐤^{}})^2`$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega ^{}[n_F(\omega +\omega ^{})n_F(\omega ^{})]`$
$`\times `$ $`A(𝐤+𝐤^{},\omega +\omega ^{})A(𝐤^{}\omega ^{}),`$
$`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐤\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{16\pi t^2}{N\varphi }}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤^{}}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}d\omega ^{}[\gamma _{𝐤𝐤^{}}+\gamma _𝐤`$
$`+`$ $`\mathrm{sgn}(\omega ^{})(\gamma _{𝐤𝐤^{}}\gamma _𝐤)\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1+\gamma _𝐤^{}}{1\gamma _𝐤^{}}}}]^2`$
$`\times `$ $`[n_B(\omega ^{})+n_F(\omega \omega ^{})]`$
$`\times `$ $`A(𝐤𝐤^{},\omega \omega ^{})B(𝐤^{}\omega ^{}),`$
where $`n_B(\omega )=\left[\mathrm{exp}(\omega /T)1\right]^1`$. The source of damping of spin excitations described by Eq. (2) is the decay into two fermions. Another source of damping, multiple spin excitation scattering, is considered phenomenologically by adding the small artificial broadening $`2\eta \omega _𝐤`$, $`\eta =0.02t`$ to $`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )`$. The broadening $`\eta `$ is also added to $`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐤\omega )`$ to widen narrow lines and to stabilize the iteration procedure.

The same derivation for the transversal spin Green’s function gives $`s_𝐤^1|s_𝐤^{+1}=2D(𝐤t)`$ indicating that the used approach retains properly the rotation symmetry of spin components in the paramagnetic state.

For low hole concentrations and temperatures the bandwidth of the dispersion $`\epsilon _𝐤`$, Eq. (LABEL:seed), is approximately equal to $`t`$ which is much smaller than $`8t`$, the bandwidth of uncorrelated electrons. The reason for this band narrowing is the antiferromagnetic alignment of spins. In this case the hole movement is accompanied by the spin flipping. In these conditions the hole dispersion is determined by the self-energy $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐤\omega )`$ which is responsible for a considerable energy gain for states in the spin-polaron band. For the parameters used this gain is approximately equal to $`2t`$.

## 3 The hole spectrum

Equations (LABEL:se)–(2) form a closed set which was solved by iteration. Examples of the hole spectral functions for the cases of low and moderate doping are given in Figs. 1 and 2.

The frequency is measured from the chemical potential. For low $`x`$ the shapes of the spectra are close to those obtained in the spin-wave approximation Sherman98 . As seen from Fig. 1, at low doping the hole spectral function contains a series of nearly equidistant maxima. The first member of this series is the narrow peak with the highest intensity which is frequently termed the spin-polaron peak (in some of the spectra in Figs. 1 and 2 only its foot is shown). The dispersion of the maxima in the above spectra along the symmetry directions is shown in Fig. 3. In the spin-polaron band the lowest energy is reached at $`(\pi /2,\pi /2)`$.

The nearly equidistant location of the maxima is clearly seen in Fig. 3a. Besides, we notice that the second maximum in the series has a dispersion which is close in shape to the dispersion of the spin-polaron peak. As follows from Figs. 2 and 3b, this maximum is retained at moderate doping in some region of the Brillouin zone.

The nearly equidistant position of the maxima in the low-concentration spectra allows us to connect them with vibronic states of a hole in the region of the perturbed short-range antiferromagnetic order. The moving hole leaves behind it a trace of overturned spins. Such disturbance requires energy which in its turn leads to a restoring force acting on the hole and giving rise to its vibrations. This notion is close to the string picture developed in Ref. Siggia  for the Ising model and used for the interpretation of the fine spectral structure in the $`t`$-$`J`$ model on small lattices Izyumov ; Dagotto .

The two lowest maxima of the above-mentioned series are apparently observed in lightly doped Ca2CuO2Cl2 Kim . The narrow and intensive spin-polaron peak is responsible for the photoemission maximum with the lowest binding energy, while the second member of the series corresponds to the spectral maximum which is observed at approximately 600 meV higher binding energy. This energy difference is close to that shown in Fig. 3a. Besides, as noted in Ref. Kim , the dispersion of the second maximum mimics the dispersion of the spin-polaron peak, which conforms with our calculations. However, it should be noted that our calculated dispersion of the spin-polaron band differs somewhat from that observed experimentally in lightly doped cuprates Kim ; Wells . Although the shapes and magnitudes of the experimental and calculated dispersions along the nodal direction \[from $`(0,0)`$ to $`(\pi ,\pi )`$\] are close, along the boundary of the magnetic Brillouin zone \[from $`(0,\pi )`$ to $`(\pi ,0)`$\] the magnitude of the calculated dispersion is an order of magnitude smaller than the experimental one. A possible reason for this discrepancy is the oversimplified hole hopping term in Hamiltonian (1) which takes into account the transfer between nearest neighbor sites only Kim ; Barabanov .

The spectral intensity below the chemical potential in Figs. 1 and 3a is noteworthy. Already at low $`x`$ in some region of the Brillouin zone this spectral feature looks like a weak maximum. It is this spectral intensity which provides a finite hole concentration until the spin-polaron band crosses the Fermi level at $`x0.04`$.

With increasing $`x`$ and $`T`$ the high-frequency maxima in the nearly equidistant series are smeared, as seen in Fig. 2. Inspecting this figure one can see that for moderate hole concentrations two maxima – the spin-polaron peak and a less intensive and broader maximum – cross the Fermi level. This latter maximum originates from the mentioned spectral feature which appears below the chemical potential at low $`x`$. The dispersions of the two maxima and some other spectral peculiarities are shown in Fig. 3b. The maxima can be resolved in the spectrum only in some regions of the Brillouin zone. This is the reason why the curves in Fig. 3b terminate at some points of the symmetry lines.

The evolution of the Fermi surface with doping is shown in Fig. 4.

No Fermi surface exists for $`x0.04`$, since no maximum which can be identified with a quasiparticle excitation crosses the Fermi level (see Figs. 1 and 3a). As indicated above, for such $`x`$ the occupied hole states are located at some distance from the level. At $`x0.04`$ the spin-polaron band crosses the Fermi level near $`(\pm \pi /2,\pm \pi /2)`$ which produces a Fermi surface consisting of four strongly elongated ellipses around these points. In Fig. 4 the transverse size of one of these ellipses is much smaller than the used momentum step and therefore the ellipse is depicted as a line segment. At $`x0.05`$ the second band crosses the Fermi level. With this crossing the Fermi surface acquires new elements – in addition to the ellipses of the spin-polaron band there appear two large rhombuses centered at $`(0,0)`$ and $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ (see Fig. 4, the case $`x=0.08`$). One of these rhombuses can be considered as a shadow image of the other, which arises due to the antiferromagnetic short-range order. Notice, however, that the rhombuses are slightly different in size. In such a manner the small Fermi surface which exists for $`x0.05`$ is transformed to the large surface for larger hole concentrations. With a further increase of $`x`$ the Fermi level moves up from the bottom of the spin-polaron band, the size of the ellipses grows and their shape is somewhat changed. At $`x0.12`$ they reach the boundaries of the Brillouin zone and the parts of the Fermi surface connected with the spin-polaron band are transformed into two rhombuses the shapes and sizes of which are close to those connected with the second band. Thus, for $`x0.12`$ the Fermi surface consists of two rhombuses centered at $`(0,0)`$ and $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ (see Fig. 4).

The compound Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ is most intensively investigated in angle-resolved photoemission experiments. However, even for this crystal the Fermi surface topology is a topic of an intense controversy (see, e.g., Ref. Damascelli  and references therein). The main reasons for this are broad spectral features in underdoped normal-state crystals and the weak dispersion around $`(\pi ,0)`$ (the so called flat bands or extended van Hove singularities, see Fig. 3b). We notice also that for moderate doping the spin-polaron band in all the area between the rhombuses lies less than 20 meV below the Fermi level. This energy is on the verge of accuracy of photoemission experiments. Nevertheless in the variety of experimental results on the Fermi surface of normal-state cuprates it is possible to find some features which resemble those shown in Fig. 4. The shadow Fermi surfaces (together with some other replicas of the main Fermi surface) are observed in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Damascelli ; Aebi . In some experimental conditions in this crystal and in La2-xSrxCuO4 the shapes of experimental Fermi surfaces King ; Zhou  are close to that shown in Fig. 4 for $`x=0.12`$. Notice however that in Ref. Zhou  such shape of the Fermi surface in La2-xSrxCuO4 is ascribed to dynamic stripes presumed in this crystal.

As indicated, in the range $`0.05x0.12`$ the Fermi surface contains parts arising due to the crossings of the Fermi level by two different bands. The spectral maxima corresponding to these bands differ essentially in their intensity. In comparison with the spin-polaron peak the spectral maximum of the second band is weaker and broader (see Fig. 2). As a consequence, for wave vectors near $`(0,\pi )`$ and $`(\pi ,0)`$ this maximum is lost to the foot of the spin-polaron peak on crossing the Fermi level. Since the spin-polaron band lies somewhat above the Fermi level in this region of the Brillouin zone, the situation looks like a part of the Fermi surface disappears here and a gap opens between the hole energy band and the Fermi level Sherman98 ; Sherman97 . In its size ($`20`$ meV) and symmetry this gap is similar to the pseudogap observed in photoemission spectra. The gap disappears at $`x0.12`$ when the whole Fermi surface stems from the crossing of the spin-polaron band with the Fermi level.

The normalized hole density of states,

$$\rho (\omega )=N^1\underset{𝐤}{}A(𝐤\omega ),$$

is shown in Fig. 5 for three hole concentrations from the extremely low to the moderate doping case. As seen from the figure, a considerable part of the density of states is concentrated at a maximum which persists near the Fermi level in a wide range of hole concentrations. This maximum is produced by the above-mentioned extended van Hove singularities in the spin-polaron band and plays a great role in the superconductive transition in the $`t`$-$`J`$ model Sherman95 .

## 4 The spectrum of spin excitations

Typical shapes of the spin spectral function $`B(𝐤\omega )`$ are shown in Fig. 6.

For low and moderate $`x`$ the spectrum consists of a maximum with an extended high-frequency tail. Some fine structure can be observed for certain wave vectors which is connected with the frequency dependence of the polarization operator (2).

The increases of the temperature and the hole concentration act in a similar manner on the spectrum. This action is different in the nearest vicinity of $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ and in the remainder of the Brillouin zone. As seen from Fig. 6, in the latter case with increasing $`x`$ (and $`T`$) the maximum in $`B(𝐤\omega )`$ is shifted to lower frequencies and loses its intensity, while in the former case the frequency of the maximum, on the contrary, grows. This frequency growth is connected with the gap in the spin excitation spectrum at $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. The magnitude of this gap grows with increasing $`x`$ and $`T`$.

As follows from Eq. (LABEL:se), the frequencies of spin excitations satisfy the equation

$$\omega ^2\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )\omega _𝐤^2=0.$$
(7)
Their dispersion along the symmetry lines is shown in Fig. 7 for different $`x`$ and $`T`$. In this figure vertical bars depict the decay widths $`|\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )|/(2\omega _𝐤)`$ of the excitations, the imaginary parts of the respective poles in Green’s function.

As seen from Fig. 7a, for low $`x`$ and $`T`$ the dispersion of spin excitations is close to the dispersion of spin waves. The main difference is the above-mentioned spin gap at $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. In an infinite crystal the magnitude of this gap is directly connected with the spin correlation length $`\xi `$. Indeed, using Eq. (LABEL:se) and taking into account that the region near $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ gives the main contribution to the summation over k, we find for large distances and low temperatures

$`s_𝐥^zs_\mathrm{𝟎}^z`$ $`=`$ $`N^1{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\mathrm{e}^{i\mathrm{𝐤𝐥}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega \mathrm{coth}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{2T}}\right)B(𝐤\omega )`$ (8)
$``$ $`\mathrm{e}^{i\mathrm{𝐐𝐥}}(\xi /|𝐥|)^{1/2}\mathrm{e}^{|𝐥|/\xi },`$
$`\xi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{a}{2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}}},`$
where $`𝐐=(\pi ,\pi )`$ and $`a`$ is the intersite distance (in the considered temperature and hole concentration ranges $`\omega _𝐐^2`$ $`|\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐐,\omega _𝐐)|`$; therefore in the above equation the gap magnitude is approximated by $`\omega _𝐐`$). For low $`x`$ we found $`\mathrm{\Delta }0.2x`$ and consequently

$$\xi \frac{a}{\sqrt{x}}.$$

This relation between the spin correlation length and the hole concentration has been experimentally observed in La2-xSrxCuO4 Keimer .

With growing $`x`$ the spin excitation branch is destroyed in some region around the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point – for such momenta Eq. (7) has no real solution due to a negative value of $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )`$. In Fig. 7 this peculiarity is reflected in the rupture of the dispersion branch in this region where excitation frequencies are purely imaginary. Thus, much like the Heisenberg model Tserkovnikov ; Reger , properties of elementary excitations near $`(0,0)`$ and $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ are different: in the former region the excitations are overdamped, while in the latter they are gapped. With rise of temperature the branch are partly restored around $`(0,0)`$. The explanation for such behavior follows from Fig. 8. For low temperatures and long wavelengths $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Pi }(𝐤\omega )`$ has a pronounced dip at low frequencies. This dip is connected with the spin-polaron band and is responsible for the lack of real solutions in Eq. (7). With increasing $`T`$ the spin-polaron peaks are smeared, the depth of the dip in Fig. 8 becomes smaller and Eq. (7) has again real solutions.

## 5 Magnetic properties

As already mentioned, in accord with the Mermin-Wagner theorem Mermin  the considered 2D system is in the paramagnetic state for $`T>0`$. This result can also be obtained using equations of Sec. II. Numerical calculations and the analysis of experimental data presented strong evidence that the 2D nearest-neighbor $`s=\frac{1}{2}`$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet has long-range order at $`T=0`$ Reger . Let us consider an infinite crystal at $`T=0`$ and find the hole concentration $`x_c`$ which destroys this ordering. Notice that the indication of the long-range order is a finite value of the condensation parameter $`C`$ which is determined from constraint (4) and the condition $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$,

$$C=\frac{1}{2}(1x)\sqrt{\frac{|C_1|}{\alpha }}\frac{1}{N}\underset{𝐤𝐐}{}\sqrt{\frac{1\gamma _𝐤}{1+\gamma _𝐤}},N\mathrm{}.$$
(9)
As seen from Eqs. (4) and (9),

$$C=\sqrt{\frac{2|C_1|}{\alpha }}\underset{N\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{N\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}}.$$

As follows from Eq. (8), the sublattice magnetization $`M=(lim_{|𝐥|\mathrm{}}|𝐬_𝐥𝐬_\mathrm{𝟎}|)^{1/2}`$ is connected with the condensation parameter by the relation $`M=(3C/2)^{1/2}`$. To estimate $`x_c`$ the dependencies of $`C_1`$ and $`\alpha `$ on $`x`$ have to be taken into account. From our calculations for low $`x`$ we found that $`|C_1|0.21170.5750x`$ and $`\alpha 1.8028.021x`$. Substituting these values into Eq. (9) we find that $`C`$ vanishes at $`x_c0.02`$. Thus, at $`T=0`$ the infinite 2D crystal is in the state with long-range antiferromagnetic order for $`x<x_c`$ and in the paramagnetic state for $`x>x_c`$.

In the considered finite lattice the correlation length is limited by the size of the lattice. The spin correlations $`C_{mn}=s_𝐥^zs_\mathrm{𝟎}^z`$, $`𝐥=(m,n)`$ calculated from the obtained spin spectral function with the use of Eq. (8) are shown in Fig. 9.

For large enough $`x`$ and $`T`$ the correlations decay exponentially with distance in the considered finite lattice. As mentioned, the method used has no preset magnetic ordering. The character of the ordering is determined in the course of the self-consistent calculations. The magnetic susceptibility obtained in these calculations is strongly peaked at the antiferromagnetic wave vector for low frequencies. No indications of incommensurability, which can be related to stripes or other types of phase separation, are observed in the susceptibility. Conceivably such phase separations are not connected with the strong electron correlations described by the $`t`$-$`J`$ model.

The magnetic susceptibility is connected with the spin Green’s function (LABEL:se) by the relation

$$\chi ^z(𝐤\omega )=4\mu _B^2D(𝐤\omega ),$$

where $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton. Experiments on inelastic neutron scattering give information on the susceptibility which can be directly compared with the calculated results. Such comparison with the results measured in normal-state YBa2Cu3O7-y Bourges  is carried out in Fig. 10.

YBa2Cu3O7-y is a bilayer crystal and the symmetry allows one to divide the susceptibility into odd and even parts. For the antiferromagnetic intrabilayer coupling the odd part can be compared with the calculated results. The oxygen deficiencies $`y=0.5`$ and 0.17 in the experimental data in Fig. 10 correspond to the hole concentrations $`x0.05`$ and 0.11, respectively Tallon . As seen from Fig. 10, the calculated data reproduce correctly the frequency dependence of the susceptibility, the values of the frequency for which $`\mathrm{Im}\chi (\pi ,\pi )`$ reaches maximum and their evolution with doping. The increase of the frequency of the maximum with $`x`$ reflects the respective growth of the spin gap (see Fig. 6). In absolute units the calculated maxima of $`\mathrm{Im}\chi (\pi ,\pi )`$ are $`1.52`$ times larger than the experimental values which is connected with some difference in decay widths of spin excitations.

The temperature variations of the experimental and calculated susceptibilities are compared in Fig. 11.

This figure demonstrates the imaginary part of the local spin susceptibility which is defined as

$$\mathrm{Im}\chi _L(\omega )=N^1\underset{𝐤}{}\mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐤\omega ).$$

As seen from the figure, the calculated temperature variation of the susceptibility is also in good agreement with experiment.

The calculated temperature and concentration dependencies of the uniform static spin susceptibility,

$$\chi _0=\chi (𝐤0,\omega =0)=4\mu _B^2T^1\underset{𝐧}{}s_𝐧^zs_\mathrm{𝟎}^z,$$

are shown in Fig. 12.

The values lie in the range 2–2.6 eV-1 which is close to the values 1.9–2.6 eV-1 obtained for YBa2Cu3O7-y Monien . Close values of $`\chi _0`$ were also obtained by the exact diagonalization of small clusters Jaklic . The temperature dependence of $`\chi _0`$ has a maximum and the temperature of the maximum $`T_m`$ grows with decreasing $`x`$. Analogous behavior is observed in cuprates for large enough $`x`$ Johnston ; Torrance ; Takigawa91 ; Nakano . In Fig. 12a $`T_m600`$ K which is close to the value observed in La2-xSrxCuO4 for comparable hole concentrations Johnston . As known, in the undoped antiferromagnet $`T_mJ`$ Manousakis . On the high-temperature side $`\chi _0(T)`$ tends to the Curie-Weiss behavior $`1/T`$.

The decrease of $`\chi _0`$ below $`T_m`$ is sometimes considered as the manifestation of the spin gap. In our opinion this statement is incorrect. For moderate $`x`$ and $`T`$ the long-wavelength part of the spin excitation spectrum does not feel the gap at $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. For small but finite values of k $`\chi (𝐤,0)_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega ^{}B(𝐤\omega ^{})/\omega ^{}`$. As indicated in Sec. IV, the function $`B(𝐤\omega ^{})`$ has a maximum which is shifted to lower frequencies and loses its intensity with increasing temperature for such wave vectors. In the above integral the maximum is superimposed with the decreasing function $`1/\omega ^{}`$ which finally leads to the nonmonotonic behavior of $`\chi _0(T)`$.

As seen from Fig. 12a, the two curves for the different $`x`$ are very close in shape and can be superposed by scaling to the same values of the maximum $`\chi _0`$ and $`T_m`$. Analogous scaling was observed in La2-xSrxCuO4 Johnston . As follows from the above discussion, the source of this scaling is that holes and temperature fluctuations lead in a similar manner to the softening of the maximum in $`B(𝐤\omega ^{})`$ for long wavelengths.

As in experiment Johnston ; Torrance , the dependence $`\chi _0(x)`$ in Fig. 12b has a maximum. However, the calculated value of the hole concentration which corresponds to the maximum is much smaller than the experimental value $`x0.25`$. A possible reason for this discrepancy is the approximation used for calculating the hole self-energy Sherman02 .

The spin-lattice relaxation and spin-echo decay rates were calculated with the use of the equations Barzykin

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{{}_{}{}^{\alpha }T_{1\beta }^{}T}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\mu _B^2N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{\overset{\alpha }{}}}F_\beta (𝐤){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐤\omega )}{\omega }},\omega 0,`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{({}_{}{}^{63}T_{2G}^{})^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{0.69}{128\mu _B^4}}\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{\overset{63}{}}}F_e^2(𝐤)\left[\mathrm{Re}\chi (𝐤0)\right]^2`$
$``$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{\overset{63}{}}}F_e(𝐤)\mathrm{Re}\chi (𝐤0)\right]^2\},`$
where the form factors are

$`{}_{}{}^{63}F_{}^{}(𝐤)=\left(A_{}+4B\gamma _𝐤\right)^2,`$
$`{}_{}{}^{63}F_{e}^{}(𝐤)=\left(A_{}+4B\gamma _𝐤\right)^2,`$
(11)
$`{}_{}{}^{63}F_{}^{}(𝐤)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[{}_{}{}^{63}F_{}^{}(𝐤)+^{63}F_e(𝐤)\right],`$
$`{}_{}{}^{17}F_{}^{}(𝐤)=2C^2\left(1+\gamma _𝐤\right).`$
In the above formulas the hyperfine coupling constants $`B=3.8210^7`$ eV, $`A_{}=0.84B`$, $`A_{}=4B`$, and $`C=0.91B`$ Barzykin . The superscripts $`\alpha =63`$ or 17 indicate that the respective quantity belongs to the Cu or O site, respectively. The subscripts $``$ and $``$ refer to the direction of the applied static magnetic field H with respect to the axis c perpendicular to the Cu-O plane. The form factor $`{}_{}{}^{63}F_{e}^{}`$ is the filter for the Cu spin-echo decay time $`{}_{}{}^{63}T_{2G}^{}`$. Due to the different momentum dependencies of the form factors (11) measurements of the spin-lattice and spin-echo decay rates allow one to extract the information on the low-frequency susceptibility in different regions of the Brillouin zone.

Our calculated results are compared with the respective experimental data in Fig. 13.

The calculations reproduce satisfactorily the main peculiarities of the temperature dependencies of the spin-lattice relaxation and spin-echo decay rates. The growth of $`(^{63}T_1T)^1`$ with decreasing $`x`$ is connected with the increase of the spectral intensity of spin excitations near $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ which make the main contribution to this rate. For the same hole concentration $`(^{63}T_1T)^1`$ is one order of magnitude larger than $`(^{17}T_1T)^1`$. This is a consequence of the fact that $`\mathrm{Im}\chi `$ is strongly peaked near $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ and the momentum dependencies of the form factors (11) Barzykin . The calculated spin-lattice relaxation rates are smaller than the experimental values due to the approximation made in the calculation of $`D(𝐤\omega )`$ which somewhat underestimates $`\mathrm{Im}\chi `$ at low frequencies.

For moderate $`x`$ with increasing $`T`$ the low-frequency region of $`\mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐤𝐐)`$, $`𝐐=(\pi ,\pi )`$ first grows due to the temperature broadening of the maximum in its frequency dependence and then decreases due to the temperature growth of the spin gap (see Fig. 6 and the related discussion). This nonmonotonic behavior of the susceptibility shows up in the spin-lattice relaxation rate at Cu in Fig. 13a. The temperature variations of $`\mathrm{Im}\chi `$ and $`(^{63}T_1T)^1`$ can be related with the temperature behavior of the magnetic correlation length. As can be seen in Fig. 14, for moderate $`x`$ and low $`T`$ the magnitude of the spin gap is determined by the hole concentration and does not depend on $`T`$.

This temperature range corresponds to the growth stage in Fig. 13a. As follows from Eq. (8), the independence of the gap from $`T`$ means that in this temperature range $`\xi `$ does not depend on temperature either which is a distinctive feature of the quantum disordered regime Barzykin ; Chubukov . For temperatures above the maximum of $`(^{63}T_1T)^1`$ we found that $`{}_{}{}^{63}T_{1}^{}T/^{63}T_{2G}`$ const (see Figs. 13a and c). As seen in Fig. 14, in this temperature range $`\xi ^1\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ varies linearly with $`T`$. Both these facts indicate that in the mentioned temperature range the crystal is in the quantum critical $`z=1`$ regime. These conclusions are consistent with the phenomenological treatment of experiment in YBa2Cu3O7-y carried out in Ref. Barzykin . The temperature of the maximum in Fig. 13a is close to the parameter $`T_{}`$ of that work, the temperature which separates the quantum disordered and quantum critical $`z=1`$ regimes.

For small hole concentrations the temperature range in which holes determine the correlation length is absent or very small. In these conditions the spin gap grows starting from low temperatures and $`(^{63}T_1T)^1`$ decreases monotonously, as shown in Fig. 13b.

Due to the form factor $`{}_{}{}^{17}F_{}^{}(𝐤)`$, Eq. (11), the momentum region near $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ does not contribute to $`(^{17}T_1T)^1`$. As indicated in Sec. IV, there is a cardinal difference between the behavior of $`\mathrm{Im}\chi `$ for $`𝐤𝐐`$ and away from $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. Due to the spin gap in the former case the frequency of the maximum in $`\mathrm{Im}\chi (\omega )`$ increases with temperature, while in the latter case it decreases. This frequency softening leads to the growth of the low-frequency $`\mathrm{Im}\chi `$ and $`(^{17}T_1T)^1`$ at low $`T`$ and their saturation for higher temperatures. Analogous behavior is observed in experiment Takigawa94 , as seen in Fig. 13d. Thus, the temperature and concentration variations of the spin excitation spectrum in the $`t`$-$`J`$ model put forward the simple explanations for the behavior of the spin-lattice relaxation and spin-echo decay rates observed in cuprates.

## 6 Concluding remarks

In this work we applied Mori’s projection operator technique and the decoupling of the many-particle Green’s functions for obtaining the closed set of self-energy equations which describes energy and magnetic properties of the $`t`$-$`J`$ model of the Cu-O planes in perovskite high-$`T_c`$ superconductors. The equations retain the rotation symmetry of spin components and zero site magnetization in the paramagnetic state which is set for $`T>0`$ or $`x>x_c0.02`$ in the case $`T=0`$ in an infinite crystal.

For the parameters of cuprates in the cases of low and moderate doping this self-consistently calculated solution of the equation is homogeneous. This result indicates that phase separations are not related to strong electron correlations described by the model.

A number of unusual spectral and magnetic properties of cuprate perovskites is satisfactorily reproduced by the calculations. Among these properties are the extended van Hove singularities around $`(0,\pi )`$ and $`(\pi ,0)`$. Due to strong electron correlations these singularities persist near the Fermi level in a wide range of hole concentrations which has to play an essential role in the superconductivity of cuprates.

The pseudogap in the calculated hole spectrum has the same symmetry and is close in magnitude to the pseudogap observed in photoemission of these crystals. As in experiment, the calculated pseudogap disappears when the hole concentration approaches the optimal doping. The existence of two maxima with similar dispersions in the photoemission spectrum of lightly doped Ca2CuO2Cl2 is related to hole vibronic states in the region of the disturbed antiferromagnetic order.

In the considered model the concentration dependence of the magnetic correlation length is the same as that observed in La2-xSrxCuO4. As indicated, in contrast to this crystal, the model does not show low-frequency incommensurate spin fluctuations for the considered parameters.

In other respects the calculated magnetic susceptibility is close to that derived from experiments. The results of the calculations offer explanations for the observed scaling of the static uniform susceptibility and for the changes in the spin-lattice relaxation and spin-echo decay rates in terms of the temperature and doping variations in the spin excitation spectrum. The scaling is related to the fact that holes and temperature fluctuations lead in a similar manner to the softening of the maxima in the spin spectral function for long wavelengths. This softening leads to the monotonic increase of the spin-lattice relaxation rate at O.

Contrastingly, due to the spin gap the frequencies of the maxima in the spin spectral function for momenta near $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ grow with temperature and hole concentration. This region of momenta makes the main contribution to the spin-lattice relaxation rate at Cu. For low hole concentrations the growth of the frequencies of the maxima leads to the monotonic decrease of the rate. For moderate concentrations two temperature regions may be distinguished. In the low-temperature region the gap magnitude and the correlation length depend only weakly on temperature. In this region the spin-lattice relaxation rate at Cu grows. The behavior of these parameters in the high-temperature region is the same as for low hole concentrations.

This work was partially supported by the ESF grant No. 4022 and by DFG.


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# The Order of the Top Chern Class of the Hodge Bundle on the Moduli Space of Abelian Varieties 11footnote 1topchernorder.tex

## 1. Introduction

Let $`𝒜_g/`$ denote the moduli stack of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension $`g`$. This is an irreducible algebraic stack of relative dimension $`g(g+1)/2`$ with irreducible fibres over $``$. The stack $`𝒜_g`$ carries a locally free sheaf $`𝔼`$ of rank $`g`$, the Hodge bundle, defined as follows. If $`A/S`$ is an abelian scheme over $`S`$ with zero section $`s`$ we get a locally free sheaf $`s^{}\mathrm{\Omega }_{A/S}^1`$ of rank $`g`$ on $`S`$ and this is compatible with pull backs. If $`\pi :AS`$ denotes the structure map it satisfies the property $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{A/S}^1=\pi ^{}(𝔼)`$ and we will consider its Chern classes $`\lambda _i(A/S):=c_i(\mathrm{\Omega }_{A/S}^1)`$ (in the Chow ring of $`S`$). These then are the pullbacks of the corresponding classes in the universal case $`\lambda _i:=c_i(𝔼)`$. The Hodge bundle can be extended to a locally free sheaf (again denoted by) $`𝔼`$ on every smooth toroidal compactification $`\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_g`$ of $`𝒜_g`$ of the type constructed in , see Ch. VI,4 there. By a slight abuse of notation we will continue to use the notation $`\lambda _i`$ for its Chern classes.

The classes $`\lambda _i`$ are defined over $``$ and give for each fibre $`𝒜_gk`$ rise to classes, also denoted $`\lambda _i`$, in the Chow ring $`CH^{}(𝒜_gk)`$, and in $`CH^{}(\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_gk)`$. They generate subrings ($``$-subalgebras) of $`CH_{}^{}(𝒜_gk)`$ and of $`CH_{}^{}(\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_gk)`$ which are called the *tautological subrings*.

It was proved in  by an application of the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theorem that these classes in the Chow ring $`CH_{}^{}(𝒜_g)`$ with rational coefficients satisfy the following relation

(1.1)
$$(1+\lambda _1+\mathrm{}+\lambda _g)(1\lambda _1+\mathrm{}+(1)^g\lambda _g)=1.$$

Furthermore, it was proved that $`\lambda _g`$ vanishes in the Chow group $`CH_{}(𝒜_g)`$ with rational coefficients. The class $`\lambda _g`$ does not vanish on $`\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_g`$. This raises two questions. First, since $`\lambda _g`$ is a torsion class on $`𝒜_g`$ we may ask what its order is. Second, since $`\lambda _g`$ up to torsion comes from a class on the ‘boundary’ $`\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_g𝒜_g`$ we may ask for a description of this class. As an answer to the first question we give an upper bound on the order of $`\lambda _g`$ in the third section and a non-vanishing result in the fourth section which implies a lower bound. That result is obtained as a consequence of a more precise result that determines the order of the Chern classes of the de Rham bundle up to a (multiplicative) factor two. As an answer to the second question we shall generalize the well-known relation $`12\lambda _1=\delta `$ for $`g=1`$ to higher $`g`$ in a sequel to this paper .

The authors thank the referee for his many useful remarks and thank the editors for their patience.

## 2. $`K`$-theory for stacks

We will need to extend some results on $`K`$-theory from schemes to stacks. Just as in the schematic case we denote by $`K^0(X)`$ the Grothendieck group of vector bundles on the algebraic stack $`X`$, and by $`K_0(X)`$ the Grothendieck group of coherent sheaves. We shall use  for the general notions concerning algebraic stacks, in particular the definition of coherent sheaf on an algebraic stack, cf., \[14, 15.1\]. We shall follow standard usage in that by an *algebraic stack* we mean a general algebraic stack – what is also called an Artin stack – while by Deligne-Mumford stack we mean an algebraic with an étale chart. The first result is the homotopy exact sequence (cf., \[2, IX:Prop. 1.1\]).

###### Remark 2.1.

Our purpose is quite restricted, we only want results that can be used in the next section, and hence we will make no attempt at maximum generality. It will be clear that some of the results are in fact true in larger generality than stated.

We will in this section only consider algebraic stacks of finite type over a base field $`𝐤`$.

###### Proposition 2.2.

Let $`X`$ be a noetherian algebraic stack, $`i:X^{}X`$ a closed substack of $`X`$, and $`j:UX`$ the complement of $`X^{}`$. Then the sequence

$$K_0(X^{})\stackrel{i_{}}{}K_0(X)\stackrel{j^{}}{}K_0(U)0$$

is exact.

###### Proof.

The proof is the same as that of \[2, IX:Prop. 1.1\] once we know that every coherent sheaf on $`U`$ extends to one on $`X`$ and that every coherent subsheaf of an extended quasi-coherent sheaf extends as a subsheaf. Such extensions are provided by \[14, Cor. 15.5\]. ∎

The next step is to prove the analogue of \[2, IX:Prop. 1.6\], the calculation of $`K_0`$ for a vector bundle.

###### Proposition 2.3.

Let $`X`$ be a noetherian Deligne-Mumford stack and $`EX`$ a vector bundle over $`X`$. Then the pullback map $`K_0(X)K_0(E)`$ is an isomorphism.

###### Proof.

As a general remark we note that $`K_0`$ is contravariant not just for flat maps but for all morphisms between noetherian stacks of finite Tor-dimension.

We first prove the proposition for the case when $`E=X\times 𝔸^1`$ and for that we follow the proof of \[2, IX:Prop. 1.6\]. We start by noting that the zero section of $`X\times 𝔸^1`$ is of finite Tor-dimension and hence we have a map $`K_0(X\times 𝔸^1)K_0(X)`$ such that the composite $`K_0(X)K_0(X\times 𝔸^1)K_0(X)`$ is the identity. This shows that $`K_0(X)K_0(E)`$ is injective and it remains to show surjectivity.

We may now by noetherian induction assume that the corresponding map is an isomorphism for every proper closed substack. By 2.2 it is hence enough to show the result for some non-empty open subset of $`X`$. By \[14, Prop. 6.1.1\] there is a non-empty open subset of $`X`$ which is the stack quotient of an action of a finite group on an affine scheme and we consider that open subset so that we may assume that $`X`$ itself is such a quotient. If the affine scheme is $`\mathrm{Spec}R`$ and the group is $`G`$ then the category of coherent $`𝒪_X`$-modules is equivalent to the category of finitely generated modules over the twisted group ring $`R[G]`$ (“twisted” because of the relation $`g\lambda =\lambda ^gg`$ for $`\lambda R`$ and $`gG`$) and the category of coherent modules over $`X\times 𝔸^1`$ is then equivalent to the category of finitely generated modules over $`R[G][T]`$, the polynomial ring over $`R[G]`$. Note also that if $`S`$ is the ring of invariants of $`G`$ on $`R`$, then $`S`$ is noetherian as $`R`$ is and $`R[G]`$ is a finite $`S`$-algebra. We then conclude by \[3, XII:Th. 4.1\] which says exactly that for a finite $`S`$-algebra $`A`$, the map $`G_0(A)G_0(A[T])`$ is an isomorphism; $`G_0(B)`$ in Bass’ notation being the Grothendieck group of finitely generated $`B`$-modules.

In the general case, we will say that two maps $`f,g:YZ`$ between algebraic stacks are *affine-homotopic* if there is a map $`F:Y\times 𝔸^1Z`$ which restricted to the zero-section is $`f`$ and restricted to the $`1`$-section is $`g`$. Note also that the $`0`$\- and $`1`$-section in $`X\times 𝔸^1`$ are of finite Tor-dimension which means that we may pull back elements of $`K_0(Y\times 𝔸^1)`$ along them. By the special case of $`E=X\times 𝔸^1`$ just proven we get that $`0^{}`$ and $`1^{}`$ are both inverses to the said isomorphism and hence they are equal. This implies that if we have two maps $`f,g:YZ`$ of finite Tor-dimension related by an affine homotopy of finite Tor-dimension we get that $`f^{}=g^{}`$ on $`K_0(X)`$.

This can now be applied to the identity map and the composite of the structure map $`EX`$ and the zero-section $`XE`$ which are affine-homotopic by the usual map $`(v,t)tv`$. ∎

###### Remark 2.4.

In \[2, IX:Prop. 1.6\] noetherian induction is used to allow one to assume that the scheme is reduced. Then a passage to the limit is made so that instead of reducing to an open affine subset one reduces to a field in which case one is dealing with regular schemes and can switch to $`K^0`$ instead where the result is easier to prove. This is not possible in our situation as even for a field $`K`$ the twisted group ring $`K[G]`$ is not of finite global dimension when the characteristic divides the order of the subgroup of elements of $`G`$ acting trivially on $`K`$. In  the same strategy as in \[2, IX:Prop. 1.6\] is used to reduce to the case of a finite dimensional algebra over a field. There a further reduction is made by dividing out by the radical of the algebra, a step which corresponds to assuming that the scheme is reduced.

We will now need to consider the topological filtration on $`K`$-theory. Hence we define, for $`X`$ a regular algebraic stack, $`\mathrm{Fil}^iK_0(X)`$ to be the subgroup generated by classes of sheaves with support of codimension $`i`$. Using (2.3) we get an isomorphism $`K_0(X)K_0(E)`$ for every vector bundle $`EX`$. We now define $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^i(X)`$ to be the limit of $`\mathrm{Fil}^i(E)`$ for all vector bundles $`EX`$ and surjective vector bundle maps between them.

###### Proposition 2.5.

Let $`X`$ be a Deligne-Mumford stack which is the stack quotient of the action of a finite group $`G`$ on a smooth quasi-projective $`𝐤`$-scheme $`Y`$.

i) The forgetful map $`K^0(X)K_0(X)`$ is an isomorphism.

ii) If $`dimX=n`$ and $`eK^0(X)`$ maps to $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^i(X)`$ then $`c_j(e)[X]A_{nj}(X)`$ is zero for $`0<j<i`$.

iii) Using the isomorphism $`K^0(X)K_0(X)`$ to get a multiplication on $`K_0(X)`$ the filtration $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^{}`$ is multiplicative, i.e., $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^i\mathrm{Fil}_b^j\mathrm{Fil}_b^{i+j}`$ for all $`i`$ and $`j`$.

###### Proof.

For i) we use the fact that the category of coherent $`𝒪_X`$-modules is equivalent to the category of coherent $`𝒪_Y`$-modules with a $`G`$-action compatible with the action of $`G`$ on $`Y`$, i.e., a $`𝒪_Y[G]`$-module for the twisted group ring. What needs to be proved is, as in the spatial (i.e., algebraic space) case, that every coherent $`𝒪_X`$-module has a finite resolution by coherent locally free $`𝒪_X`$-modules. An $`𝒪_X`$-module is locally free exactly when the corresponding $`𝒪_Y`$-module is. As $`Y`$ is regular and of finite type over $`𝐤`$ there is a bound for the global dimension of the local rings of $`Y`$. Hence it is enough to show that each coherent $`𝒪_Y[G]`$-module $``$ is the quotient of a $`𝒪_Y[G]`$-module $``$ that is coherent and locally free as $`𝒪_Y`$-module. By \[2, Cor. II:2.2.7.1\], $``$ is the quotient of a coherent locally free $`𝒪_Y`$-module $`^{}`$ and it is then the quotient of the $`𝒪_Y[G]`$-module $`^{}[G]`$.

As for ii) it follows directly from i), excision (\[13, Prop. 2.3.6\]), boundedness by dimension (\[13, Prop. 3.4.2\]), and the fact that vector bundle maps induce isomorphisms on Chow groups (\[13, Cor. 2.4.9\]).

Continuing with iii), we may, after possibly replacing $`X`$ by a vector bundle over it, reduce to showing that $`\mathrm{Fil}^i\mathrm{Fil}^j\mathrm{Fil}_b^{i+j}`$. According to \[13, Prop. 3.5.6\] we may find a vector bundle $`EX`$ and an open subset $`UE`$ whose complement has codimension $`>i+j`$ such that $`U`$ is an algebraic space. For our purposes we will however need $`U`$ to be quasi-projective. This is easily arranged by letting $`\pi :EX`$ be the stack quotient of $`G`$ acting on $`𝒪_Y[G]^n`$ for $`n`$ large ($`n>i+j`$ will do) and letting $`U`$ be the quotient of the part where $`G`$ acts freely. We now have an isomorphism $`\pi ^{}:K_0(X)K_0(E)`$ and it will be enough to show that $`\pi ^{}\mathrm{Fil}^i(X)\pi ^{}\mathrm{Fil}^j(X)\mathrm{Fil}^{i+j}(E)`$ and for that is enough that $`\mathrm{Fil}^i(E)\mathrm{Fil}^j(E)\mathrm{Fil}^{i+j}(E)`$. By excision, (2.2), it is enough to show that $`\mathrm{Fil}^i(U)\mathrm{Fil}^j(U)\mathrm{Fil}^{i+j}(U)`$ but $`U`$ is a smooth quasi-projective variety and then it is \[2, 0 App:Cor. 2.12.1\] when the base field is algebraically closed. The only dependence on the assumption of algebraic closedness is for the moving lemma. However, the moving lemma is true over any field, cf., \[16, §3:Thm\]. ∎

###### Remark 2.6.

We have used the notation $`\mathrm{Fil}`$ for the filtration directly defined by a support condition as it is already well-established in the spatial case. However, we do not believe it is the “right” definition for a general algebraic stack. Consider for instance the case of the stack quotient, $`[/G]`$, of a finite group $`G`$ acting on $`=\mathrm{Spec}𝐤`$. In that case $`K_0([/G])`$ equals the representation ring of $`G`$-representation over $`𝐤`$ and $`\mathrm{Fil}^1(/G)=\{0\}`$ which seems to be too small. On the other hand, consider the case when $`G=/2`$ (and $`𝐤`$ is a field of characteristic different from $`2`$). For any $`G`$-representation $`V`$ on which $`G`$ acts non-trivially we have that $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^1K_0([V/G])`$ equals the group $`I`$ of virtual bundles of rank $`0`$ (which is what one would like). Using the multiplicativity we get that $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^nI^n`$. On the other hand, using (2.5:ii) one can show the opposite inclusion and hence $`\mathrm{Fil}_b^n=I^n`$. This equals the topological filtration on $`K^0(BG)`$ making it seem quite reasonable.

As has been stated in the introduction one of our goals is to give an explicit integer killing $`\lambda _g`$ on $`𝒜_g`$. To make such a statement as useful as possible one would like to be able to conclude from this that its pullback along any map $`S𝒜_g`$ vanishes. In the case of schemes such a conclusion is possible because the Chern classes lie in Chow cohomology groups which is a contravariant functor. It is of course possible to formulate this contravariant character of Chern classes without introducing Chow cohomology groups but it would be quite awkward particularly when it comes to expressing relations between them. We shall therefore very briefly introduce, by perfect analogy with the spatial case, Chow cohomology groups. We shall only prove the minimal results necessary to formulate and prove our result on $`\lambda _g`$. Recall () that an algebraic stack is said to be *filtered by global quotients* if it has a stratification by substacks such that each of them is the quotient of an algebraic space by an affine group scheme. Note that the refined Gysin maps (which will be used in our proof) currently (cf., \[13, 5.1\]) are defined (essentially) only in the case when the involved stacks are filtered by global quotients. We now follow  in defining for a map $`XY`$ of algebraic stacks filtered by global quotients the *bivariant Chow groups* $`A^p(XY)`$ consisting of collections of operations as in \[10, Def. 17.1\] fulfilling the conditions $`C1C3`$ with the difference that in $`C3`$ the map $`i:Z^{\prime \prime }Z^{}`$ is assumed to be representable, locally separated whose normal cone stack is a vector bundle stack of constant rank. (These are on the one hand the conditions under which Kresch defines the refined Gysin map, on the other hand we shall want to use the Gysin map for the diagonal of an algebraic stack which means that it will not be enough to require $`C3`$ for l.c.i. embeddings.) As in \[loc. cit.\] we define the Chow cohomology groups to be the bivariant groups for the identity maps.

###### Proposition 2.7.

i) Let $`X`$ be an algebraic stack filtered by global quotients and $`E`$ a vector bundle over $`X`$. If for a map $`g:X^{}X`$ we set $`c_p(E)(\alpha ):=c_p(g^{}E)\alpha `$ then we obtain an element of $`A^p(X)`$.

ii) Let $`X`$ be a smooth algebraic stack of pure dimension $`n`$ that is filtered by global quotients. The map $`A^p(X)A_{np}(X)`$ given by cupping an operation with the fundamental class is an isomorphism.

###### Proof.

We will follow very closely the relevant parts of \[10, Chap. 17\]. For the first part we need the compatibility of Chern classes with proper push forwards, pullbacks and Gysin maps respectively. The first two properties are proven in \[13, §2.5\] and the proof of the third follows quite directly:222We are grateful to Andrew Kresch for providing us with the following proof. Chern classes are polynomials in Segre classes so it is enough to prove that Segre classes commute with Gysin maps. From the definition of Segre classes (\[13, Def. 2.5.4\]) we see that they in turn are expressed in terms of flat pullbacks, (iterated) top Chern class operations, and proper push downs. Commutation of Gysin maps with flat pullbacks and proper push downs are clear (cf., \[13, §5.1\]) so it remains to show that they commute with top Chern classes. Looking at the construction of the Gysin map (cf., \[13, §5.1,§3.1\]) one sees that it is expressed in terms of flat pullbacks, proper push forwards, and intersection with a principal effective Cartier divisor (the normal cone $`C_F^{}G^{}`$ in the deformation space $`M_F^{}^oG^{}`$, cf., \[10, §5.1\]). As the other operations are already known to commute with the top Chern class one is reduced to proving commutation with intersection with a principal effective Cartier divisor (the operation introduced in \[13, §2.2\]). Looking at the definition of the top Chern class what is needed is the projection formula (cf., \[10, Prop. 2.3 c\]) for intersection with a divisor. This is proved as in the proof of \[10, Prop. 2.3\].

As for ii), the proof is identical with \[10, Thm. 17.4.2\] (specialized to the case of the base being a point). (Note that in that proof we can not assume that the diagonal map is an immersion which is why we have to allow for more general maps in $`C3`$.) ∎

## 3. A bound on the order of the class $`\lambda _g`$.

We will make some computations in the Chow group of $`𝒜_g`$. To make this reference applicable (and for other reasons) all our algebraic stacks will be of finite type over a field. We begin with a lemma which is no doubt well known.

###### Lemma 3.1.

If $`E`$ is a vector bundle of rank $`g`$, the total Chern class of the graded vector bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E`$ is zero in degrees 1 to $`g1`$ and $`(g1)!c_g(E)`$ in degree $`g`$.

###### Proof.

As usual we note that the components of the total Chern class are universal polynomials with integer coefficients in the Chern classes $`c_i:=c_i(E)`$. Such a relation is true if and only if it is true for the tautological bundle on all Grassmannians of $`g`$-dimensional subspaces and we may hence let $`E`$ be such a bundle. Then as we may think of the coefficients in the universal polynomials as rational numbers we can note that the Chern classes of degree 1 to $`g1`$ of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E`$ vanish if and only if the Newton polynomials of the same degrees do, that is, if and only if $`\text{c}h(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E)`$ vanishes in the same degrees. Thus the first part follows from the Borel-Serre formula (cf. )

$$\text{c}h(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E)=(1)^gc_g(E)\text{Td}(E)^1.$$

Furthermore, if the Chern classes of degree 1 to $`g1`$ vanish for a bundle $`F`$, then it is clear that $`(1)^{g1}gc_g(F)=s_g(F)`$, as can be seen from Newton’s formula. (Here $`s_i(F)`$ are the Newton polynomials in the (roots of the) Chern classes of $`F`$.) Hence in degree $`g`$ we have $`\text{c}h(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E)=(1)^{g1}gc_g(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E)/g!`$, and using the Borel-Serre formula again gives the desired formula. ∎

###### Lemma 3.2.

Let $`p`$ be a prime. Suppose that $`\pi :AS`$ is a family of abelian varieties of relative dimension $`g`$, where $`S`$ is an algebraic stack that is the quotient of a smooth quasi-projective $`𝐤`$-scheme by a finite group, and assume that $`L`$ is a line bundle on $`A`$ of order $`p`$, on all fibres of $`\pi `$. Let $`E`$ be the Hodge bundle of $`\pi `$, i.e., the pullback of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{A/S}^1`$ along the zero section and let $`e`$ be the class in $`K^0(S)`$ of the graded bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}E`$. If $`p>2g`$ then $`pe\mathrm{Fil}_b^{g+1}`$ and in particular $`p(g1)!\lambda _g=0`$. If $`S`$ is actually a smooth quasi-projective variety we have that the stronger conclusion $`pe\mathrm{Fil}^{g+1}`$ is true provided only that $`p>\mathrm{min}(2g,dimS+g)`$.

###### Proof.

That $`pe\mathrm{Fil}_b^{g+1}`$ implies that $`p(g1)!\lambda _g=0`$ follows from (3.1), (2.5:ii), (2.7).

As in the proof of (2.5) we can find a vector bundle $`ES`$ with an open set $`U`$ whose complement has codimension $`>g`$ that is a smooth quasi-projective variety. By (2.3) and the definition of $`\mathrm{Fil}_b`$ we may pull back $`\pi `$ to $`U`$ and hence assume that $`S`$ is smooth and quasi-projective.

By twisting $`L`$ by a line bundle on $`S`$ so that it is trivial along the zero section we may assume that it is of order $`p`$ on $`A`$. Denoting the class of $`L`$ in $`K_0`$ by $`[L]`$ we then either have that $`p([L]1)`$ has support of codimension $`>2g`$ if $`p>2g`$ or is zero if $`p>dimS+g`$. Indeed, from the relation

$$0=[L]^p1=p([L]1)(1+\frac{p1}{2}([L]1)+\mathrm{})+([L]1)^p$$

and the fact that $`[L]1`$ is nilpotent (which in turn follows for instance from the multiplicativity of the topological filtration) we get that $`p([L]1)`$ is $`([L]1)^p`$ times a unit and $`([L]1)^p`$ element is supported in codimension $`p`$ by the multiplicativity of the topological filtration. Now in the first case the image under $`\pi `$ of the support has codimension $`>g`$ on $`S`$ and so we may safely remove it and may assume that $`p[L]=p`$ in $`K_0(A)`$.

Consider now the Poincaré bundle $`𝒫`$ on $`A\times _S\stackrel{ˇ}{A}`$, where $`\stackrel{ˇ}{A}`$ denotes the dual abelian variety. By base change $`R\pi _{}𝒪_A`$ is the (derived) pullback along the zero-section of $`\stackrel{ˇ}{A}`$ of the sheaf $`R\pi _{}𝒫`$. We have that $`p[𝒫]=p[L𝒫]`$ and so $`p[R\pi _{}𝒫]=p[R\pi _{}(L𝒫)]`$. Now, a fibrewise calculation shows that $`R\pi _{}(L𝒫)`$ has support along the inverse of the section of $`\stackrel{ˇ}{A}`$ corresponding to $`L`$. As that section is everywhere disjoint from the zero section the pullback of $`R\pi _{}(L𝒫)`$ along the zero section is 0 and thus $`p[R\pi _{}𝒪_A]=0`$. Now, the well-known calculation of $`R^i\pi _{}𝒪_A`$ shows that it is isomorphic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^iE`$ so the lemma follows. ∎

###### Definition-Lemma 3.3.

For an integer $`g`$ we let $`n_g`$ be the largest common divisor of all $`p^{2g}1`$ where $`p`$ runs through all primes larger than a sufficiently large fixed number $`N`$ (which may be taken to be $`2g+1)`$). For an odd prime $`\mathrm{}`$, the exponent $`k`$ of the exact power $`\mathrm{}^k`$ of $`\mathrm{}`$ that divides $`n_g`$ is the largest $`k`$ such that $`\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)`$ divides $`2g`$ and $`0`$ if $`\mathrm{}1`$ does not divide $`2g`$. The exponent $`k`$ of the exact power $`2^k`$ that divides $`n_g`$ is the largest $`k`$ such that $`2^{k2}`$ divides $`2g`$.

###### Proof.

Note that $`\mathrm{}^k`$ divides $`n_g`$ if and only if the exponent of $`(/\mathrm{}^k)^{}`$ divides $`2g`$. The statement now follows directly from the structure of $`(/\mathrm{}^k)^{}`$ and Dirichlet’s prime number theorem. ∎

###### Example 3.4.

We have $`n_1=24`$, $`n_2=240`$, $`n_3=504`$ and $`n_4=480`$.

###### Theorem 3.5.

Suppose that $`\pi :A𝒜_g`$ is the universal family of principally polarized abelian varieties of relative dimension $`g`$. Then $`(g1)!n_g\lambda _g=0`$ on $`𝒜_g`$.

###### Proof.

For any sufficiently large prime $`p`$ we can apply lemma 3.2 on the cover obtained by adding a line bundle everywhere of order $`p`$. Projecting down to $`𝒜_g`$ again and using that that cover has degree $`p^{2g}1`$ (being equal to the number of line bundles of order $`p`$) gives $`(g1)!p(p^{2g}1)\lambda _g=0`$. We then finish by using Definition 3.3 (and noting that the factor $`p`$ causes no trouble as by using several primes we see that no prime $`>2g`$ can divide the smallest annihilating integer). ∎

###### Remark 3.6.

For various mostly technical reasons we have been working over a field, where of course the prime fields are the optimal choices. If one would like to prove the statement over the integers then assuming that the technical details can be overcome we will still have to deal with the fact that one needs to invert a finite number of primes to use the trick of producing a line bundle of prime order by going to a covering. Though there is a large freedom in choosing the primes to which we could apply this trick, still we do not know how to solve this problem.

## 4. The order of the Chern Classes of the de Rham Bundle

We will now consider the Chern classes of the bundle of first relative de Rham cohomology of the universal abelian variety over $`𝒜_g`$. Over the complex numbers these Chern classes are the Chern classes of a flat bundle. By the Chern-Weil expression of Chern classes in terms of curvature for a smooth manifold, the Chern classes are torsion classes in integral cohomology. Grothendieck has given an arithmetic proof of this fact. His proof gives an explicit bound for the orders of the Chern classes which we will exploit. This bound depends on the field of definition of the representation of the fundamental group that is associated to the flat bundle. Luckily, in our case this representation is the natural representation of $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$ and hence the field of definition is $``$ which makes the bounds the best possible.

We will then give lower bounds for the order of these Chern classes. From the complex point of view, where the cohomology of $`𝒜_g`$ can be thought of as $`H^{}(\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(),)`$, the idea is to find finite (cyclic) subgroups of $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$ and compute the order of the restriction of the Chern classes to the cohomology of such a subgroup. Now, any finite subgroup $`G`$ of $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$ is actually the group of automorphisms of a principally polarized variety $`A`$ (as such a subgroup has a fixed point on the Siegel upper half space). Such an $`A`$ gives not only a point of $`𝒜_g`$ but also a map from the stack quotient $`[/G]`$ to $`𝒜_g`$. In particular it gives a map from the cohomology of $`𝒜_g`$ to that of $`G`$. This is an algebraic construction of the map given by the map from $`G`$ to $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$. Even though it would be possible to give a purely arithmetic construction of the detecting subgroups that we will consider it will be (at least) as easy to construct the principal abelian variety with a group action and we shall do exactly that. We shall then also continue to use the stack language. An extra benefit of this way of presenting the argument is that we directly get the lower bound also in positive characteristic. In that case, if one knew that the specialisation map in the cohomology of $`𝒜_g`$ induced an isomorphism then the result would follow from the complex version. Though such a specialisation result seems rather straightforward using the proper and smooth base change theorems, the toroidal compactifications of Chai and Faltings and an induction on $`g`$ we know of no reference. Our argument will avoid reference to such a specialisation result.

Even though we shall apply our results to obtain information on the order of $`\lambda _g`$, the results we obtain should be of independent interest.

We start with some preliminary comments on the cohomology of stacks and in particular how to extend results from the cohomology of schemes to that of algebraic stacks. If $`𝒜S`$ is an algebraic stack over a scheme $`S`$ we may find a chart $`U𝒜`$, i.e., a smooth surjective map from a scheme $`U`$. We may then consider the simplicial $`S`$-scheme $`U\times _{𝒜}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ which in degree $`n`$ is $`U\times _𝒜U\times _𝒜U\mathrm{}U\times _𝒜U`$ ($`n+1`$ times) with the obvious face and degeneracy maps. We then have an augmentation map $`U\times _{𝒜}^{}{}_{}{}^{}𝒜`$ which by smooth descent induces an isomorphism in cohomology. For any simplicial scheme $`X_{}`$ there is (cf., \[1, Exp $`V^{bis}`$\]) a spectral sequence which at the $`E_1`$-term is the cohomology of $`X_n`$ (with coefficients in the sheaf whose cohomology should be computed) converging to the cohomology of $`X_{}`$. We may therefore reduce a number of questions on the cohomology of stacks to that of schemes:

* If $`S=\mathrm{Spec}`$ we may use the comparison theorem between étale and classical cohomology with finite (or $`\mathrm{}`$-adic) coefficients to get a comparison theorem for the étale and classical cohomology of algebraic stacks.
* If $`S`$ is a discrete valuation ring then for any smooth map $`XS`$ the smooth base change theorem gives us a specialisation map (cf., \[5, Exp. XIII\] or \[6, V, (1.6.1)\] where it is called the “cospecialisation map”) $`H^{}(X_{\overline{\eta }},/n)H^{}(X_{\overline{s}},/n)`$, where $`n`$ is invertible on $`S`$, $`\overline{s}`$ is a geometric point over the special fibre of $`S`$, and $`\overline{\eta }`$ a geometric point over the generic. This extends immediately to smooth simplicial $`S`$-schemes and hence to smooth $`S`$-stacks.
* If $`S=\mathrm{Spec}`$ we get that the de Rham Chern classes of a flat vector bundle over a smooth stack are trivial. In fact, the Chern-Weil construction has been done for simplicial manifolds (cf., ).

When we will be talking about $`\mathrm{}`$-adic cohomology for an algebraic stack $`\pi :𝒜\mathrm{Spec}𝐤`$ over a field we shall always mean the higher direct images of $`\pi `$, or equivalently the cohomology of the pullback of $`𝒜`$ to a separable closure of $`𝐤`$.

Note now that the *de Rham bundle*, $`H_{dR}^1:=R^1\pi _{}\mathrm{\Omega }_{𝒳_g/𝒜_g}^{}`$, where $`\pi :𝒳_g𝒜_g`$ is the universal family, is indeed provided with an integrable connection and hence its Chern classes in integral and hence, by the comparison and specialisation theorems, $`\mathrm{}`$-adic cohomology333$`\mathrm{}`$ being as usual a prime different from the characteristic., which we will denote $`r_iH^{2i}(𝒜_g,_{\mathrm{}}(i))`$, are torsion classes. In this section we shall determine their exact order up to a factor of $`2`$.

We begin by using a result of Grothendieck to get an upper bound for the order of $`r_i`$.

###### Proposition 4.1.

i) We have $`r_i=0`$ for odd $`i`$.

ii) We have $`n_ir_{2i}=0`$.

###### Proof.

The first part follows immediately because $`H_{dR}^1`$ is a symplectic vector bundle.

As for the second part we may assume that the characteristic is $`0`$ as the case of positive characteristic follows from the characteristic $`0`$ case by specialisation as the Chern classes are compatible with specialisation maps. In that case we may further reduce to the case of the base field being the complex numbers. We may also prove the annihilation of $`n_ir_{2i}`$ in $`\mathrm{}`$-adic cohomology for a specific (but arbitrary) prime $`\mathrm{}`$.

Now, the existence of the Gauss-Manin connection on $`H_{dR}^1`$ means that $`H_{dR}^1`$ has a discrete structure group. More precisely, the (classical) fundamental group of the algebraic stack $`𝒜_g`$ is $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$ and $`H_{dR}^1`$ is the vector bundle associated to the representation of it given by the natural inclusion of $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$ in $`\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$. This complex representation is obviously defined over the rational numbers so we may apply \[12, 4.8\] with field of definition $``$. We thus conclude that $`r_{2i}H^{2i}(𝒜_g,_{\mathrm{}}(i))`$ (for the analytic, and hence by the comparison theorem, the algebraic stack) is killed by $`\mathrm{}^{\alpha (i)}`$, where $`\alpha (i)`$ is defined as

$$\underset{\lambda H}{inf}v_{\mathrm{}}(\lambda ^i1)$$

and $`H_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ is the image of the Galois group of the field of definition of the cyclotomic character. However, as the base field is $``$ this image is all of $`_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ and the result follows from the definition of $`n_i`$. ∎

We now aim to show that this upper bound is the precise order of the $`r_i`$, using as was explained actions of finite cyclic groups on principally polarized abelian varieties.

###### Proposition 4.2.

Assume that $`ig`$. The order of $`r_{2i}`$ is divisible by $`n_i/2`$ over $``$. In general, for each prime $`\mathrm{}`$ different from the characteristic of the base field, $`r_{2i}`$ in $`\mathrm{}`$-adic cohomology has order divisible by the $`\mathrm{}`$-part of $`n_i/2`$.

###### Proof.

The $`\mathrm{}`$-adic part implies the integral cohomology part so we may pick a prime $`\mathrm{}`$ different from the characteristic of the base field and look at $`r_{2i}`$ in $`\mathrm{}`$-adic cohomology. What we want to show is that if $`\mathrm{}`$ is odd and $`\mathrm{}1|2i`$ and $`k`$ is the largest integer such that $`\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)|2i`$, then $`r_{2i}`$ has order at least $`\mathrm{}^k`$ and similarly for $`\mathrm{}=2`$. We will do this by defining a map $`B/\mathrm{}^k𝒜_g`$, such that inverse image of the $`r_{2i}`$ to $`H^{4i}(/\mathrm{}^k,_{\mathrm{}})`$ has order $`\mathrm{}^k`$. Now, $`H^{4i}(/\mathrm{}^k,_{\mathrm{}})`$ is isomorphic to $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ and hence an element in it has order $`\mathrm{}^k`$ if and only if its reduction modulo $`\mathrm{}`$ is non-zero. As $`H^{4i}(/\mathrm{}^k,_{\mathrm{}})/\mathrm{}`$ injects into $`H^{4i}(/\mathrm{}^k,/\mathrm{})`$ it is enough to show that the pullback of $`r_{2i}`$ is non-zero in $`H^{4i}(/\mathrm{}^k,/\mathrm{})`$. Note that a map $`B/\mathrm{}^k𝒜_g`$ consists of a principally polarised $`g`$-dimensional abelian variety $`A`$ over the base field together with an action on it (preserving the polarisation) by $`/\mathrm{}^k`$. The pullback of $`r_{2i}`$ is then obtained as follows: The group $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ acts on $`H_{DR}^1(A)`$. A representation of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ has Chern classes444In the classical case only for a complex representation but Grothendieck (cf., ) extended it to a representation over any field. In any case our representations will be ordinary and can thus be lifted to characteristic zero. in $`H^{}(/\mathrm{}^k,_{\mathrm{}})`$ and the pullback of $`r_{2i}`$ is the $`2i`$’th Chern class of $`H_{DR}^1(A)`$.

Assume now to begin with that $`\mathrm{}`$ is odd. Consider any Galois cover $`C^1`$ with Galois group $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ which is ramified at $`0`$, $`1`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ with ramification group of order $`\mathrm{}^k`$, $`\mathrm{}^k`$, and $`\mathrm{}`$ respectively (the existence of such a cover follows directly from Kummer theory). By the Hurwitz formula the genus of such a covering fulfills the relation $`2g2=2\mathrm{}^k+2(\mathrm{}^k1)+\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)`$, i.e., $`2g=\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)`$.

We claim that the action of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ on $`H_{DR}^1(C)`$ is isomorphic to the sum of all primitive555I.e., of order exactly $`\mathrm{}^k`$. characters of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$. Admitting that for the moment we can go on with computing its total Chern class. Choose a primitive $`\mathrm{}^k`$’th root of unity $`\zeta `$ and use it in particular to identify $`/\mathrm{}`$ with $`\mu _{\mathrm{}}`$. Let $`xH^2(/\mathrm{}^k,/\mathrm{})`$ be the generator given as the first Chern class of the character that takes $`1`$ to $`\zeta `$. Then the first Chern class of the character of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ that takes $`1`$ to $`\zeta ^i`$ equals $`ix`$ and hence the total Chern class of that character is $`1+ix`$. By the multiplicativity of the total Chern class we get that the total Chern class of $`H_{DR}^1(C)`$ equals $`_{(i,\mathrm{})=1}(1+ix)`$ which in turn is equal to $`(1+x^\mathrm{}1)^{\mathrm{}^{k1}}=1+x^{\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)}`$ and hence the $`\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)`$’th Chern class is non-zero. If $`2i`$ instead is a proper multiple $`2i=m\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)`$ we look at the $`m`$’th power of the Jacobian of $`C`$ (with the diagonal action of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$). This gives the non-triviality when $`g=i`$ and when $`g>i`$ we simply add a principally polarised factor on which $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ acts trivially.

It remains to show that the action of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ on $`H_{DR}^1(C)`$ is as is claimed. We start with a remark on Chern classes of representations of a finite group. They only depend on the corresponding element in the representation ring and those elements in turn are determined by their character (i.e., the traces of the actions of the group elements). We shall therefore speak of the Chern classes of a character.

The Lefschetz fixed point formula gives a formula for the character in terms of the number of fixed points666Note that as the orders of these elements are prime to the characteristic, each fixed point is counted with multiplicity $`1`$. of the elements of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$. A proof using this formula is certainly possible but the following argument requires less computations. As the Lefschetz fixed point formula is also valid for $`\mathrm{}`$-adic cohomology the looked for character is the same as that for the action on $`H^1(C,_{\mathrm{}})`$ or more precisely, the character of the representation on $`H_{DR}^1(C)`$ is the reduction modulo $`p`$ of the character on $`H^1(C,_{\mathrm{}})`$. As the action of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ on $`C`$ is faithful, its action on $`H^1(C,_{\mathrm{}})`$ is faithful as well so that at least one primitive character has to appear in $`H^1(C,_{\mathrm{}})`$. On the other hand the $`\mathrm{}^k`$’th cyclotomic polynomial is irreducible over $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ so if one primitive character appears they must all appear. Now, the number of such characters is $`\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)`$ which equals the dimension of $`H^1(C,_{\mathrm{}})`$ so that $`H^1(C,_{\mathrm{}})`$ consists of each primitive character exactly once.

When $`\mathrm{}=2`$ we may assume that $`k>2`$ as the lower bound to be proven for $`k2`$ is implied by the one for $`k=3`$. We then make essentially the same construction, a Galois cover with group $`/2^k`$ of $`^1`$ ramified at three points with ramification groups of order $`2^k`$, $`2^k`$, and $`2`$ respectively of genus $`g=2^{k3}`$. The rest of the argument is identical to the odd case. ∎

###### Remark 4.3.

i) It follows from (1.1) that the $`r_i`$ are torsion already in the Chow groups. Our result gives a lower bound for this order but we don’t know if this bound is sharp.

ii) From the complex point of view our geometric construction can be seen simply as constructing an element of order $`\mathrm{}^k`$ in $`\mathrm{Sp}_{\mathrm{}^{k1}(\mathrm{}1)}()`$. This can be done directly; in the odd case one may consider the ring of $`\mathrm{}^k`$’th roots of unity $`R=[\zeta ]`$ with the obvious action of $`/\mathrm{}^k`$ and the symplectic form $`\alpha ,\overline{\beta }:=\mathrm{Tr}(\alpha \beta (\zeta \zeta ^1)^{\mathrm{}^k+\mathrm{}^{k1}+1})`$. This is obviously a symplectic invariant form and that it is indeed an integer-valued perfect pairing follows from the fact that the different of $`R`$ is the ideal generated by $`(\zeta \zeta ^1)^{\mathrm{}^k\mathrm{}^{k1}1}`$.

iii) When $`g=\mathrm{}^k(\mathrm{}1)/2`$ we actually get a lower bound for the top Chern class of the de Rham cohomology of the universal curve over $`_g`$. However, there is no direct analogue of the trick of adding a factor with trivial action so this does not give a lower bound for all $`g\mathrm{}^k(\mathrm{}1)/2`$.

###### Theorem 4.4.

We have that $`r_{2i+1}=0`$ for all $`i`$ and that the order of $`r_{2i}`$ in integral ($`\mathrm{}`$-adic) cohomology equals (resp. the $`\mathrm{}`$-part of) $`n_i/2`$ or $`n_i`$ for $`ig`$.

###### Proof.

This follows immediately from Props. 4.2 and 4.1. ∎

###### Corollary 4.5.

The order of $`\lambda _g`$ is divisible by $`n_g/2`$.

###### Proof.

The top Chern class of $`H_{dR}^1`$ is $`\lambda _g^2`$. ∎

###### Remark 4.6.

Our upper and lower bounds for $`r_{2i}`$ are off by a (multiplicative) factor of $`2`$. Furthermore, when $`g=1`$ the lower bound is the correct order. It is tempting to believe that it is the lower bound that is the correct one for all $`g`$ and furthermore that that should be related to the fact that we have a symplectic rather than a general linear representation.