Counterexamples in positive characteristics
Version 1 / Nov 08, 2026 / CC BY 4.0
Abstract
AI found the following counterexamples (following human directions) to 3 important questions: For every prime we construct a smooth projective rational surface that is globally -regular, with anticanonical divisor nef but neither big nor semiample. Its completed cone is a three-dimensional -finite splinter with regular punctured spectrum and embedding dimension six. Both test ideals are the maximal ideal, so the cone is not weakly -regular. A discrepancy calculation by humans rules out every effective klt boundary. A separate four-dimensional complete normal local domain has distinct big and finitistic test ideals.
Provenance statement
Tools used
- Anthropic
- Claude Fable
- OpenAI
- ChatGPT
References
- Aberbach, Ian; Huneke, Craig; Polstra, Thomas. On the equality of test ideals. Adv. Math., vol. 441, pp. 109559. 2024. Numbering of statements follows arXiv:2301.02202v2arXivDOI
- Aberbach, Ian M.; Leuschke, Graham J. The -signature and strong -regularity. Math. Res. Lett., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 51–56. 2003DOI
- Bhatt, Bhargav. Derived splinters in positive characteristic. Compos. Math., vol. 148, no. 6, pp. 1757–1786. 2012DOI
- Bhatt, Bhargav; Ma, Linquan; Patakfalvi, Zsolt; Schwede, Karl; Tucker, Kevin; Waldron, Joe; Witaszek, Jakub. Globally -regular varieties and the minimal model program for threefolds in mixed characteristic. Publ. Math. Inst. Hautes Études Sci., vol. 138, pp. 69–227. 2023DOI
- Blickle, Manuel; Schwede, Karl; Tucker, Kevin. -signature of pairs and the asymptotic behavior of Frobenius splittings. Adv. Math., vol. 231, no. 6, pp. 3232–3258. 2012DOI
- Brenner, Holger; Stäbler, Axel. On the behaviour of strong semistability in geometric deformations. Illinois J. Math., vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 325–341. 2013link
- Brion, Michel; Kumar, Shrawan. Frobenius Splitting Methods in Geometry and Representation Theory. Birkhäuser, vol. 231. 2005DOI
- Bruns, Winfried; Herzog, Jürgen. Cohen–Macaulay Rings. Cambridge University Press, vol. 39. 1998
- Chiecchio, Alberto; Enescu, Florian; Miller, Lance Edward; Schwede, Karl. Test ideals in rings with finitely generated anti-canonical algebras. J. Inst. Math. Jussieu, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 171–206. 2018. For the corrected formulation of Lemma 2.10, see arXiv:1412.6453v4arXivDOI
- Cossart, Vincent; Piltant, Olivier. Resolution of singularities of arithmetical threefolds. J. Algebra, vol. 529, pp. 268–535. 2019link
Show all 49 referencesShow fewer references
- Ducrohet, Laurent. The action of the Frobenius map on rank 2 vector bundles over a supersingular genus 2 curve in characteristic 2. Math. Z., vol. 258, no. 3, pp. 477–492. 2008link
- Hara, Nobuo; Takagi, Shunsuke. On a generalization of test ideals. Nagoya Math. J., vol. 175, pp. 59–74. 2004
- Hara, Nobuo; Yoshida, Ken-ichi. A generalization of tight closure and multiplier ideals. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., vol. 355, no. 8, pp. 3143–3174. 2003
- Hartshorne, Robin. Residues and Duality. Springer, vol. 20. 1966DOI
- Hartshorne, Robin. Algebraic Geometry. Springer-Verlag, vol. 52. 1977
- Hochster, Melvin; Huneke, Craig. Tight closure, invariant theory, and the Briançon–Skoda theorem. J. Amer. Math. Soc., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 31–116. 1990
- Hochster, Melvin; Huneke, Craig. F-regularity, test elements, and smooth base change. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., vol. 346, no. 1, pp. 1–62. 1994DOI
- Hochster, Melvin; Huneke, Craig. Tight closure of parameter ideals and splitting in module-finite extensions. J. Algebraic Geom., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 599–670. 1994
- Hoffmann, Norbert. The Picard group of a coarse moduli space of vector bundles in positive characteristic. Cent. Eur. J. Math., vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 1306–1313. 2012DOI
- Katz, Nicholas M. Nilpotent connections and the monodromy theorem: applications of a result of Turrittin. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. Publ. Math., vol. 39, pp. 175–232. 1970DOI
- Kollár, János; Mori, Shigefumi. Birational Geometry of Algebraic Varieties. Cambridge University Press, vol. 134. 1998
- Krah, Johannes; Vial, Charles. On proper splinters in positive characteristic. Compos. Math., vol. 161, no. 10, pp. 2493–2544. 2025. Numbering follows the authors' version dated 18 March 2025DOI
- Laface, Antonio; Testa, Damiano. Nef and semiample divisors on rational surfaces. Torsors, Étale Homotopy and Applications to Rational Points, vol. 405, pp. 429–446. 2013DOI
- Lang, Serge. Algebraic groups over finite fields. Amer. J. Math., vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 555–563. 1956DOI
- Laszlo, Yves. A non-trivial family of bundles fixed by the square of Frobenius. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. I Math., vol. 333, no. 7, pp. 651–656. 2001DOI
- Laszlo, Yves; Pauly, Christian. The Frobenius map, rank 2 vector bundles and Kummer's quartic surface in characteristic 2 and 3. Adv. Math., vol. 185, no. 2, pp. 246–269. 2004DOI
- Lazarsfeld, Robert. Positivity in Algebraic Geometry I: Classical Setting: Line Bundles and Linear Series. Springer-Verlag, vol. 48. 2004
- Lipman, Joseph. Rational singularities, with applications to algebraic surfaces and unique factorization. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. Publ. Math., vol. 36, pp. 195–279. 1969
- Lyubeznik, Gennady; Smith, Karen E. Strong and weak -regularity are equivalent for graded rings. Amer. J. Math., vol. 121, no. 6, pp. 1279–1290. 1999
- Lyubeznik, Gennady; Smith, Karen E. On the commutation of the test ideal with localization and completion. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., vol. 353, no. 8, pp. 3149–3180. 2001DOI
- Milne, James S. Étale Cohomology. Princeton University Press, vol. 33. 1980
- Mumford, David. The topology of normal singularities of an algebraic surface and a criterion for simplicity. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. Publ. Math., vol. 9, pp. 5–22. 1961
- Papikian, Mihran. Modular curves of -elliptic sheaves are asymptotically optimal. Math. Res. Lett., vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 525–536. 2008DOI
- Papikian, Mihran. Genus formula for modular curves of -elliptic sheaves. Arch. Math. (Basel), vol. 92, no. 3, pp. 237–250. 2009DOI
- Schwede, Karl. Test ideals in non--Gorenstein rings. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., vol. 363, no. 11, pp. 5925–5941. 2011
- Schwede, Karl; Smith, Karen E. Globally -regular and log Fano varieties. Adv. Math., vol. 224, no. 3, pp. 863–894. 2010link
- Schwede, Karl; Tucker, Kevin. A survey of test ideals. Progress in commutative algebra 2, pp. 39–99. 2012link
- Seshadri, C. S. Fibrés vectoriels sur les courbes algébriques. Société mathématique de France, no. 96. 1982. Notes written by J. M. Drezetlink
- Silverman, Joseph H. The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves. Springer, vol. 106. 2009
- Singh, Anurag K. -Gorenstein splinter rings of characteristic are -regular. Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc., vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 201–205. 1999DOI
- Singh, Anurag K. Separable integral extensions and plus closure. Manuscripta Math., vol. 98, no. 4, pp. 497–506. 1999link
- Smith, Karen E. Tight closure of parameter ideals. Invent. Math., vol. 115, no. 1, pp. 41–60. 1994DOI
- Smith, Karen E. F-rational rings have rational singularities. Amer. J. Math., vol. 119, no. 1, pp. 159–180. 1997DOI
- Smith, Karen E. Globally -regular varieties: applications to vanishing theorems for quotients of Fano varieties. Michigan Math. J., vol. 48, pp. 553–572. 2000
- The Stacks project authors. The Stacks project. 2026. https://stacks.math.columbia.edulink
- Takagi, Shunsuke. Finitistic test ideals on numerically -Gorenstein varieties. J. Algebra, vol. 571, pp. 266–279. 2021. Theorem numbering follows arXiv:1709.09383v3arXivDOI
- Totaro, Burt. Moving codimension-one subvarieties over finite fields. Amer. J. Math., vol. 131, no. 6, pp. 1815–1833. 2009DOI
- Varbaro, Matteo. Gröbner deformations, connectedness and cohomological dimension. J. Algebra, vol. 322, no. 7, pp. 2492–2507. 2009DOI
- Watanabe, Keiichi. Some remarks concerning Demazure's construction of normal graded rings. Nagoya Math. J., vol. 83, pp. 203–211. 1981
Version history
- v1 · 42 pagesSubmitted by Rahul AjitAll main ideas and constructions in this draft are either explicitly suggested or fully developed by AI. The humans (R. Ajit and S. Lee) asked specific questions and gave related directions, papers, and even precise result statements to AI so that it could explore those directions and construct counter-examples. In most cases, AIs (and humans) were successful. However, their mathematical details were quite incomprehensible to the humans. Currently, Ajit and Lee are carefully verifying AI's claims as well as improving the exposition and adding their personal human inputs. What follows is a very preliminary attempt to that. In particular, the humans think the math in this draft is correct. In the near future, with a better understanding, the humans think that they will be able to substantially improve the exposition, add and correct proper citations, and most importantly add precise human contributions (right definitions, for example) to this project. We will also add more precise human contributions to the existing material soon. We make this available to the world purely for mathematical reasons.CurrentNov 08, 2026