Algebraic Cycles and Vector Bundles over Affine Three-Folds

Abstract

On any smooth affine surface over an algebraically closed field, it is easy to construct rank two projective modules with given determinant as the first Chern class and an arbitrary rational equivalence class of a zero cycle as the second Chern class. We will briefly indicate this method in Section 1. Here we construct projective modules over smooth affine 3-folds with prescribed Chern classes and of the right rank. That is to say, we construct rank two projective modules with prescribed first and second Chem classes and rank three projective modules with prescribed first, second and third Chern classes (Theorem 2.1). As a corollary, using Roitman's theorem on torsion in zero cycles and Suslin's cancellation theorem, one gets that a rank three projective module over a smooth affine threefold with top Chem class zero has a free direct summand of rank one (Cor. 2.4). For example, over a rational threefold any projective module splits into a free module and a rank two projective module. Thus we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of appropriate Chern classes for modules to be efficiently generated. For example, on an affine rational 3-fold any line bundle is 3-generated and any rank two projective module is 4-generated. We also prove that any maximal ideal over a smooth affine variety of dimension d is the zero of a section of a rank d projective module (Theorem 3.1). For an affine 3-fold, if A3(X) = 0, we prove the validity of the Eisenbud-Evans estimate for finitely generated modules. We do not know the answers for most of these questions in higher dimensions. Sometimes we assume that the characteristic of the ground field is different from 2, 3 and 5 due to technical reasons.**