In mathematics, a Dieudonné module introduced by , is a
module over the non-commutative Dieudonné ring, which is generated over the ring of
Witt vector
In mathematics, a Witt vector is an infinite sequence of elements of a commutative ring. Ernst Witt showed how to put a ring structure on the set of Witt vectors, in such a way that the ring of Witt vectors W(\mathbb_p) over the finite field o ...
s by two special endomorphisms
and
called the
Frobenius Frobenius is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Ferdinand Georg Frobenius (1849–1917), mathematician
** Frobenius algebra
** Frobenius endomorphism
** Frobenius inner product
** Frobenius norm
** Frobenius method
** Frobenius g ...
and
Verschiebung operators. They are used for studying finite flat commutative group schemes.
Finite flat commutative group schemes over a perfect
field of positive characteristic
can be studied by transferring their geometric structure to a (semi-)linear-algebraic setting. The basic object is the Dieudonné ring
:
,
which is a quotient of the ring of noncommutative polynomials, with coefficients in
Witt vectors of
. The endomorphisms
and
are the Frobenius and Verschiebung operators, and they may act nontrivially on the Witt vectors. Dieudonné and
Pierre Cartier constructed an
antiequivalence of categories between finite commutative group schemes over
of order a power of
and modules over
with finite
-length. The Dieudonné module functor in one direction is given by homomorphisms into the
abelian sheaf of Witt co-vectors. This sheaf is more or less dual to the sheaf of Witt vectors (which is in fact representable by a
group scheme
In mathematics, a group scheme is a type of object from algebraic geometry equipped with a composition law. Group schemes arise naturally as symmetries of schemes, and they generalize algebraic groups, in the sense that all algebraic groups hav ...
), since it is constructed by taking a
direct limit
In mathematics, a direct limit is a way to construct a (typically large) object from many (typically smaller) objects that are put together in a specific way. These objects may be groups, rings, vector spaces or in general objects from any cate ...
of finite length Witt vectors under successive Verschiebung maps
, and then completing. Many properties of commutative group schemes can be seen by examining the corresponding Dieudonné modules, e.g., connected
-group schemes correspond to
-modules for which
is nilpotent, and étale group schemes correspond to modules for which
is an isomorphism.
Dieudonné theory exists in a somewhat more general setting than finite flat groups over a field.
Tadao Oda's 1967 thesis gave a connection between Dieudonné modules and the first
de Rham cohomology
In mathematics, de Rham cohomology (named after Georges de Rham) is a tool belonging both to algebraic topology and to differential topology, capable of expressing basic topological information about smooth manifolds in a form particularly adapte ...
of
abelian varieties
In mathematics, particularly in algebraic geometry, complex analysis and algebraic number theory, an abelian variety is a smooth projective algebraic variety that is also an algebraic group, i.e., has a group law that can be defined by regular f ...
, and at about the same time,
Alexander Grothendieck
Alexander Grothendieck, later Alexandre Grothendieck in French (; ; ; 28 March 1928 – 13 November 2014), was a German-born French mathematician who became the leading figure in the creation of modern algebraic geometry. His research ext ...
suggested that there should be a crystalline version of the theory that could be used to analyze
-divisible groups. Galois actions on the group schemes transfer through the equivalences of categories, and the associated deformation theory of Galois representations was used in
Andrew Wiles
Sir Andrew John Wiles (born 11 April 1953) is an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is best known for Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, proving Ferma ...
's work on the
Shimura–Taniyama conjecture.
Dieudonné rings
If
is a perfect field of characteristic
, its ring of
Witt vector
In mathematics, a Witt vector is an infinite sequence of elements of a commutative ring. Ernst Witt showed how to put a ring structure on the set of Witt vectors, in such a way that the ring of Witt vectors W(\mathbb_p) over the finite field o ...
s consists of sequences
of elements of
, and has an endomorphism
induced by the
Frobenius endomorphism
In commutative algebra and field theory (mathematics), field theory, the Frobenius endomorphism (after Ferdinand Georg Frobenius) is a special endomorphism of commutative Ring (mathematics), rings with prime number, prime characteristic (algebra), ...
of
, so
. The Dieudonné ring, often denoted by
or
, is the non-commutative ring over
generated by 2 elements
and
subject to the relations
:
:
:
.
It is a
-graded ring, where the piece of degree
is a 1-dimensional
free module
In mathematics, a free module is a module that has a ''basis'', that is, a generating set that is linearly independent. Every vector space is a free module, but, if the ring of the coefficients is not a division ring (not a field in the commu ...
over
, spanned by
if
and by
if
.
Some authors define the Dieudonné ring to be the completion of the ring above for the ideal generated by
and
.
Dieudonné modules and groups
Special sorts of modules over the Dieudonné ring correspond to certain algebraic group schemes. For example, finite length modules over the Dieudonné ring form an
abelian category
In mathematics, an abelian category is a category in which morphisms and objects can be added and in which kernels and cokernels exist and have desirable properties.
The motivating prototypical example of an abelian category is the category o ...
equivalent to the opposite of the category of finite commutative
-group schemes over
.
Examples
* If
is the constant group scheme
over
, then its corresponding Dieudonné module
is
with
and
.
* For the scheme of
-th roots of unity
, then its corresponding Dieudonné module is
with
and
.
* For
, defined as the kernel of the Frobenius
, the Dieudonné module is
with
.
* If
is the
-torsion of an elliptic curve over
(with
-torsion in
), then the Dieudonné module depends on whether
is
supersingular or not.
Dieudonné–Manin classification theorem
The Dieudonné–Manin classification theorem was proved by and . It describes the structure of Dieudonné modules over an algebraically closed field
up to "isogeny". More precisely, it classifies the finitely generated modules over