Unipotent morphisms

Abstract

We introduce the theory of unipotent morphisms of algebraic stacks and prove a surprising local to global principle for a class of vector bundles. Two sample applications of our methods are the following: (1) a unipotent analogue of Gabber's Theorem for torsion ${\mathbf{G}}_m$-gerbes and (2) smooth Deligne-Mumford stacks with quasi-projective coarse spaces satisfy the resolution property in positive characteristic. Our main tool is a descent result for flags, which we prove using results of Schäppi.

Final version, to appear in Geometry & Topology