Involution on the Graded Grothendieck Ring of Varieties and $\mathbb{D}$-Singularities

Abstract

We realize a graded variant $K_0(Va{r}_k^{dim})$ of the Grothendieck ring of varieties as a quadratic extension of the subring $K_0(Va{r}_k^{sp})$ spanned by classes of smooth and proper varieties. As such, there exists a natural involution $\mathbb{D}$ on $K_0(Va{r}_k^{dim})$. We show that $\mathbb{D}$ commutes with the symmetric power operations $Sy{m}^m$ up to zero divisors. Moreover, we study varieties which are smooth up to cut-and-paste relations, which we call $\mathbb{D}$-singular varieties, and we give applications to compactifications of varieties and the irrationality of Kapranov zeta functions.

v2: minor changes, the final version that appeared in IMRN