Relative Mather discrepancy on arc spaces

Abstract

Given any generically étale morphism of varieties $f \colon X \to Y$, we define the relative Mather discrepancy function on the arc space $X_\infty$ of the domain and show that this function computes the dimension of the kernel of the differential map of the induced morphism on arc spaces $f_\infty \colon X_\infty \to Y_\infty$. We relate this result to the change-of-variable formula in motivic integration. We introduce the notion of $\widehat K$-equivalence, which agrees with $K$-equivalence for smooth varieties, and prove that $\widehat K$-equivalent varieties of arbitrary characteristic define the same class in the motivic ring.