Finite extensions of abelian schemes and duality for commutative group stacks

Abstract

Let $R$ be a discrete valuation ring. We prove that every proper flat finitely presented commutative $R$-group scheme $P$ fits into an exact sequence \[ 0\longrightarrow E\longrightarrow P\longrightarrow B\longrightarrow0, \] where $E$ is finite flat and $B$ is an abelian scheme. For a quasiabelian model---that is, a proper flat finitely presented $R$-group scheme with abelian generic fibre---we prove a finer structure theorem: its normalization is an abelian scheme, and the model is obtained from it by a pushout involving finite flat group schemes. An analogous abelian quotient exists for proper flat commutative group stacks with finite flat inertia. These structure theorems give explicit quotient presentations for duals. Over an arbitrary base, we show that the dual of a proper flat finitely presented commutative group algebraic space is algebraic, proper, flat, and finitely presented, and biduality holds. When $2$ is invertible, the corresponding result for group stacks proves Brochard's duality conjecture. As an application over a discrete valuation ring, Polishchuk's kernel-algebra Fourier--Mukai argument gives equivalences between the unbounded derived categories of quasi-coherent sheaves on every proper flat finitely presented commutative group scheme and its dual, and between their bounded derived categories of coherent sheaves, with no tameness or residue-characteristic hypothesis. For a quasiabelian model, the dual category is a finite-flat equivariant category on its abelian normalization.