On the periods of motives with complex multiplication and a conjecture of Gross-Deligne

Abstract

We prove that the existence of an automorphism of finite order on a (defined over a number field) variety X implies the existence of algebraic linear relations between the logarithm of certain periods of X and the logarithm of special values of the Gamma-function. This implies that a slight variation of results by Anderson, Colmez and Gross on the periods of CM abelian varieties is valid for a larger class of CM motives. In particular, we prove a weak form of the period conjecture of Gross-Deligne. Our proof relies on the arithmetic fixed point formula (equivariant arithmetic Riemann-Roch theorem) proved by K. Koehler and the second author, and the vanishing of the equivariant analytic torsion for the Dolbeault complex.