The structure of the pro-l-unipotent fundamental group of a smooth variety

Abstract

By developing a theory of deformations over nilpotent Lie algebras, based on Schlessinger's deformation theory over Artinian rings, this paper investigates the pro-l-unipotent fundamental group of a variety X. If X is smooth and proper, defined over a finite field, then the Weil conjectures imply that this group is quadratically presented. If X is smooth and non-proper, then the group is defined by equations of bracket length at most four.