The possible values of critical points between strongly congruence-proper varieties of algebras

We denote by Conc(A) the semilattice of all finitely generated congruences of an (universal) algebra A, and we define Conc(V) as the class of all isomorphic copies of all Conc(A), for A in V, for any variety V of algebras. Let V and W be locally finite varieties of algebras such that for each finite algebra A in V there are, up to isomorphism, only finitely many B in W such that A and B have isomorphic congruence lattices, and every such B is finite. If Conc(V) is not contained in Conc(W), then there exists a semilattice of cardinality aleph 2 in Conc(V)-Conc(W). Our result extends to quasivarieties of first-order structures, with finitely many relation symbols, and relative congruence lattices. In particular, if W is a finitely generated variety of algebras, then this occurs in case W omits the tame congruence theory types 1 and 5; which, in turn, occurs in case W satisfies a nontrivial congruence identity. The bound aleph 2 is sharp

The possible values of critical points between varieties of lattices

We denote by Conc(L) the semilattice of all finitely generated congruences of a lattice L. For varieties (i.e., equational classes) V and W of lattices such that V is contained neither in W nor its dual, and such that every simple member of W contains a prime interval, we prove that there exists a bounded lattice A in V with at most aleph 2 elements such that Conc(A) is not isomorphic to Conc(B) for any B in W. The bound aleph 2 is optimal. As a corollary of our results, there are continuum many congruence classes of locally finite varieties of (bounded) modular lattices

Tame stacks and log flat torsors

We compare tame actions in the category of schemes with torsors in the category of log schemes endowed with the log flat topology. We prove that actions underlying log flat torsors are tame. Conversely, starting from a tame cover of a regular scheme that is a fppf torsor on the complement of a divisor with normal crossings, it is possible to build a log flat torsor that dominates this cover. In brief, the theory of log flat torsors gives a canonical approach to the problem of extending torsors into tame covers.Comment: 17 pages, LaTe

Critical points between varieties generated by subspace lattices of vector spaces

We denote by Conc(A) the semilattice of compact congruences of an algebra A. Given a variety V of algebras, we denote by Conc(V) the class of all semilattices isomorphic to Conc(A) for some A in V. Given varieties V1 and V2 varieties of algebras, the critical point of V1 under V2, denote by crit(V1;V2) is the smalest cardinality of a semilattice in Conc(V1) but not in Conc(V2). Given a finitely generated variety V of modular lattices, we obtain an integer l, depending of V, such that crit(V;Var(Sub F^n)) is at least aleph_2 for any n > 1 and any field F. In a second part, we prove that crit(Var(Mn);Var(Sub F^3))=aleph_2, for any finite field F and any integer n such that 1+card F< n. Similarly crit(Var(Sub F^3);Var(Sub K^3))=aleph_2, for all finite fields F and K such that card F>card K