In this note, we prove that the moduli stack of vector bundles on a curve with a fixed determinant is ${\mathbb A}^1$-connected. We obtain this result by classifying vector bundles on a curve up to ${\mathbb A}^1$-concordance. Consequently, we classify ${\mathbb P}^n$-bundles on a curve up to ${\mathbb A}^1$-weak equivalence, extending a result in [3] of Asok-Morel. We also give an explicit example of a variety which is ${\mathbb A}^1$-h-cobordant to a projective bundle over ${\mathbb P}^2$ but does not have the structure of a projective bundle over ${\mathbb P}^2$, thus answering a question of Asok-Kebekus-Wendt [2].

The aim of this paper is to determine a bound of the dimension of an irreducible component of the Hilbert scheme of the moduli space of torsion-free sheaves on surfaces. Let X be a nonsingular irreducible complex surface, and let E be a vector bundle of rank n on X. We use the m-elementary transformation of E at a point $x \in X$ to show that there exists an embedding from the Grassmannian variety $\mathbb{G}(E_x,m)$ into the moduli space of torsion-free sheaves $\mathfrak{M}_{X,H}(n;\,c_1,c_2+m)$ which induces an injective morphism from $X \times M_{X,H}(n;\,c_1,c_2)$ to $Hilb_{\, \mathfrak{M}_{X,H}(n;\,c_1,c_2+m)}$.

We determine the integral Chow and cohomology rings of the moduli stack $\mathcal {B}_{r,d}$ of rank r, degree d vector bundles on $\mathbb {P}^1$ -bundles. We work over a field k of arbitrary characteristic. We first show that the rational Chow ring $A_{\mathbb {Q}}^*(\mathcal {B}_{r,d})$ is a free $\mathbb {Q}$ -algebra on $2r+1$ generators. The isomorphism class of this ring happens to be independent of d. Then, we prove that the integral Chow ring $A^*(\mathcal {B}_{r,d})$ is torsion-free and provide multiplicative generators for $A^*(\mathcal {B}_{r,d})$ as a subring of $A_{\mathbb {Q}}^*(\mathcal {B}_{r,d})$ . From this description, we see that $A^*(\mathcal {B}_{r,d})$ is not finitely generated as a $\mathbb {Z}$ -algebra. Finally, when $k = \mathbb {C}$ , the cohomology ring of $\mathcal {B}_{r,d}$ is isomorphic to its Chow ring.

In his work on deformation quantization of algebraic varieties Kontsevich introduced the notion of algebroid as a certain generalization of a sheaf of algebras. We construct algebroids which are given locally by NC-smooth thickenings in the sense of Kapranov, over two classes of smooth varieties: the bases of miniversal families of vector bundles on projective curves, and the bases of miniversal families of quiver representations.

We define nef line bundles ${\mathcal L}_r$ on a projective variety X with the property that, for a curve $C \subset X$, the intersection ${\mathcal L}_r.C$ is zero, if and only if the restriction morphism ${\rm Hom}(\pi_1(X),{\rm U}(r)) \to {\rm Hom}(\pi_1(C),{\rm U}(r))$ has finite image up to conjugation. This yields a rational morphism $\smash[b]{\xymatrix{X \ar@{-->}[r]^-{{\rm alb}_r} & {\rm Alb}_r(X)}}$ contracting those curves C with ${\mathcal L}_r.C=0$. For $r=1$ this is the Stein factorization of the Albanese morphism.