For a not-necessarily commutative ring $R$ we define an abelian group $W(R;M)$ of Witt vectors with coefficients in an $R$-bimodule $M$. These groups generalize the usual big Witt vectors of commutative rings and we prove that they have analogous formal properties and structure. One main result is that $W(R) := W(R;R)$ is Morita invariant in $R$. For an $R$-linear endomorphism $f$ of a finitely generated projective $R$-module we define a characteristic element $\chi _f \in W(R)$. This element is a non-commutative analogue of the classical characteristic polynomial and we show that it has similar properties. The assignment $f \mapsto \chi _f$ induces an isomorphism between a suitable completion of cyclic $K$-theory $K_0^{\mathrm {cyc}}(R)$ and $W(R)$.

In this paper, we establish a vanishing theorem of Nadel type for the Witt multiplier ideals on threefolds over perfect fields of characteristic larger than five. As an application, if a projective normal threefold over $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ is not klt and its canonical divisor is anti-ample, then the number of the rational points on the klt-locus is divisible by $q$.

We prove field quantifier elimination for valued fields endowed with both an analytic structure that is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$-Henselian and an automorphism that is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$-Henselian. From this result we can deduce various Ax–Kochen–Eršov type results with respect to completeness and the independence property. The main example we are interested in is the field of Witt vectors on the algebraic closure of $\mathbb{F}_{p}$ endowed with its natural analytic structure and the lifting of the Frobenius. It turns out we can give a (reasonable) axiomatization of its first-order theory and that this theory does not have the independence property.

We compute the center of the ring of PD differential operators on a smooth variety over ℤ/pnℤ, confirming a conjecture of Kaledin (private communication). More generally, given an associative algebra A0 over ℤp and its flat deformation An over ℤ/pn+1ℤ, we prove that under a certain non-degeneracy condition, the center of An is isomorphic to the ring of length-(n+1) Witt vectors over the center of A0.

Let K be a complete discrete valuation field of characteristic zero with residue field kK of characteristic p>0. Let L/K be a finite Galois extension with Galois group G=Gal(L/K) and suppose that the induced extension of residue fields kL/kK is separable. Let 𝕎n(⋅) denote the ring of p-typical Witt vectors of length n. Hesselholt [‘Galois cohomology of Witt vectors of algebraic integers’, Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc.137(3) (2004), 551–557] conjectured that the pro-abelian group {H1 (G,𝕎n (𝒪L))}n≥1 is isomorphic to zero. Hogadi and Pisolkar [‘On the cohomology of Witt vectors of p-adic integers and a conjecture of Hesselholt’, J. Number Theory131(10) (2011), 1797–1807] have recently provided a proof of this conjecture. In this paper, we provide a simplified version of the original proof which avoids many of the calculations present in that version.

Over a perfect field $k$ of characteristic $p > 0$, we construct a ‘Witt vector cohomology with compact supports’ for separated $k$-schemes of finite type, extending (after tensorization with ${\mathbb Q}$) the classical theory for proper $k$-schemes. We define a canonical morphism from rigid cohomology with compact supports to Witt vector cohomology with compact supports, and we prove that it provides an identification between the latter and the slope ${<}1$ part of the former. Over a finite field, this allows one to compute congruences for the number of rational points in special examples. In particular, the congruence modulo the cardinality of the finite field of the number of rational points of a theta divisor on an abelian variety does not depend on the choice of the theta divisor. This answers positively a question by J.-P. Serre.

We give a generic estimation of trigonometric sums defined over closed sub-schemes with semi-stable reduction of the standard affine scheme modulo pn(n [ges ] 2). We use Greenberg realisation to reduce to trigonometric sums defined over smooths sub-schemes of a finite product of Witt vectors over the finite field of p elements. Using the cohomological interpretation of this sums over a finite field, the sum is directly related to the Fourier–Deligne transformation of the dual pairs of Witt vectors. We deduce the estimation from the properties of the Fourier–Deligne transformation on simple perverse sheaves and pure sheaves.