The Tate conjecture for K3 surfaces—a survey of some recent progress

The most important open questions in the theory of algebraic cycles are the Hodge Conjecture, and its companion problem, the Tate Conjecture. Both these questions attempt to give a description of those cohomology classes on a nonsingular proper variety which are represented by algebraic cycles, in terms of intrinsic structure which is present on the cohomology of such a variety (namely, a Hodge decomposition, or a Galois representation). For the Hodge conjecture, the case of divisors (algebraic cycles of codimension 1) was settled long ago by Lefschetz and Hodge, and is popularly known as the Lefschetz (1,1) theorem, though there is little general progress beyond that case. However, even this case of divisors is an open question for the Tate Conjecture, in general, even for divisors on algebraic surfaces. After giving an introduction to these problems, I will discuss the recent progress on the Tate Conjecture for K3 surfaces, around works of M. Lieblich, D. Maulik, F. Charles and K. Pera.