Duality for commutative group stacks

Abstract: We study in this article the dual of a (strictly) commutative group stack $G$ and give some applications. Using the Picard functor and the Picard stack of $G$, we first give some sufficient conditions for $G$ to be dualizable. Then, for an algebraic stack $X$ with suitable assumptions, we define an Albanese morphism $a_X : X\to A^1(X)$ where $A^1(X)$ is a torsor under the dual commutative group stack $A^0(X)$ of $Pic_{X/S}$. We prove that $a_X$ satisfies a natural universal property. We give two applications of our Albanese morphism. On the one hand, we give a geometric description of the elementary obstruction and of universal torsors (standard tools in the study of rational varieties over number fields). On the other hand we give some examples of algebraic stacks that satisfy Grothendieck's section conjecture.