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Numerical equivalence defined on Chow groups of Noetherian local rings

In the present paper, we define a notion of numerical equivalence on Chow groups or Grothendieck groups of Noetherian local rings, which is an analogue of that on smooth projective varieties. Under a mild condition, it is proved that the Chow group modulo numerical equivalence is a finite dimensional ${\Bbb Q}$-vector space, as in the case of smooth projective varieties. Numerical equivalence on local rings is deeply related to that on smooth projective varieties. For example, if Grothendieck's standard conjectures are true, then a vanishing of Chow group (of local rings) modulo numerical equivalence can be proven. Using the theory of numerical equivalence, the notion of numerically Roberts rings is defined. It is proved that a Cohen-Macaulay local ring of positive characteristic is a numerically Roberts ring if and only if the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity of a maximal primary ideal of finite projective dimension is always equal to its colength. Numerically Roberts rings satisfy the vanishing property of intersection multiplicities. We shall prove another special case of the vanishing of intersection multiplicities using a vanishing of localized Chern characters.