Introduction M. Kodaira's vanishing theorem, saying that the inverse of
an ample invert- ible sheaf on a projective complex manifold X has no
cohomology below the dimension of X and its generalization, due to Y.
Akizuki and S. Nakano, have been proven originally by methods from
differential geometry ([39J and [1]). Even if, due to J.P. Serre's
GAGA-theorems [56J and base change for field extensions the algebraic
analogue was obtained for projective manifolds over a field k of
characteristic p = 0, for a long time no algebraic proof was known and
no generalization to p > 0, except for certain lower dimensional
manifolds. Worse, counterexamples due to M. Raynaud [52J showed that in
characteristic p > 0 some additional assumptions were needed. This was
the state of the art until P. Deligne and 1. Illusie [12J proved the
degeneration of the Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence for projective
manifolds X defined over a field k of characteristic p > 0 and liftable
to the second Witt vectors W2(k). Standard degeneration arguments allow
to deduce the degeneration of the Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence in
characteristic zero, as well, a re- sult which again could only be
obtained by analytic and differential geometric methods beforehand. As a
corollary of their methods M. Raynaud (loc. cit.) gave an easy proof of
Kodaira vanishing in all characteristics, provided that X lifts to
W2(k).