Symmetric Powers Do Not Stabilize

Abstract: We discuss the stabilization of symmetric products Sym^n(X) of a smooth projective variety X in the Grothendieck ring of varieties. For smooth projective surfaces X with non-zero h^0(X, \omega_X), these products do not stabilize; we conditionally show that they do not stabilize in another related sense, in response to a question of R. Vakil and M. Wood. There are analogies between such stabilization, the Dold-Thom theorem, and the analytic class number formula. Finally, we discuss Hodge-theoretic obstructions to the stabilization of symmetric products, and provide evidence for these obstructions in terms of a relationship between the Newton polygon of a certain "motivic zeta function" associated to a curve, and its Hodge polygon.