Liftability of singularities and their Frobenius morphism modulo $p^2$

Abstract: We investigate the $W_2(k)$-liftability of singular schemes. We prove constructibility of the locus of $W_2(k)$-liftable schemes in a flat family $X \to S$. Moreover, we construct an explicit $W_2(k)$-lifting of a Frobenius split scheme $X$ over a perfect field $k$, reproving Bhatt's existential result. Furthermore, we study existence of liftings of the Frobenius morphism. In particular, we prove that in dimension $n \geq 4$ ordinary double points do not admit a $W_2(k)$-lifting compatible with Frobenius, and that canonical surface singularities are Frobenius liftable. Combined with Bhatt's results, the latter result implies that the crystalline cohomology groups over $k$ of surfaces with canonical singularities are not finite dimensional. As a corollary of our results, we provide a thorough comparison between the notions of $W_2(k)$-liftability, Frobenius liftability and classical $F$-singularity types.