TITLE: Hodge standard conjecture in positive characteristic
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: In the Wikipedia article on the Hodge Standard Conjecture it is written (note [Oct. 2015]: it has since been fixed):

In characteristic zero the Hodge standard conjecture holds, being a consequence of Hodge theory. In positive characteristic the Hodge standard conjecture is known only for surfaces and abelian varieties.

I have three questions: 
(1) Is the characteristic zero version the Hodge Index Theorem? 
(2) If so, what is a good reference for an algebraic geometry proof? I know it can be proved for a surface using the Riemann-Roch Theorem. Does this continue to be true for higher dimensions?
(3) Is the conjecture really only known in positive characteristic for surfaces and abelian varieties? Surely it should be possible to at least compute a result for projective $n$-space.

REPLY [4 votes]: (1) No, the Hodge index theorem, valid in arbitrary characteristic, is the Hodge standard conjecture for divisors on surfaces. Taking 2-dimensional linear  sections, one can deduce the Hodge standard conjecture for divisors on arbitrary smooth projective varieties. 
The Hodge standard conjecture over $\mathbf{C}$ is not a consequence of the Hodge index theorem but rather of the fact that the space of algebraic cycles is contained in the space of Hodge classes $H^{p,p}(X)\cap H^{2p}(X, \mathbf{Q})$, and by Hodge theory (Riemann bilinear relations), the Lefschetz pairing is definite on the primitive parts of those a priori bigger spaces. 
(2) I do not think there is an algebraic proof, since the above arguments requires some "positivity" (a definite pairing on a $\mathbf{Q}$-vector space remains definite after restricting to any subspace). 
Speculation: Maybe the Weil cohomology theory for varieties over $\overline{\mathbf{F}}_p$ with values in the Kottwitz category ${\rm Kt}_{\mathbf{R}}$ whose existence was recently conjectured by Scholze could make such an argument possible in positive characteristic.
(3) Tetsushi Ito in "Weight-monodromy conjecture for $p$-adically uniformized varieties" (Invent. Math. 2005) crucially proved the Hodge standard conjecture for the varieties obtained from $\mathbf{P}^n$ over $\mathbf{F}_q$ by successively blowing up all $\mathbf{F}_q$-points, the strict transforms of the lines between those points etc. The cohomology of these varieties is generated by algebraic cycles, but they do not lift to characteristic zero. 
(Obviously, if a variety in characteristic $p$ whose cohomology is generated by algebraic cycles lifts to characteristic zero "together with all cycles", then the Hodge standard conjecture holds.)