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Suppose $G$ is a finite group and $p$ is either a prime number or $0$. For $p$ positive, we say that $G$ is weakly tame at $p$ if $G$ has no non-trivial normal $p$-subgroups. By convention we say that every finite group is weakly tame at $0$. Now suppose that $G$ is a finite group which is weakly tame at the residue characteristic of a discrete valuation ring $R$. Our main result shows that the essential dimension of $G$ over the fraction field $K$ of $R$ is at least as large as the essential dimension of $G$ over the residue field $k$. We also prove a more general statement of this type for a class of ��tale gerbes over $R$. As a corollary, we show that, if $G$ is weakly tame at $p$ and $k$ is any field of characteristic $p >0$ containing the algebraic closure of $\mathbb{F}_p$, then the essential dimension of $G$ over $k$ is less than or equal to the essential dimension of $G$ over any characteristic $0$ field. A conjecture of A. Ledet asserts that the essential dimension, $\mathrm{ed}_k(\mathbb{Z}/p^n\mathbb{Z})$, of the cyclic group of order $p^n$ over a field $k$ is equal to $n$ whenever $k$ is a field of characteristic $p$. We show that this conjecture implies that $\mathrm{ed}_{\mathbb{C}}(G) \geq n$ for any finite group $G$ which is weakly tame at $p$ and contains an element of order $p^n$. To the best of our knowledge, an unconditional proof of the last inequality is out of the reach of all presently known techniques., 16 pages. Corrected some minor mistakes, improved the exposition, and added some additional examples. To appear in Documenta Mathematica

We classify all finite groups of essential dimension 2 over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0., Comment: 30 pages (To appear in Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici)

We compute the essential dimension of the functors Forms_{n,d} and Hypersurf_{n, d} of equivalence classes of homogeneous polynomials in n variables and hypersurfaces in P^{n-1}, respectively, over any base field k of characteristic 0. Here two polynomials (or hypersurfaces) over K are considered equivalent if they are related by a linear change of coordinates with coefficients in K. Our proof is based on a new Genericity Theorem for algebraic stacks, which is of independent interest. As another application of the Genericity Theorem, we prove a new result on the essential dimension of the stack of (not necessarily smooth) local complete intersection curves., Comment: 25 pages. Several typos in version 1 have been corrected

In this paper we address questions of the following type. Let k be a base field and K/k be a field extension. Given a geometric object X over a field K (e.g. a smooth curve of genus g) what is the least transcendence degree of a field of definition of X over the base field k? In other words, how many independent parameters are needed to define X? To study these questions we introduce a notion of essential dimension for an algebraic stack. Using the resulting theory, we give a complete answer to the question above when the geometric objects X are smooth or stable curves.