On the behaviour of Brauer \(p\)-dimensions under finitely-generated field extensions. (Q2257276): Difference between revisions

A pair of positive integers \((m,n)\) is called a Brauer pair if \(m\) divides \(n\) and if each prime \(p\) dividing \(n\) also divides \(m\). Recall that if \(A\) is a central division algebra over a field \(E\), then its exponent (i.e. the order of its class \([A]\) in the Brauer group \(\text{Br}(E)\)) and its index form a Brauer pair \((\exp(A),\text{ind}(A))\). Let \(\mathbb P\) denote the set of all primes and let \(p\in\mathbb P\). The Brauer \(p\)-dimension \(\text{Brd}_p(E)\) of \(E\) is defined to be the least integer \(n\geq 0\) such that for each central simple algebra \(A\) over \(E\) of \(p\)-power exponent one has that \(\text{ind}(A)\leq\exp(A)^n\), provided such an integer exists. Otherwise, one defines \(\text{Brd}_p(E)=\infty\). The absolute Brauer \(p\)-dimension \(\text{abrd}_p(E)\) is the supremum of all \(\text{Brd}_p(F)\) where \(F\) runs over all finite separable extensions of \(E\). The (absolute) Brauer dimension of \(E\) is then defined to be \(\text{Brd}(E)=\sup\{\text{Brd}_p(E)\mid p\in\mathbb P\}\) (resp. \(\text{abrd}(E)=\sup\{\text{abrd}_p(E)\mid p\in\mathbb P\}\)). The first main result in the present paper states that to each \(q\in\mathbb P\cup\{0\}\) and to each \(k\in\mathbb N\) there exists a field \(E\) of characteristic \(q\) such that \(\text{Brd}(E)=k\) and \(\text{abrd}_p(E)=\infty\) for all primes \(p\neq 2\) if \(q=0\), and for all primes \(p\) not dividing \(q^2-q\) if \(q>0\). The second main theorem states that given a sequence of pairs \((a_p,b_p)\) for \(p\in\mathbb P\) where \(a_p,b_p\in\mathbb N\cup\{0,\infty\}\) such that \(b_p\leq a_p\leq\infty\) and \(b_2=a_2\), then there exists a Henselian field \((K,\nu)\) with \((\text{abrd}_p(K),\text{Brd}_p(K))=(a_p,b_p)\) for all \(p\in\mathbb P\). In these examples, the residue field \(\widehat K\) has characteristic \(0\) and pronilpotent absolute Galois group of cohomological dimension \(\leq 1\). The proofs are heavily based on valuation theoretic arguments. In Problem 4.4 [in \textit{A. Auel} et al., Transform. Groups 16, No. 1, 219-264 (2011; Zbl 1230.16016)], it was asked if the finiteness of \(\text{Brd}(F_0)\) for a field \(F_0\) would imply the finiteness of \(\text{Brd}(F)\) for every finitely generated extension \(F/F_0\). The results in the present paper imply a negative answer to this question. The author therefore proposes the following variation of this problem: Fix a prime \(p\). Is the class of fields \(E\) of characteristic \(\neq p\) and with \(\text{abrd}_p(E)<\infty\) closed under the formation of finitely generated extensions?