Characteristic polynomials of central simple algebras (Q1949041)

Let \(F\) be a field. The paper provides a characterization of polynomials over \(F\) that arise as characteristic polynomials of a finite dimensional central simple \(F\)-algebra \(A\). Furthermore, the separable conjugacy classes of the multiplicative group \(A^\times\) are described explicitly. For a central division algebra \(D\) over a \(p\)-adic field \(F\), the results are motivated by the local Jacquet-Langlands correspondence between irreducible smooth representations of \(D^\times\) and irreducible discrete series representations of \(\mathrm{GL}_n(F)\), where corresponding conjugacy classes are associated by the same characteristic polynomial.