The bigger Brauer group and étale cohomology (Q1078252)

In a previous paper [Pac. J. Math. 103, 163-203 (1982; Zbl 0528.13007)], the second author introduced the ''bigger Brauer group'' of a ring. Where the classical Brauer group is formed from equivalence classes of Azumaya algebras over R, the ''bigger Brauer group'' is formed in a similar way from equivalence classes of ''Azumaya algebras'' without a unit element. The classical Brauer group B(R) injects in the bigger Brauer group \(\tilde B(\)R). In general \(\tilde B(\)R) is not a torsion group so B(R) may indeed be a proper subgroup of \(\tilde B(\)R). In the paper cited above the bigger Brauer group of Banach algebras was studied. If R is a Banach algebra with maximal ideal space \(\Delta\), then there is a map \(\tilde B(\)R)\(\to H^ 3(\Delta,{\mathbb{Z}})\). However, several problems remained open (e.g. injectivity or surjectivity of the latter map). In the paper under review some of these problems raised in the paper cited above are answered. The results are mainly based on the fact (proved in the paper) that \(\tilde B(\)R)\(=H^ 2(X_{et},{\mathbb{G}}_ m)\) the étale cohomology group with \(X=Spec(R)\). The study of \(\tilde B(\)R) is at the same time extended to the \(\tilde B(\)X), X any scheme. Let us finally note that some of the results known for \(H^ 2(X_{et},{\mathbb{G}}_ m)\) are proved directly for \(\tilde B(\)X), providing some evidence for the utility of \(\tilde B(\)X).