The dimension of fields and algebraic \(K\)-theory (Q1086294)

Recall that a field \(k\) is said to be \(C_i\) if any form of degree \(d\) in \(k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) has a non-trivial zero, provided that \(n>d^i\). In this article the authors define, for every prime \(p\), a ''\(p\)-dimension of \(k\)'', \(\dim_p k\), which, for \(p\) different from the characteristic of \(k\), is the cohomological \(p\)-dimension of the profinite group \(\text{gal}(k_s/k)\), \(k_s\) the separable closure of \(k\). They put \(\dim k = \sup \dim_p k\) and introduce a condition \(C^q_i\) which is similar to \(C_i\) but ought to have a stronger relation to the condition \(\dim k \le i\). The definition of \(C^q_i\) is as follows. Let \(K_q(k)\) be the \(q\)-th group of Milnor's \(K\)-theory. For any homogeneous form \(f\) over \(k\) let \(N_q(f/k)\) be the subgroup of \(K_q(k)\) generated by the images of the norm maps \(N_{k'/k}: K_q(k')\to K_q(k)\), where \(k'\) runs over the finite extensions of \(k\) in which \(f\) has non-trivial zeros. Then \(k\) satisfies \(C^q_i\) if, for any finite extension \(k'\) of \(k\) and any form \(f\) of degree \(d\) in \(n>d^i\) variables, \(N_q(f/k')=K_q(k')\). It is clear that a \(C_i\)-field satisfies \(C^q_i\) and it can be proved that a field \(k\) satisfies \(C^1_0\) if and only if \(\dim k\le 1\). The authors conjecture that \(C^q_i\) is equivalent to \(\dim k\le q+i\). The paper contains several results which support this attractive conjecture. For example, they prove that if \(k\) is of positive characteristic \(p\), \(C^q_i\) implies \(\dim_p k\le q+i\).