Examples of non-rational varieties of adjoint groups (Q1364316)

An irreducible algebraic variety over a field \(K\) is called \(K\)-rational if it is birationally isomorphic over \(K\) to an affine space \(\mathbb A^m\) for some \(m \in \mathbb N\) or equivalently if its function field is a pure transcendental extension of \(K\). It is called stably \(K\)-rational if for some \(n \in \mathbb N\), \(X \times \mathbb A^n\) is \(K\)-rational. The rationality problem for algebraic groups asks whether an affine algebraic group \(G\) over \(K\) is rational or, if not, stably rational. (Algebraic groups are always unirational.) The author's main result is to demonstrate the existence of a field \(K\) of characteristic \(0\) and of cohomological dimension \(3\) and a quadratic form \(q\) over \(K\) of rank \(8\) and trivial signed discriminant such that the projective special orthogonal group \(\text{PSO}(q)\) of \(q\) is not stably \(K\)-rational. The method of proof is to define an associated group of field elements for extensions of \(K\) which must be trivial if \(\text{PSO}(q)\) is stably rational, and then to prove the existence of an extension for which the associated group is non-trivial. Dimension \(8\) is minimal for forms with trivial signed discriminant. The author points out that his method will not work in cohomological dimension \(2\), although no example is known. The example presented by the main result is not explicit. The author goes on, however, to present an explicit example, verified by elementary means, for a form over \(\mathbb Q(x)((X_1))((X_2))((X_3))\) whose projective special orthogonal group is not stably rational.