Unramified cohomology of degree 3 and Noether's problem (Q2471790)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \(W\) a faithful representation of \(G\) over \(\mathbb C\). The field of invariant functions \(\mathbb C(W)^G\) is by definition the fixed field of \(G\) acting naturally on the field of rational functions \(\mathbb C(W)\). Noether's famous problem asks if \(\mathbb C(W)^G\) is purely transcendental over \(\mathbb C\), and the unramified cohomology groups \(H^i_{\text{nr}}(\mathbb C(W)^G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) were introduced as obstructions to this question by \textit{J.-L. Colliot-Thélène} and \textit{M. Ojanguren} [Invent. Math. 97, No. 1, 141--158 (1989; Zbl 0686.14050)]. The goal of this paper is a construction of examples \((G,W)\) such that \(H^i_{\text{nr}}(\mathbb C(W)^G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)=0\) (\(i=1,2\)) but \(\not=0\) for \(i=3\), new negative examples to Noether's problem. The paper mostly extends arguments of \textit{F. A. Bogomolov}'s work [Math. USSR, Izv. 30, No. 3, 455--485 (1988); translation from Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 51, No. 3, 485--516 (1987; Zbl 0679.14025)] on \(H^2_{\text{nr}}(\mathbb C(W)^G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) to \(H^3_{\text{nr}}(\mathbb C(W)^G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\). First, at group cohomology level, introduced are unramified cohomology \(H^3_{\text{nr}}(G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) and its permutation negligible part \(H^3_{p}(G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) whose quotient is proved to be surjectively mapped onto \(H^3(\mathbb C(W)^G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) with 2-power torsion kernel. By using this description, in the case of \(G\) a central extension of an \(\mathbb F_p\)-vector space by another with exponent \(p\), (\(p\) an odd prime), certain explicit spaces \(K^i_{\max}\supset K^i\) (\(i=2,3\)) are introduced so that a natural map \(K^i_{\max}/K^i \to H^i(\mathbb C(W)^G,\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) is an isomorphism for \(i=2\) (Bogomolov) and an injection for \(i=3\). This gives a device for computing the issued cohomology groups, leading to the above mentioned result.