Canonical \(p\)-dimension of algebraic groups (Q2504375)

\textit{G. Berhuy} and \textit{Z. Reichstein} [Adv. Math. 198, No. 1, 128--171 (2005; Zbl 1097.11018)] introduced the notion of canonical dimension of an algebraic structure. It measures the size of generic splitting fields of the structure. The paper under review introduces the notion of canonical \(p\)-dimension which measures the contribution of various primes to the canonical dimension of the given structure. Usually there are few important primes associated to an algebraic structure, for instance, the torsion primes for an algebraic group. The canonical \(p\)-dimensions for these primes give valuable information about the canonical dimension of the structure. For example, if \(X\) is an anisotropic smooth projective quadric over a field of characteristic \(\neq 2\), then it follows from [Invent. Math. 153, No. 2, 361--372 (2003; Zbl 1032.11015)] (Example 2.2) that \(\text{cd}(X) = \text{cd}_2(X)\). The paper is extremely well-written. It starts by recalling the preliminaries and goes on to define canonical \(p\)-dimension with very well-chosen examples. Then the authors give a recipe for computing \(\text{cd}_p\) using some Chow group techniques. The last section is devoted to computations. Here the authors compute \(\text{cd}_p(G)\) where \(G\) is a split classical group over any field of any characteristic.