Some aspects of noncommutative invariant theory and the Noether's problem (Q498001)

Classical invariant theory studies the subrings of invariants \(R^{G}\) for a given commutative ring \(R\) and a group \(G\) of ring automorphisms. The principal ring commonly is the polynomial algebra \(k[x_{1},\dots,x_{n}]\)(\(k\) a field). The Noether's problem ask a question about the invariants of \( k(x_{1},\dots,x_{n})\), the ring of rational functions, with respect to linear actions of some finite group \(G\): Is \(k(x_{1},\dots,x_{n})^{G}\) itself a field of rational functions in \(n\) variables? This problem was first raised by Noether because of it's relation with the Inverse Galois Problem. This survey discusses the classical Noether's problem and presents some important cases where it has a positive solution. With the Weyl algebras taking place of the polynomial algebras, some aspects of noncommutative invariant theory are introduced: in particular, the noncommutative version of the Noether's problem. Some known cases are discussed and some new results are presented. As an application one obtains a new proof of the Gelfand- Kirillov conjecture for \(\mathfrak{gl}_{n}\). There is a striking similarity between the cases with positive solution of the Noether's problem for both commutative and noncommutative versions, and this leads to many conjectures.