Relative Cartier divisors and Laurent polynomial extensions (Q510000)

\textit{H. Bass} [Algebraic \(K\)-theory. New York-Amsterdam: W.A. Benjamin, Inc. (1968; Zbl 0174.30302)] defined the notion of a contracted functor from rings to abelian groups (the chapter XII). The authors study a commutative ring extensions and to introduce the notion of a contracted functor for any functor from ring extensions to abelian groups (the definition 2.1 in the paper). Let \(i:A\subset B\) be a commutative ring extension and let \(\mathcal{I}(A,B)\) be the group of invertible \(A\)-submodules of \(B\) and let \(A[t,1/t]\) be a ring of Laurent polynomials. The main result of the paper under review is the next theorem. Theorem. Given a commutative ring extension \(f:A\subset B\), \(\mathcal{I}\) is a contracted functor with \(L\mathcal{I}(A,B)=H^0_{et}(\mathrm{Spec}: A, f_{\ast}\mathbb{Z}/\mathbb{Z})\). In particular, there is a natural decomposition \[ \mathcal{I}(A[t,1/t],B[t,1/t]\cong\mathcal{I}(A,B)\oplus N\mathcal{I}(A,B)\oplus N\mathcal{I}(A,B)\oplus L\mathcal{I}(A,B) \] In addition, \(L\mathcal{I}(A,B)=L\mathcal{I}(A[t],B[t])=L\mathcal{I}(A[t,1/t],B[t,1/t])\) The secondary goal of the paper under review is to give simple techniques for determining \(L\mathcal{I}(A,B)\). For example, the authors prove that if \(B/A\) is finite and \(B\) is connected over \(A\) then \(\mathcal{I}(A,B)=0\) (the extension \(B/A\) is connected if for every prime ideal \(\mathcal{P}\) of \(A\), the ring \(B_{\mathcal{P}}/\mathcal{P}B_{\mathcal{P}}\) is connected).