A birational invariant for algebraic group actions. (Q701255)

Let \(G\) be an algebraic group and \(X\) a smooth projective \(G\)-variety over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Let \(H\) be a finite abelian subgroup of \(G\) with rank \(r:=\dim X-\dim G\), and pick a point \(x\in X^{H}\) with finite stabilizer. The authors define a specific element of the skew-symmetric power of \(H^{\ast }\) by \(i( X,x,H) =\chi _1\wedge \chi _2\wedge \cdots \wedge \chi _r,\) where \(\chi _1,\chi _2,\cdots ,\chi _r\) are the direct summands in the the \(H\) -representation on \(T_x( X) /T_x( Gx) \).\ This definition is well-defined up to the sign. This element is invariant under birational morphisms, i.e. \(i( X,x,H) =i( Y,f( x) ,H) \) when \(f:X\to Y\) is a birational morphism of irreducible generically free \(G\)-varieties. The main result is the following. Let \(G\) be an algebraic group of dimension \(d\), \(H\) a finite abelian subgroup of \(G\) with rank \(r\), and let \(X\) and \(Y\) be birationally smooth projective irreducible generically free \(G\)-varieties of dimension \(d+r.\) If \(x\) has a finite stabilizer for all \(x\in X^{H}\) and \( y\) has finite stabilizer for all \(y\in Y^{H},\) then for each \(x\in X^{H}\) there exists a \(y\in Y^{H}\) such that \(i( X,x,H) =i( Y,y,H) .\) Thus the existence of points \(x\) fixed by \(H\) with value \( i( X,x,H) \) is a birational invariant of \(X\) as a \(G\)-variety. Two applications are presented here. The first is concerned with trying to classify generically free linear representations up to birational isomorphism. \textit{P. I. Katsylo} [Math USSR, Izv. 22, 23--32 (1984; Zbl 0563.14026)] conjectured that \(V\) and \(W\) are birationally isomorphic if they have the same dimension. In the case where \(G\) is diagonalizable of rank \(r,\) say \(G=\mathbb{G}_m( n_1) \times \cdots \times \mathbb{G}_m( n_r) \) with \(\mathbb{G}_m( n_i) \subset \mathbb{G}_m( n_{i+1}) ,\) then it is proved that any two faithful \(d\)-dimensional linear representations of \(H\) are birationally equivalent for \(d\geq r+1.\) Furthermore if \(n_1\leq 2\) then any two faithful \(r\)-dimensional linear representations of \(H\) are birationally equivalent. If \(n_1\geq 3\) then \(H\) has \(\phi ( n_1) /2\) birational classes of faithful \(r\)-dimensional representations, where \(\phi \) is the Euler \(\phi \)-function. Thus Katsylo's conjecture fails for this \(G\) if and only if \(n_1=5\) or \(n_1\geq 7.\) The other application of these results is in showing that certain division algebras are not isomorphic over \(k\). Specifically, for \(\omega _i\) a primitive \(n_i\)th root of unity with \(n_i\mid n_{i+1}\) for all \(i\leq r-1\), we have that for \(m_i\) relatively prime to \(n_i\) for all \(i\) then \(Q( \omega _1,\dots, \omega _r) \cong Q( \omega _1^{m_1},\dots \omega_r^{m_r}) \) as \(k\) -algebras if and only if \(m_1 \cdot \dots \cdot m_r\equiv \pm 1 \pmod {n_1},\) where \(Q( \omega _1,\dots \omega _r) \) is the field of quotients of the associative \(k\)-algebra \(k\{ x_1^{\neq 1},\dots ,x_{2r}^{\neq 1}\} \) with \(x_{2i-1}x_{2i}=\omega x_{2i}x_{2i-1}\) and \(x_{a}x_{b}=x_{b}x_{a}\) for \(| a-b| >1.\)