The bigger Brauer group and twisted sheaves (Q731914)

The Brauer group of a scheme \(X\) is defined to be the set of equivalence classes of Azumaya algebras over \(X\), together with the operation of tensor product. It was shown in a series of articles by \textit{A.~Grothendieck} [Dix Exposés Cohomologie Schémas, Advanced Studies Pure Math. 3, 46--189 (1968; Zbl 0193.21503, Zbl 0193.25803, Zbl 0193.25901)] that, under suitable hypotheses, the Brauer group can be viewed as a subgroup of the étale cohomology group \(H^2(X,{\mathbb G}_m)\), with the two groups coinciding for smooth varieties. Grothendieck observed that, since the Brauer group is torsion, one cannot expect the Brauer group to coincide with \(H^2(X, {\mathbb G}_m)\) in general, but asked whether the Brauer group can always be identified with the torsion subgroup of this cohomology group. In the present paper, the authors answer a modified version of that question: if \(X\) is an arbitrary Noetherian scheme, and the Brauer group is replaced by the \textit{bigger Brauer group} of \(X\), denoted \(\widetilde{\roman{Br}} X\), then there is an isomorphism between \(\widetilde{\roman{Br}} X\) and \(H^2(X,{\mathbb G}_m)\). The context in which they prove this naturally extends to the case when \(X\) is a Noetherian algebraic stack, assuming that the diagonal morphism \(X \to X \times X\) is quasi-affine. The bigger Brauer group was defined by \textit{J. L.~Taylor} [Pac.\ J. Math. 103, 163--203 (1982; Zbl 0528.13007)] in terms of so-called \textit{central separable algebras}. Whereas an Azumaya algebra is locally isomorphic to the algebra \({\mathcal E}nd\;{\mathcal M}\), where \({\mathcal M}\) is a vector bundle on \(X\), a central separable algebra is locally isomorphic to an algebra of the form \({\mathcal M} \otimes^\lambda {\mathcal N}\), where \(\lambda : {\mathcal M} \otimes {\mathcal N} \to {\mathcal O}_X\) is a pairing. This is the algebra with underlying \({\mathcal O}_X\)-module \({\mathcal M} \otimes {\mathcal N}\), and a product defined using the pairing \(\lambda\). If \({\mathcal N}\) is the dual of \({\mathcal M}\) and \(\lambda\) the canonical pairing, then we recover the definition of an Azumaya algebra. This paper is short and well written, and gives a clear presentation of the problem addressed together with the constructions needed to solve it.