On Noether's problem for central extensions of symmetric and alternating groups (Q837025)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \(K\) be a field. Let \(K(x_g : g \in G)\) be the rational function field with \(G\)-actions defined by \(h \cdot x_g =x_{hg}\) for any \(h, g \in G\). Noether's problem asks whether the fixed field \(K(G)=K(x_g : g \in G)^G\) is rational (= purely transcendental) over \(K\). If \(K\) is an algebraic number field and \(K(G)\) is rational over \(K\), then the inverse Galois problem is valid for the group \(G\) and the field \(K\), i. e. there is a Galois extension field \(L\) over \(K\) with Galois group isomorphic to \(G\). In fact, more stronger conclusion can be deduced: If \(K(G)\) is rational over an infinite field \(K\), then Serre's property \(\text{Rat}(G/K)\) holds [see \textit{S. Garibaldi, A. Merkurjev} and \textit{J.-P. Serre}, Cohomological invariants in Galois cohomology. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (2003; Zbl 1159.12311), page 86]. The purpose of the paper under review is to study \(K(G)\) where \(G\) is the symmetric group \(S_n\), the alternating group \(A_n\), or some central extension of \(S_n\) or \(A_n\). Specifically, using ideas in \textit{J.-F. Mestre}'s paper [J. Algebra 131, No. 2, 483--495 (1990; Zbl 0714.11074)], it is shown that, if \(n \geq 3\) is an odd integer, then \(Q(A_n)\) is rational over \(Q(A_{n-1})\), i.e. there is a subfield \(L\) of \(Q(A_n)\) such that \(L\) is isomorphic to \(Q(A_{n-1})\). Since it is known that \(Q(A_4)\) is \(Q\)-rational, it follows that \(K(A_5)\) is \(K\)-rational for any field \(K\) with \(\text{char}\, K= 0\). This gives another proof of \textit{T. Maeda}'s Theorem [J. Algebra 125, No. 2, 418--430 (1989; Zbl 0697.12018)] (note that Maeda shows that \(K(A_5)\) is \(K\)-rational for any field \(K\)). Then the author extends the above method to central extensions of \(G_n\) where \(G_n = S_n\) or \(A_n\). In this situation, a technique of \textit{D. J. Saltman} is applied [J. Algebra 131, No. 2, 535--558 (1990; Zbl 0702.12002)]. In particular, if \(1 \rightarrow C_2 \rightarrow H_n \rightarrow G_n \rightarrow 1\) is a double cover of \(G_n\) and \(H_{n-1}\) denotes the restriction of \(H_n\) to \(G_{n-1} =G_n \cap S_{n-1}\), and if \(n \geq 3\) is an odd integer, then \(Q(H_n)\) is rational over \(Q(H_{n-1})\).