The Merkuriev--Suslin theorem for any semi-local ring (Q852912)

\noindent In the paper the author develops a method which allows him to extend results concerning smooth semi-local ring to arbitrary local rings. The main theorem which makes this extension possible is the following: Theorem 1. Let \(A\) be a semi-local ring essentially of finite type over a base ring \(k\). Suppose \(A\cong B/J\) where \(B\) is a smooth semi-local ring essentially of finite type over \(k.\) Let \(\mathcal C\) be a category of semi-local ring extensions of \(B\) containing \(A\),\(B^{h}_{/J}\), and the full subcategory \(\text{Ét}(J)\). Suppose \(F_{1},F_{2}: {\mathcal C}\rightarrow \text{Ab}\) are two covariant functors which are either both local for \(V(J)\) or \(F_{2}\) is local for \(V(J)\) and \(F_{1}\) is locally of finite presentation and satisfies the epic Hensel pair condition. Let \(\phi :F_{1}\rightarrow F_{2}\) be a natural transformation such that \({\phi}( B^{\prime})\) is an isomorphism if \(B^{\prime}\) is smooth and essentially of finite type over \(k\). Then \({\phi}( A)\) is an isomorphism. The author gives three applications: in the first he shows that under suitable hypotheses the étale cohomology of \(A\) is the same as the Galois cohomology, in the second he extends the Merkuriev-Suslin theorem and in the third generalizes to \(A\) the Suslin's computation of the \(\ell\)-primary component of \(K_{2}(k)\).