Indecomposable \(p\)-algebras and Galois subfields in generic Abelian crossed products. (Q950209)

Let \((F,v)\) be a Henselian valued field with a residue field \(\widehat F\) and a value group \(\Gamma_F\), and let \(D\) be a central division \(F\)-algebra of finite dimension \([D:F]\). It is well-known that \(D\) has a unique, up-to equivalence, valuation extending \(v\) (we also denote it by \(v\), and write \(\widehat D\) and \(\Gamma_D\) for its residue division algebra and value group, respectively). The valued division algebra \((D,v)\) is said to be semiramified, if \(\overline D\) is a field of degree \([\widehat D:\widehat F]\) equal to \(\sqrt{[D:F]}\), and to the index \(|\Gamma_D:\Gamma_F|\). Henceforth, we assume that \(F\) is of nonzero characteristic \(p\), \((D,v)\) is semiramified, \(\widehat D/\widehat F\) is separable, and \(D\) is a \(p\)-algebra, i.e. \([D:F]\) is a power of \(p\). The fulfillment of these conditions ensures that \(\widehat D/\widehat F\) is a Galois extension with an Abelian Galois group \(G(\widehat D/\widehat F)\); more precisely, the fundamental group homomorphism \(\theta_D\colon\Gamma_D/\Gamma_F\to G(\widehat D/\widehat F)\) is an isomorphism [see \textit{B. Jacob} and \textit{A. Wadsworth}, J. Algebra 128, No. 1, 126-179 (1990; Zbl 0692.16011)]. This gives rise to the notions of a degenerate and of a strongly degenerate (semiramified) algebra, technically defined but undoubtfully useful for studying generic Abelian crossed products in characteristic \(p\). In this setting, the paper under review shows that if \((D,v)\) is not strongly degenerate, then every Galois extension \(L\) of \(F\) embeddable in \(D\) as an \(F\)-subalgebra possesses the following two properties: (i) \(L/F\) is inertial; (ii) the Galois group \(G(L/F)\) is a homomorphic image of \(G(\widehat D/\widehat F)\). Furthermore, it proves that if \((D,v)\) is non-degenerate, then \(D\) remains indecomposable after any prime to \(p\) extension, i.e. the tensor product \(D\otimes_F\Phi\) does not decompose into a tensor product of noncommutative \(\Phi\)-subalgebras, for any finite extension \(\Phi/F\) of degree prime to \(p\). The author obtains several interesting consequences of the main result generalizing or complementing earlier results of other authors [see \textit{D. J. Saltman}, J. Algebra 52, 302-314 (1978; Zbl 0391.13002), \textit{P. J. Morandi} and \textit{B. A. Sethuraman}, J. Algebra 172, No. 2, 554-583 (1995; Zbl 0840.16013); \textit{L. H. Rowen} and \textit{D. J. Saltman}, Isr. J. Math. 78, No. 2-3, 197-207 (1992; Zbl 0795.16012)]. Given a field \(E\) of characteristic \(p\) and a Galois extension \(K/E\) with \(G(K/E)\) an Abelian non-cyclic \(p\)-group, she proves that the generic crossed product associated with \(K/E\) (by Saltman in 1978) is not presentable as a crossed product of any group nonisomorphic to \(G(K/E)\), under any prime to \(p\) extension (over its centre \(C(K/E)\)). Also, she proves that if \(k\) is an infinite field of characteristic \(p\), and \((m,n)\) is a pair of integers with \(2\leq m\leq n\) and \(2<n\), then the generic division algebra \(UD(k,p^m,p^n)\) of exponent \(p^m\) and Schur index \(p^n\) remains a non-crossed product after any prime to \(p\) extension (over its centre). Finally, the author studies the relationship between degeneracy of matrices defining Abelian crossed products and torsion in the Chow group \(\text{CH}^2\) of the corresponding Brauer-Severi varieties (along the lines drawn by \textit{N. A. Karpenko} [K-Theory 13, No. 4, 305-330 (1998; Zbl 0896.19002)]). This is used for constructing non-degenerate Abelian crossed products having a non-degenerate matrix, exponent \(p\) and index \(p^n\), for each prime \(p>2\) and every integer \(n\geq 2\).