Connected gradings and the fundamental group (Q990329)

The intrinsic fundamental group of a linear category over a commutative ring \(k\) was defined as the automorphism group of the fiber functor on Galois coverings in a previous paper of the authors [``The intrinsic fundamental group of a linear category'', to appear in Algebr. Represent. Theory]. A \(k\)-algebra \(A\) can be regarded as a \(k\)-linear category with one object, thus it makes sense to consider the intrinsic fundamental group \(\pi_1(A)\) of \(A\). In the paper under review it is studied the connection between group gradings and Galois coverings of \(A\), and the method developed here is applied to give explicit computations of \(\pi_1(A)\) if \(A\) is one of the following algebras: (1) \(M_2(k)\), with \(\text{char}(k)\neq 2\); (2) \(M_3(k)\), with \(\text{char}(k)\neq 3\); (3) \(M_p(k)\) with prime \(p\) and \(\text{char}(k)=0\) (under the assumption that \(k\) is an algebraically closed field in (1), (2), (3)); (4) \(T_n(k)\), the algebra of upper triangular matrices over an arbitrary field \(k\); (5) \(k[X]/(X^p)\), the truncated polynomial algebra, where \(k\) is a field of characteristic \(p>0\); (6) \(k^n\), where \(n\in\{2,3,4\}\) and \(k\) contains primitive roots of unity of any order \(h\leq n\).