An application of cohomological invariants

Abstract: Let

G

be a finite group,

k

be a field and

G o G L (V_{m r e g})

be the regular representation of

G

over

k

. Then

G

acts naturally on the rational function field

k (V_{m r e g})

by

k

-automorphisms. Define

k (G)

to be the fixed field

k (V_{m r e g})^{G}

. Noether's problem asks whether

k (G)

is rational (resp. stably rational) over

k

. When

and

G

contains a normal subgroup

N

with

G / H s i m e q C_{8}

(the cyclic group of order

8

), Jack Sonn proves that

is not stably rational over

, which is a non-abelian extension of a theorem of Endo-Miyata, Voskresenskii, Lenstra and Saltman for the abelian Noether's problem

. Using the method of cohomological invariants, we are able to generalize Sonn's theorem as follows. Theorem. Let

G

be a finite group and

N

l h d

G

such that

G / N s i m e q C_{2^{n}}

with

n g e q 3

. If

k

is a field satisfying that

m c h a r, k = 0

and

k (z e t a_{2^{n}}) / k

is not a cyclic extension where

z e t a_{2^{n}}

is a primitive

2^{n}

-th root of unity, then

k (G)

is not stably rational (resp. not retract rational) over

k

. end{abstract}

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