The bigger Brauer group and twisted sheaves (Q731914)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
The bigger Brauer group and twisted sheaves
scientific article

    Statements

    The bigger Brauer group and twisted sheaves (English)
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    9 October 2009
    0 references
    The Brauer group of a scheme \(X\) is defined to be the set of equivalence classes of Azumaya algebras over \(X\), together with the operation of tensor product. It was shown in a series of articles by \textit{A.~Grothendieck} [Dix Exposés Cohomologie Schémas, Advanced Studies Pure Math. 3, 46--189 (1968; Zbl 0193.21503, Zbl 0193.25803, Zbl 0193.25901)] that, under suitable hypotheses, the Brauer group can be viewed as a subgroup of the étale cohomology group \(H^2(X,{\mathbb G}_m)\), with the two groups coinciding for smooth varieties. Grothendieck observed that, since the Brauer group is torsion, one cannot expect the Brauer group to coincide with \(H^2(X, {\mathbb G}_m)\) in general, but asked whether the Brauer group can always be identified with the torsion subgroup of this cohomology group. In the present paper, the authors answer a modified version of that question: if \(X\) is an arbitrary Noetherian scheme, and the Brauer group is replaced by the \textit{bigger Brauer group} of \(X\), denoted \(\widetilde{\roman{Br}} X\), then there is an isomorphism between \(\widetilde{\roman{Br}} X\) and \(H^2(X,{\mathbb G}_m)\). The context in which they prove this naturally extends to the case when \(X\) is a Noetherian algebraic stack, assuming that the diagonal morphism \(X \to X \times X\) is quasi-affine. The bigger Brauer group was defined by \textit{J. L.~Taylor} [Pac.\ J. Math. 103, 163--203 (1982; Zbl 0528.13007)] in terms of so-called \textit{central separable algebras}. Whereas an Azumaya algebra is locally isomorphic to the algebra \({\mathcal E}nd\;{\mathcal M}\), where \({\mathcal M}\) is a vector bundle on \(X\), a central separable algebra is locally isomorphic to an algebra of the form \({\mathcal M} \otimes^\lambda {\mathcal N}\), where \(\lambda : {\mathcal M} \otimes {\mathcal N} \to {\mathcal O}_X\) is a pairing. This is the algebra with underlying \({\mathcal O}_X\)-module \({\mathcal M} \otimes {\mathcal N}\), and a product defined using the pairing \(\lambda\). If \({\mathcal N}\) is the dual of \({\mathcal M}\) and \(\lambda\) the canonical pairing, then we recover the definition of an Azumaya algebra. This paper is short and well written, and gives a clear presentation of the problem addressed together with the constructions needed to solve it.
    0 references
    0 references
    Brauer group
    0 references
    Azumaya algebras
    0 references
    algebraic stacks
    0 references

    Identifiers