We attach to any commutative ring R a subgroup of the Brauer group of R, called the Brauer-Galois group of R. Its elements are the classes of the Azumaya R-algebras which can be represented, via Brauer equivalence, by a Galois extension of R. We compute this group for some particular commutative fields.
Let $R$ be a commutative ring. An Azumaya coring consists of a couple $(S,\Cc)$, with $S$ a faithfully flat commutative $R$-algebra, and an $S$-coring $\Cc$ satisfying certain properties. If $S$ is faithfully projective, then the dual of $\Cc$ is an Azumaya algebra. Equivalence classes of Azumaya corings form an abelian group, called the Brauer group of Azumaya corings. This group is canonically isomorphic to the second flat cohomology group. We also give algebraic interpretations of the second Amitsur cohomology group and the first Villamayor-Zelinsky cohomology group in terms of corings.
Generalizing a theorem of Albert, Saltman showed that an Azumaya algebra $A$ over a ring represents a $2$-torsion class in the Brauer group if and only if there is an algebra $A'$ in the Brauer class of $A$ admitting an involution of the first kind. Knus, Parimala, and Srinivas later showed that one can choose $A'$ such that $\mathrm{deg}\, A'=2\mathrm{deg}\, A$. We show that $2\mathrm{deg}\, A$ is the lowest degree one can expect in general. Specifically, we construct an Azumaya algebra $A$ of degree $4$ and period $2$ such that the degree of any algebra $A'$ in the Brauer class of $A$ admitt…
We introduce the notion of Azumaya object in general homotopy-theoretic settings. We give a self-contained account of Azumaya objects and Brauer groups in bicategorical contexts, generalizing the Brauer group of a commutative ring. We go on to describe triangulated bicategories and prove a characterization theorem for Azumaya objects therein. This theory applies to give a homotopical Brauer group for derived categories of rings and ring spectra. We show that the homotopical Brauer group of an Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum is isomorphic to the homotopical Brauer group of its underlying commutativ…
We investigate a notion of Azumaya algebras in the context of structured ring spectra and give a definition of Brauer groups. We investigate their Galois theoretic properties, and discuss examples of Azumaya algebras arising from Galois descent and cyclic algebras. We construct examples that are related to topological Hochschild cohomology of group ring spectra and we present a K(n)-local variant of the notion of Brauer groups.
We describe the derived Picard group of an Azumaya algebra A on an affine scheme X in terms of global sections of the constant sheaf of integers on X, the Picard group of X, and the stabilizer of the Brauer class of A under the action of Aut(X). In particular, we find that the derived Picard group of an Azumaya algebra is generally not isomorphic to that of the underlying scheme. In the case of the trivial Azumaya algebra, our result refines Yekutieli's description of the derived Picard group of a commutative algebra. We also get, as a corollary, an alternate proof of a result of Antieau which…
In this paper, we study Azumaya algebras and Brauer groups in derived algebraic geometry. We establish various fundamental facts about Brauer groups in this setting, and we provide a computational tool, which we use to compute the Brauer group in several examples. In particular, we show that the Brauer group of the sphere spectrum vanishes, and we use this to prove two uniqueness theorems for the stable homotopy category. Our key technical results include the local geometricity, in the sense of Artin n-stacks, of the moduli space of perfect modules over a smooth and proper algebra, the étale l…
The differential Brauer monoid of a differential commutative ring R s defined. Its elements are the isomorphism classes of differential Azumaya R algebras with operation from tensor product subject to the relation that two such algebras are equivalent if matrix algebras over them are differentially isomorphic. The Bauer monoid, which is a group, is the same thing without the differential requirement. The differential Brauer monoid is then determined from the Brauer monoids of R and its ring of constants and the submonoid whose underlying Azumaya algebras are matrix rings.
We consider the general circumstance of an Azumaya algebra $A$ of degree $n$ over a locally ringed topos $(\mathbf{X}, {\mathcal{O}}_{\mathbf{ X}})$ where the latter carries a (possibly trivial) involution, denoted $λ$. This generalizes the usual notion of involutions of Azumaya algebras over schemes with involution, which in turn generalizes the notion of involutions of central simple algebras. We provide a criterion to determine whether two Azumaya algebras with involutions extending $λ$ are locally isomorphic, describe the equivalence classes obtained by this relation, and settle the questi…
The main theorem (Theorem 4.1) of this paper claims that any ring morphism from an Azumaya algebra of constant rank over a commutative ring to another one of the same constant rank and over a reduced commutative ring induces a ring morphism between the centers of these algebras. The second main theorem (Theorem 5.3) implies (through its Corollary 5.4) that a ring morphism between two Azumaya algebras of the same constant rank is an isomorphism if and only if it induces an isomorphism between their centers. As preliminary to these theorems we also prove a theorem (Theorem 2.8) describing the Br…
This paper shows that divisible abelian torsion groups are realizable as Brauer groups of quasilocal fields. It describes the isomorphism classes of Brauer groups of primarily quasilocal fields and solves the analogous problem concerning the reduced components of the Brauer groups of two basic types of Henselian valued absolutely stable fields. For a quasilocal field E and a finite separable extension R/E, we find two sufficient conditions for validity of the norm group equality $N(R/E) = N(R_{0}/E)$, where R_{0} is the maximal abelian extension of E in R. This is used for deriving information…
In a talk at the Banff International Research Station in 2015 Asher Auel asked questions about genus one curves in Severi-Brauer varieties $SB(A)$. More specifically he asked about the smooth cubic curves in Severi-Brauer surfaces, that is in $SB(D)$ where $D/F$ is a degree three division algebra. Even more specifically, he asked about the Jacobian, $E$, of these curves. In this paper we give a version of an answer to both these questions, describing the surprising connection between these curves and properties of the algebra $A$. Let $F$ contain $ρ$, a primitive third root of one. Since $D/F$…
A conjecture of Amitsur states that two Severi-Brauer varieties are birationally isomorphic if and only if the underlying algebras are the same degree and generate the same cyclic subgroup of the Brauer group. It is known that generating the same cyclic subgroup is a necessary condition, however it has not yet been shown to be sufficient. In this paper we examine the case where the algebras have a maximal subfield $K/F$ of degree $n$ with Galois closure $E/F$ whose Galois group is of the form $C_n \rtimes H$, where $E^H = K$ and $|H|$ is prime to $n$. For such as we show that the conjecture is…
We consider the Brauer group ${\rm BM}'(k,G)$ of a group $G$ (finite or infinite) over a commutative ring $k$ with identity. A split exact sequence $$1\longrightarrow {\rm Br}'(k)\longrightarrow {\rm BM}'(k,G)\longrightarrow {\rm Gal}(k,G) \longrightarrow 1$$ is obtained. This generalizes the Fröhlich-Wall exact sequence from the case of a field to the case of a commutative ring, and generalizes the Picco-Platzeck exact sequence from the finite case of $G$ to the infinite case of $G$. Here ${\rm Br}'(k)$ is the Brauer-Taylor group of Azumaya algebras (not necessarily with unit). The method dev…
The Artin-Schreier polynomial $Z^p - Z - a$ is very well known. Polynomials of this type describe all degree $p$ (cyclic) Galois extensions over any commutative ring of characteristic $p$. Equally attractive is the associated Galois action. If $θ$ is a root then $σ(θ) = θ+ 1$ generates the Galois group. Less well known, but equally general, is the so called "differential crossed product" Azumaya algebra generated by $x,y$ subject to the relation $xy - yx = 1$. In characteristic $p$ these algebras are always Azumaya and algebras of this sort generate the $p$ torsion subgroup of the Brauer group…
We prove that Toen's secondary Grothendieck ring is isomorphic to the Grothendieck ring of smooth proper pretriangulated dg categories previously introduced by Bondal, Larsen and Lunts. Along the way, we show that those short exact sequences of dg categories in which the first term is smooth proper and the second term is proper are necessarily split. As an application, we prove that the canonical map from the derived Brauer group to the secondary Grothendieck ring has the following injective properties: in the case of a commutative ring of characteristic zero, it distinguishes between dg Azuma…
Let k be a base commutative ring, R a commutative ring of coefficients, X a quasi-compact quasi-separated k-scheme, A a sheaf of Azumaya algebras over X of rank r, and Hmo(R) the category of noncommutative motives with R-coefficients. Assume that 1/r belongs to R. Under this assumption, we prove that the noncommutative motives with R-coefficients of X and A are isomorphic. As an application, we show that all the R-linear additive invariants of X and A are exactly the same. Examples include (nonconnective) algebraic K-theory, cyclic homology (and all its variants), topological Hochschild homolo…
Let $E$ be a field, $p$ a prime number and $F/E$ a finitely-generated extension of transcendency degree $t$. This paper shows that if the absolute Galois group $\mathcal{G}_{E}$ is of nonzero cohomological $p$-dimension cd$_{p}(E)$, then the field $F$ has Brauer $p$-dimension Brd$_{p}(F) \ge t$ except, possibly, in case $p = 2$, the Sylow pro-2-subgroups of $\mathcal{G}_{E}$ are of order 2, and $F$ is a nonreal field. It announces that Brd$_{p}(F)$ is infinite whenever $t \ge 1$ and the absolute Brauer $p$-dimension abrd$_{p}(E)$ is infinite; moreover, for each pair $(m, n)$ of integers with $…
Graded-division algebras are building blocks in the theory of finite-dimensional associative algebras graded by a group G. If G is abelian, they can be described, using a loop construction, in terms of central simple graded-division algebras. On the other hand, given a finite abelian group G, any central simple G-graded-division algebra over a field F is determined, thanks to a result of Picco and Platzeck, by its class in the (ordinary) Brauer group of F and the isomorphism class of a G-Galois extension of F. This connection is used to classify the simple G-Galois extensions of F in terms of …
We define a corestriction map for equivariant Brauer groups in the sense of Fröhlich and Wall, which contain as a special case the Brauer-Clifford groups introduced by Turull. We show that this corestriction map has similar properties as the corestriction map in group cohomology (especially Galois cohomology). In particular, composing corestriction and restriction associated to a subgroup $H\leq G$ amounts to powering with the index $\lvert G:H \rvert$.
In this paper we study the relationship between degeneracy and decomposability in abelian crossed products. In particular we construct an indecomposable abelian crossed product division algebra of exponent $p$ and index $p^2$ for $p$ an odd prime. The algebra we construct is generic in the sense of Amitsur and Saltman and has the property that its underlying abelian crossed product is a decomposable division algebra defined by a non-degenerate matrix. This algebra gives an example of an indecomposable generic abelian crossed product which is shown to be indecomposable without using torsion in …
A deeper understanding of recent computations of the Brauer group of Hopf algebras is attained by explaining why a direct product decomposition for this group holds and describing the non-interpreted factor occurring in it. For a Hopf algebra $B$ in a braided monoidal category $\C$, and under certain assumptions on the braiding (fulfilled if $\C$ is symmetric), we construct a sequence for the Brauer group $\BM(\C;B)$ of $B$-module algebras, generalizing Beattie's one. It allows one to prove that $\BM(\C;B) \cong \Br(\C) \times \Gal(\C;B),$ where $\Br(\C)$ is the Brauer group of $\C$ and $\Gal(…
Since Amitsur's discovery of noncrossed product division algebras more than 35 years ago, their existence over more familiar fields has been an object of investigation. Brussel's work was a culmination of this effort, exhibiting noncrossed products over the rational function field k(t) and the Laurent series field k((t)) over any global field k -- the smallest possible centers of noncrossed products. Witt's theorem gives a transparent description of the Brauer group of k((t)) as the direct sum of the Brauer group of k and the character group of the absolute Galois group of k. We classify the B…
Let S be a commutative ring, Q a group that acts on S, and let R be the subring of S fixed under Q. A Q-normal S-algebra consists of a central S-algebra A and a homomorphism s from Q to the group Out(A) of outer automorphisms of A that lifts the Q-action on S. We associate to a Q-normal S-algebra (A,s) a crossed 2-fold extension which, in turn, represents a class, the Teichmueller class of (A,s), in the third cohomology group of Q with coefficients in the group U(S) of units of S, endowed with the obvious Q-module structure. Suitable equivalence classes of Q-normal Azumaya S-algebras constitut…
Let $E$ be a field, $R$ a finite separable extension of $E$, and $R_{\rm ab}$ the maximal abelian subextension of $E$ in $R$. The main result of this paper shows that the norm groups $N(R/E)$ and $N(R_{\rm ab}/E)$ are equal in each of the following two special cases: (i) $E$ is primarily quasilocal and $R$ is an intermediate field of a finite Galois extension $M/E$ with a nilpotent Galois group; (ii) $E$ is quasilocal and the natural Brauer group homomorphism Br$(E) \to $ Br$(L)$ is surjective, for every finite extension $L$ of $E$. It is also used for describing the norm groups of formally re…
For every action $ϕ\in\text{Hom}(G,\text{Aut}_k(K))$ of a group $G$ on a commutative ring $K$ we introduce two abelian monoids. The monoid $\text{Cliff}_k(ϕ)$ consists of equivalent classes of $G$-graded Clifford system extensions of type $ϕ$ of $K$-central algebras. The monoid $\mathcal{C}_k{(ϕ)}$ consists of equivariant classes of generalized collective characters of type $ϕ$ from $G$ to the Picard groups of $K$-central algebras. Furthermore, for every such $ϕ$ there is an exact sequence of abelian monoids $$0\to H^2(G,K^*_ϕ)\to\text{Cliff}_k(ϕ)\to\mathcal{C}_k{(ϕ)}\to H^3(G,K^*_ϕ).$$ The ri…