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On the symbol length of $p$-algebras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2013

Mathieu Florence*
Affiliation:
Equipe de Topologie et Géométrie Algébriques, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France email [email protected]

Abstract

The main result of this paper states that if $k$ is a field of characteristic $p\gt 0$ and $A/ k$ is a central simple algebra of index $d= {p}^{n} $ and exponent ${p}^{e} $, then $A$ is split by a purely inseparable extension of $k$ of the form $k( \sqrt[{p}^{e} ]{{a}_{i} }, i= 1, \ldots , d- 1)$. Combining this result with a theorem of Albert (for which we include a new proof), we get that any such algebra is Brauer equivalent to the tensor product of at most $d- 1$ cyclic algebras of degree ${p}^{e} $. This gives a drastic improvement upon previously known upper bounds.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2013 

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