Cohomology of absolute Galois groups

The main problem this thesis deals with is the characterization of profinite groups which are realizable as absolute Galois groups of fields: this is currently one of the major problems in Galois theory. Usually one reduces the problem to the pro-$p$ case, i.e., one would like to know which pro-$p$ groups occur as maximal pro-$p$ Galois groups, i.e., maximal pro-$p$ quotients of absolute Galois groups. Indeed, pro-$p$ groups are easier to deal with than general profinite groups, yet they carry a lot of information on the whole absolute Galois group. We define a new class of pro-$p$ groups, called Bloch-Kato pro-$p$ group, whose Galois cohomology satisfies the consequences of the Bloch-Kato conjecture. Also we introduce the notion of cyclotomic orientation for a pro-$p$ group. With this approach, we are able to recover new substantial information about the structure of maximal pro-$p$ Galois groups, and in particular on $\theta$-abelian pro-$p$ groups, which represent the "upper bound" of such groups. Also, we study the restricted Lie algebra and the universal envelope induced by the Zassenhaus filtration of a maximal pro-$p$ Galois group, and their relations with Galois cohomology via Koszul duality. Altogether, this thesis provides a rather new approach to maximal pro-$p$ Galois groups, besides new substantial results.