English

Symbol Length of Classes in Milnor $K$-groups

Rings and Algebras 2022-06-08 v2 K-Theory and Homology

Abstract

Given a field FF, a positive integer mm and an integer n2n\geq 2, we prove that the symbol length of classes in Milnor's KK-groups KnF/2mKnFK_n F/2^m K_n F that are equivalent to single symbols under the embedding into KnF/2m+1KnFK_n F/2^{m+1} K_n F is at most 2n12^{n-1} under the assumption that Fμ2m+1F \supseteq \mu_{2^{m+1}}. Since for n=2n=2, K2F/2mK2F2mBr(F)K_2 F/2^m K_2 F \cong {_{2^m}Br(F)}, this coincides with the upper bound of 22 for the symbol length of central simple algebras of exponent 2m2^m that are Brauer equivalent to a single symbol algebra of degree 2m+12^{m+1} proved by Tignol in 1983. We also consider the cases where the embedding into KnF/2m+1KnFK_n F/2^{m+1} K_n F is of symbol length 2, 3 and 4 (the latter when n=2n=2). We finish with studying the symbol length of classes in K3/3mK3FK_3/3^m K_3 F whose embedding into K3F/3m+1K3FK_3 F/3^{m+1} K_3 F is one symbol when Fμ3m+1F \supseteq \mu_{3^{m+1}}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.06514,
  title  = {Symbol Length of Classes in Milnor $K$-groups},
  author = {Adam Chapman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.06514},
  year   = {2022}
}