Noether's problem for some 2-groups

Ming-chang Kang, Ivo M. Michailov, Jian Zhou

Published 2010-09-13, updated 2011-09-05Version 2

Let $G$ be a finite group and $k$ be a field. Let $G$ act on the rational function field $k(x_g:g\in G)$ by $k$-automorphisms defined by $g\cdot x_h=x_{gh}$ for any $g,h\in G$. Noether's problem asks whether the fixed field $k(G)=k(x_g:g\in G)^G$ is rational (i.e. purely transcendental) over $k$. We will prove that, if $G$ is a group of order $2^n$ ($n\ge 4$) and of exponent $2^e$ such that (i) $e\ge n-2$ and (ii) $\zeta_{2^{e-1}} \in k$, then $k(G)$ is $k$-rational.13A50,14E08,14M20,12F12