Noether's problem and unramified Brauer groups

Akinari Hoshi, Ming-chang Kang, Boris E. Kunyavskii

Published 2012-02-27Version 1

Let $k$ be any field, $G$ be a finite group acing on the rational function field $k(x_g:g\in G)$ by $h\cdot x_g=x_{hg}$ for any $h,g\in G$. Define $k(G)=k(x_g:g\in G)^G$. Noether's problem asks whether $k(G)$ is rational (= purely transcendental) over $k$. It is known that, if $\bm{C}(G)$ is rational over $\bm{C}$, then $B_0(G)=0$ where $B_0(G)$ is the unramified Brauer group of $\bm{C}(G)$ over $\bm{C}$. Bogomolov showed that, if $G$ is a $p$-group of order $p^5$, then $B_0(G)=0$. This result was disproved by Moravec for $p=3,5,7$ by computer calculations. We will prove the following theorem. Theorem. Let $p$ be any odd prime number, $G$ be a group of order $p^5$. Then $B_0(G)\ne 0$ if and only if $G$ belongs to the isoclinism family $\Phi_{10}$ in R. James's classification of groups of order $p^5$.