Action of dihedral groups

Ming-chang Kang

Published 2013-01-17Version 1

Let $K$ be any field and $G$ be a finite group. 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 $g, \ h \in G$. Denote by $K(G)$ the fixed field $K(x_g: \ g \in G)^G$. Noether's problem asks whether $K(G)$ is rational (=purely transcendental) over $K$. We will give a brief survey of Noether's problem for abelian groups and dihedral groups, and will show that $\Bbb Q(D_n)$ is rational over $\Bbb Q$ for $n \le 10$.