O teorema de Brauer sobre o índice e o período de álgebras simples centrais

Abstract

In this work we will prove a theorem of Richard Brauer on the index and the period of central simple algebras. A central simple algebra is a finite-dimensional algebra over a field that becomes isomorphic to a matrix algebra after extending scalars to a finite field extension. Wedderburn’s theorem allows us define an invariant of such an algebra, called the index and the Brauer group provides a classification of central simple algebras over a given field. The period of a central simple algebra is the order of its class in the Brauer group. Brauer’s theorem of 1929 shows that the period of a central simple algebra always divides its index, which is the main result of this work. Our proof is based on techniques from Galois cohomology.