This volume addresses algebraic invariants that occur in the confluence of several important areas of mathematics, including number theory, algebra, and arithmetic algebraic geometry. The invariants are analogues for Galois cohomology of the characteristic classes of topology, which have been extremely useful tools in both topology and geometry. It is hoped that these new invariants will prove similarly useful. Early versions of the invariants arose in the attempt to classify the quadratic forms over a given field. The authors are well-known experts in the field. Serre, in particular, is recognized as both a superb mathematician and a master author. His book on Galois cohomology from the 1960s was fundamental to the development of the theory. Merkurjev, also an expert mathematician and author, co-wrote The Book of Involutions (Volume 44 in the AMS Colloquium Publications series), an important work that contains preliminary descriptions of some of the main results on invariants described here. The book also includes letters between Serre and some of the principal developers of the theory. It will be of interest to graduate students and research mathematicians interested in number th

This volume is concerned with algebraic invariants, such as the Stiefel-Whitney classes of quadratic forms (with values in Galois cohomology mod 2) and the trace form of etale algebras (with values in the Witt ring). The invariants are analogues for Galois cohomology of the characteristic classes of topology. Historically, one of the first examples of cohomological invariants of the type considered here was the Hasse-Witt invariant of quadratic forms. The first part classifies such invariants in several cases. A principal tool is the notion of versal torsor, which is an analogue of the universal bundle in topology. The second part gives Rost's determination of the invariants of G-torsors with values in HÝsuperscript 3¨(Q/Z(2)), when G is a semisimple, simply connected, linear group. This part gives detailed proofs of the existence and basic properties of the Rost invariant.

This second edition is a corrected and extended version of the first. It is a textbook for students, as well as a reference book for the working mathematician, on cohomological topics in number theory. In all it is a virtually complete treatment of a vast array of central topics in algebraic number theory. New material is introduced here on duality theorems for unramified and tamely ramified extensions as well as a careful analysis of 2-extensions of real number fields.

This is the first detailed elementary introduction to Galois cohomology and its applications. The introductory section is self-contained and provides the basic results of the theory. Assuming only a minimal background in algebra, the main purpose of this book is to prepare graduate students and researchers for more advanced study.

The first comprehensive modern introduction to central simple algebra starting from the basics and reaching advanced results.

The notion of a motive is an elusive one, like its namesake "the motif" of Cezanne's impressionist method of painting. Its existence was first suggested by Grothendieck in 1964 as the underlying structure behind the myriad cohomology theories in Algebraic Geometry. We now know that there is a triangulated theory of motives, discovered by Vladimir Voevodsky, which suffices for the development of a satisfactory Motivic Cohomology theory. However, the existence of motives themselves remains conjectural. This book provides an account of the triangulated theory of motives. Its purpose is to introduce Motivic Cohomology, to develop its main properties, and finally to relate it to other known invariants of algebraic varieties and rings such as Milnor K-theory, etale cohomology, and Chow groups. The book is divided into lectures, grouped in six parts. The first part presents the definition of Motivic Cohomology, based upon the notion of presheaves with transfers. Some elementary comparison theorems are given in this part. The theory of (etale, Nisnevich, and Zariski) sheaves with transfers is developed in parts two, three, and six, respectively. The theoretical core of the book is the fourth part, presenting the triangulated category of motives. Finally, the comparison with higher Chow groups is developed in part five. The lecture notes format is designed for the book to be read by an advanced graduate student or an expert in a related field. The lectures roughly correspond to one-hour lectures given by Voevodsky during the course he gave at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton on this subject in 1999-2000. In addition, many of the original proofs have been simplified and improved so that this book will also be a useful tool for research mathematicians. Information for our distributors: Titles in this series are copublished with the Clay Mathematics Institute (Cambridge, MA).

Rationality problems link algebra to geometry, and the difficulties involved depend on the transcendence degree of $K$ over $k$, or geometrically, on the dimension of the variety. A major success in 19th century algebraic geometry was a complete solution of the rationality problem in dimensions one and two over algebraically closed ground fields of characteristic zero. Such advances has led to many interdisciplinary applications to algebraic geometry. This comprehensive book consists of surveys of research papers by leading specialists in the field and gives indications for future research in rationality problems. Topics discussed include the rationality of quotient spaces, cohomological invariants of quasi-simple Lie type groups, rationality of the moduli space of curves, and rational points on algebraic varieties. This volume is intended for researchers, mathematicians, and graduate students interested in algebraic geometry, and specifically in rationality problems. Contributors: F. Bogomolov; T. Petrov; Y. Tschinkel; Ch. Böhning; G. Catanese; I. Cheltsov; J. Park; N. Hoffmann; S. J. Hu; M. C. Kang; L. Katzarkov; Y. Prokhorov; A. Pukhlikov

This volume concerns invariants of $G$-torsors with values in mod $p$ Galois cohomology--in the sense of Serre's lectures in the book Cohomological invariants in Galois cohomology--for various simple algebraic groups $G$ and primes $p$. The author determines the invariants for the exceptional groups $F_4$ mod 3, simply connected $E_6$ mod 3, $E_7$ mod 3, and $E_8$ mod 5. He also determines the invariants of $\mathrm{Spin}_n$ mod 2 for $n \leq 12$ and constructs some invariants of $\mathrm{Spin}_{14}$. Along the way, the author proves that certain maps in nonabelian cohomology are surjective. These surjectivities give as corollaries Pfister's results on 10- and 12-dimensional quadratic forms and Rost's theorem on 14-dimensional quadratic forms. This material on quadratic forms and invariants of $\mathrm{Spin}_n$ is based on unpublished work of Markus Rost. An appendix by Detlev Hoffmann proves a generalization of the Common Slot Theorem for 2-Pfister quadratic forms.

Developments in Mathematics is a book series devoted to all areas of mathematics, pure and applied. The series emphasizes research monographs describing the latest advances. Edited volumes that focus on areas that have seen dramatic progress, or are of special interest, are encouraged as well.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 2015 Clifford Lectures on Algebraic Groups: Structures and Actions, held from March 2–5, 2015, at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. This volume consists of six articles on algebraic groups, including an enhanced exposition of the classical results of Chevalley and Rosenlicht on the structure of algebraic groups; an enhanced survey of the recently developed theory of pseudo-reductive groups; and an exposition of the recently developed operational -theory for singular varieties. In addition, there are three research articles containing previously unpublished foundational results on birational automorphism groups of algebraic varieties; solution of Hermite-Joubert problem over -closed fields; and cohomological invariants and applications to classifying spaces. The old and new results presented in these articles will hopefully become cornerstones for the future development of the theory of algebraic groups and applications. Graduate students and researchers working in the fields of algebraic geometry, number theory, and representation theory will benefit from this unique and broad compilation of fundamental results on algebraic group theory.