On the degree of irrationality in Noether’s problem

Abstract

Noether’s problem asks whether, for a given field [Formula: see text] and finite group [Formula: see text], the fixed field [Formula: see text] is a purely transcendental extension of [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] acts on the [Formula: see text] by [Formula: see text]. The field [Formula: see text] is naturally the function field for a quotient variety [Formula: see text]. We study the degree of irrationality [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] for an abelian group [Formula: see text], which is defined to be the minimal degree of a dominant rational map from [Formula: see text] to projective space. In particular, we give bounds for [Formula: see text] in terms of the arithmetic of cyclotomic extensions [Formula: see text].