Restricted Lie algebras and simple associative algebras of characteristic 𝑝

Abstract

Introduction. Let F be a field of characteristic p, and let C be a finite algebraic extension field of F such that CPCF. It has been shown in [4] that there is a one to one correspondence (up to isomorphisms) between the simple finite dimensional algebras with center F and containing C as a maximal commutative subring and the regular restricted Lie algebra extensions of C by the derivation algebra of C/F. This led to a very simple description of the group of similarity classes of these algebras. The main task of the present paper is to investigate the connection between restricted Lie algebras and simple associative algebras of characteristic p quite generally. For this purpose, we generalize the notion of a regular extension of C by the derivation algebra of C/F to that of a regular extension of a simple algebra A with center C by the derivation algebra of C/F. The correspondence mentioned above is then generalized to a one to one correspondence between these extensions and the simple algebras with center F which contain A as the commutator algebra of C (Theorem 3). We shall then show how every simple algebra containing a purely inseparable extension field of its center as a maximal commutative subring can be built up in a series of steps from regular Lie algebra extensions. With a suitable composition of regular extensions, which we define in ?2, this reduces the structure of the group of algebra classes with a fixed purely inseparable splitting field to the structural elements of restricted Lie algebras, at least in principle. However, it does not yield a direct description of this group, as was the case for splitting fields of exponent one. In ?3 we show that the tensor multiplication with a purely inseparable extension field C of F maps the Brauer group of algebra classes over F onto the Brauer group over C (Theorem 5). Although this result seems not to have been stated before, it may well be regarded as one of the culminating points of Albert's theory of p-algebras. In fact, Chapter VII of [1] contains all the essential points of a proof along classical lines, which is the first proof we give in ?3. Here, the main tools are Galois theory and the theory of cyclic p-extensions. Our second proof is entirely different. It proceeds within the framework of the first part of this paper, replacing the field theory with the theory of Lie algebras. In particular, we use the theory of restricted Lie algebra kernels, [3], in order to show that if A is a simple algebra with center C and CPC F then there always exists a regular extension of A by the derivation algebra of C/F, whence (by Theorem 3) A can be imbedded as the