Let G be a finite group acting on the rational function field C(xg:g∈G) by C-automorphisms h(xg)=xhg for any g,h∈G. Noether's problem asks whether the invariant field C(G)=k(xg:g∈G)G is rational (i.e. purely transcendental) over C. By Fischer's theorem, C(G) is rational over C when G is a finite abelian group. Saltman and Bogomolov, respectively, showed that for any prime p there exist groups G of order p9 and of order p6 such that C(G) is not rational over C by showing the non-vanishing of the unramified Brauer group: Brnr(C(G))≠0, which is an avatar of the birational invariant H3(X,Z)tors given by Artin and Mumford where X is a smooth projective complex variety whose function field is C(G). For p=2, Chu, Hu, Kang and Prokhorov proved that if G is a 2-group of order ≤32, then C(G) is rational over C. Chu, Hu, Kang and Kunyavskii showed that if G is of order 64, then C(G) is rational over C except for the groups G belonging to the two isoclinism families Φ13 with Brnr(C(G))=0 and Φ16 with Brnr(C(G))≃C2. Bogomolov and Böhning's theorem claims that if G1 and G2 belong to the same isoclinism family, then C(G1) and C(G2) are stably C-isomorphic. We investigate the birational classification of C(G) for groups G of order 128 with Brnr(C(G))≠0. Moravec showed that there exist exactly 220 groups G of order 128 with Brnr(C(G))≠0 forming 11 isoclinism families Φj. We show that if G1 and G2 belong to Φ16, Φ31, Φ37, Φ39, Φ43, Φ58, Φ60 or Φ80 (resp. Φ106 or Φ114), then C(G1) and C(G2) are stably C-isomorphic with Brnr(C(Gi))≃C2. Explicit structures of non-rational fields C(G) are given for each cases including also the case Φ30 with Brnr(C(G))≃C2×C2.
Read full abstract