Let A be an F-central simple algebra of degree $m^2=\prod _{i=1}^k p_i^{2\alpha _i}$ and G be a subgroup of the unit group of A such that $F[G]=A$. We prove that if G is a central product of two of its subgroups M and N, then $F[M]\otimes _F F[N]\cong F[G]$. Also, if G is locally nilpotent, then G is a central product of subgroups $H_i$, where $[F[H_i]:F]=p_i^{2\alpha _i}$, $A=F[G]\cong F[H_1]\otimes _F \cdots \otimes _F F[H_k]$ and $H_i/Z(G)$ is the Sylow $p_i$-subgroup of $G/Z(G)$ for each i with $1\leq i\leq k$. Additionally, there is an element of order $p_i$ in F for each i with $1\leq i\leq k$.

Let D be a division ring and N be a subnormal subgroup of the multiplicative group $D^*$. We show that if N contains a nonabelian solvable subgroup, then N contains a nonabelian free subgroup.

We study the discrete dynamics of standard (or left) polynomials $f(x)$ over division rings D. We define their fixed points to be the points $\lambda \in D$ for which $f^{\circ n}(\lambda )=\lambda $ for any $n \in \mathbb {N}$ , where $f^{\circ n}(x)$ is defined recursively by $f^{\circ n}(x)=f(f^{\circ (n-1)}(x))$ and $f^{\circ 1}(x)=f(x)$ . Periodic points are similarly defined. We prove that $\lambda $ is a fixed point of $f(x)$ if and only if $f(\lambda )=\lambda $ , which enables the use of known results from the theory of polynomial equations, to conclude that any polynomial of degree $m \geq 2$ has at most m conjugacy classes of fixed points. We also show that in general, periodic points do not behave as in the commutative case. We provide a sufficient condition for periodic points to behave as expected.

We prove that the essential dimension of central simple algebras of degree $p^{\ell m}$ and exponent $p^{m}$ over fields $F$ containing a base-field $k$ of characteristic $p$ is at least $\ell +1$ when $k$ is perfect. We do this by observing that the $p$-rank of $F$ bounds the symbol length in $\text{Br}_{p^{m}}(F)$ and that there exist indecomposable $p$-algebras of degree $p^{\ell m}$ and exponent $p^{m}$. We also prove that the symbol length of the Kato-Milne cohomology group $\text{H}_{p^{m}}^{n+1}(F)$ is bounded from above by $\binom{r}{n}$ where $r$ is the $p$-rank of the field, and provide upper and lower bounds for the essential dimension of Brauer classes of a given symbol length.

For any central simple algebra over a field F which contains a maximal subfield M with non-trivial automorphism group G = AutF(M), G is solvable if and only if the algebra contains a finite chain of subalgebras which are generalized cyclic algebras over their centers (field extensions of F) satisfying certain conditions. These subalgebras are related to a normal subseries of G. A crossed product algebra F is hence solvable if and only if it can be constructed out of such a finite chain of subalgebras. This result was stated for division crossed product algebras by Petit and overlaps with a similar result by Albert which, however, was not explicitly stated in these terms. In particular, every solvable crossed product division algebra is a generalized cyclic algebra over F.

We show that over any field $F$ of characteristic 2 and 2-rank $n$, there exist $2^{n}$ bilinear $n$-fold Pfister forms that have no slot in common. This answers a question of Becher [‘Triple linkage’, Ann.$K$-Theory, to appear] in the negative. We provide an analogous result also for quadratic Pfister forms.

We develop a theory of commensurability of groups, of rings, and of modules. It allows us, in certain cases, to compare sizes of automorphism groups of modules, even when those are infinite. This work is motivated by the Cohen–Lenstra heuristics on class groups.

Let $p$ be an odd prime number, and let $F$ be a field of characteristic not $p$ and not containing the group ${{\mu }_{p}}$ of $p$-th roots of unity. We consider cyclic $p$-algebras over $F$ by descent from $L\,=\,F\left( {{\mu }_{p}} \right)$. We generalize a theorem of Albert by showing that if ${{\mu }_{{{p}^{n}}}}\,\subseteq \,L$, then a division algebra $D$ of degree ${{p}^{n}}$ over $F$ is a cyclic algebra if and only if there is $d\,\in \,D$ with ${{d}^{{{P}^{n}}}}\,\in \,F\,-\,{{F}^{P}}$. Let $F(p)$ be the maximal $p$-extension of $F$. We show that $F(p)$ has a noncyclic algebra of degree $p$ if and only if a certain eigencomponent of the $p$-torsion of $\text{Br(F(p)(}{{\mu }_{p}}\text{))}$ is nontrivial. To get a better understanding of $F(p)$, we consider the valuations on $F(p)$ with residue characteristic not $p$, and determine what residue fields and value groups can occur. Our results support the conjecture that the $p$ torsion in $\text{Br}(F(p))$ is always trivial.

We determine for all $d$ and $p$ the maximal derived length of a soluble subgroup of the multiplicative group of a division ring of finite degree $d$ and characteristic $p\,\ge\,0$ to within one.

Let $A$ be a finite-dimensional division algebra containing a base field $k$ in its center $F$. $A$ is defined over a subfield $F_0$ if there exists an $F_0$-algebra $A_0$ such that $A = A_0 \bigotimes_{F_0} F$. The following are shown. (i) In many cases $A$ can be defined over a rational extension of $k$. (ii) If $A$ has odd degree $n \geq 5$, then $A$ is defined over a field $F_0$ of transcendence degree $\leq {\frac{1}{2}}(n-1)(n-2)$ over $k$. (iii) If $A$ is a $\mathbb{Z}/m \times \mathbb{Z}/2$-crossed product for some $m \geq 2$ (and in particular, if $A$ is any algebra of degree 4) then $A$ is Brauer equivalent to a tensor product of two symbol algebras. Consequently, ${\rm M}_m(A)$ can be defined over a field $F_0$ such that ${\rm trdeg}_k(F_0) \leq 4$. (iv) If $A$ has degree 4 then the trace form of $A$ can be defined over a field $F_0$ of transcendence degree $\leq 4$. (In (i), (iii) and (iv) it is assumed that the center of $A$ contains certain roots of unity.)

A classical theorem of Hermite and Joubert asserts that any field extension of degree $n\,=\,5\,\text{or}\,\text{6}$ is generated by an element whose minimal polynomial is of the form ${{\lambda }^{n}}\,+\,{{c}_{1}}{{\lambda }^{n-1}}\,+\,\cdot \cdot \cdot +\,{{c}_{n-1}}\lambda \,+\,{{c}_{n}}$ with ${{c}_{1\,}}\,=\,\,{{c}_{3}}\,=\,0$. We show that this theorem fails for $n\,=\,{{3}^{m}}$ or ${{3}^{m}}+{{3}^{l}}$ (and more generally, for $n={{p}^{m}}$ or ${{p}^{m}}+{{p}^{l}}$, if 3 is replaced by another prime $p$), where $m\,>\,1\,\ge \,0$. We also prove a similar result for division algebras and use it to study the structure of the universal division algebra $\text{UD}\left( n \right)$.

We also prove a similar result for division algebras and use it to study the structure of the universal division algebra $\text{UD}\left( n \right)$.