On the symbol length of -algebras

Abstract

AbstractThe main result of this paper states that if $k$ is a field of characteristic $p\gt 0$ and $A/ k$ is a central simple algebra of index $d= {p}^{n} $ and exponent ${p}^{e} $, then $A$ is split by a purely inseparable extension of $k$ of the form $k( \sqrt[{p}^{e} ]{{a}_{i} }, i= 1, \ldots , d- 1)$. Combining this result with a theorem of Albert (for which we include a new proof), we get that any such algebra is Brauer equivalent to the tensor product of at most $d- 1$ cyclic algebras of degree ${p}^{e} $. This gives a drastic improvement upon previously known upper bounds.