Cohomological Invariants in Positive Characteristic

Abstract

Abstract We determine the mod $p$ cohomological invariants for several affine group schemes $G$ in characteristic $p$. These are invariants of $G$-torsors with values in étale motivic cohomology, or equivalently in Kato’s version of Galois cohomology based on differential forms. In particular, we find the mod 2 cohomological invariants for the symmetric groups and the orthogonal groups in characteristic 2, which Serre computed in characteristic not 2. We also determine all operations on the mod $p$ étale motivic cohomology of fields, extending Vial’s computation of the operations on the mod $p$ Milnor K-theory of fields.