symmetric monoidal (∞,1)-category of spectra
For a ring, the Brauer group is the group of Morita equivalence classes of Azumaya algebras over .
For a commutative ring, let or (see at 2-vector space/2-module) be the 2-category whose
2-morphisms are bimodule homomorphisms.
This may be understood as the 2-category of (generalized) 2-vector bundles over , the formally dual space whose function algebra is . This is a braided monoidal 2-category.
Let
be its Picard 3-group, hence the maximal 3-group inside (which is hence a braided 3-group), the core on the invertible objects, hence the 2-groupoid whose
objects are algebras which are invertible up to Morita equivalence under tensor product;
2-morphisms are invertible bimodule homomorphisms.
This may be understood as the 2-groupoid of (generalized) line 2-bundles over (for instance holomorphic line 2-bundles in the case of higher complex analytic geometry), inside that of all 2-vector bundles.
The homotopy groups of are the following:
is the Brauer group of ;
is the Picard group of ;
is the group of units of .
See for instance (Street).
Analogous statements hold for (non-commutative) superalgebras, hence for -graded algebras. See at superalgebra – Picard 3-group, Brauer group.
The Brauer group of a ring is a torsion subgroup of the second etale cohomology group of with values in the multiplicative group
This was first stated in (Grothendieck 68) (see also Grothendieck 64, prop. 1.4 and see at algebraic line n-bundle – Properties). Review discussion is in (Milne, chapter IV). A detailed discussion in the context of nonabelian cohomology is in (Giraud).
A theorem stating conditions under which the Brauer group is precisely the torsion subgroup of is due to (Gabber), see also the review in (de Jong). For more details and more literature on this see (Bertuccioni).
This fits into the following pattern
(Picard group: iso classes of invertible -modules)
(Brauer group: Morita equivalence classes of Azumaya algebras over ) (the torsion equivalence classes of the Brauer stack)
It is therefore natural to regard all of as the “actual” Brauer group. This has been called the “bigger Brauer group” (Taylor 82, Caenepeel-Grandjean 98, Heinloth-Schöer 08). The bigger Brauer group has actually traditionally been implicit already in the term “formal Brauer group”, which is really the formal geometry-version of the bigger Brauer group.
More generally, this works for a (connective) E-infinity ring (the following is due to Antieau-Gepner 12, see Haugseng 14 for more).
Let be its infinity-group of units. If is connective, then the first Postnikov stage of the Picard infinity-groupoid
is
where the top morphism is the inclusion of locally free -modules.
So is not equal to , but it is off only by .
Let be the (infinity,1)-category of -modules.
There is a notion of -enriched (infinity,1)-category, of “-linear -categories”.
-modules in presentable (infinity,1)-categories.
Forming module -categories is then an (infinity,1)-functor
Write for the image of . Then define the Brauer infinity-group to be
One shows (Antieau-Gepner 12) that this is exactly the Azumaya -algebras modulo Morita equivalence.
Theorem (B. Antieau, D. Gepner)
For a connective ring, any Azumaya -algebra is étale locally trivial: there is an etale cover such that .
(Think of this as saying that an Azumaya -algebra is étale-locally a Matrix algebra, hence Morita-trivial: a “bundle of compact operators” presenting a (torsion) -2-bundle).
is a sheaf for the etale cohomology.
Corollary
is connected. Hence .
, hence
Postnikov tower for :
hence for étale
This is a quasi-coherent sheaf on of the form (quasicoherent sheaf associated with a module), for an -module. By vanishing theorem of higher cohomology for quasicoherent sheaves
For every (infinity,1)-sheaf of infinity-groups, there is a spectral sequence
(the second argument on the left denotes the Postnikov stage). From this one gets the following.
;
is quasicoherent for .
there is an exact sequence
(notice the inclusion )
this is split exact and so computes for connective .
Now some more on the case that is not connective.
Suppose there exists which is a faithful Galois extension for a finite group.
Examples
(real into complex K-theory spectrum) (this is )
Give , have a fiber sequence
Theorem (descent theorems) (Tyler Lawson, David Gepner) Given -Galois extension (homotopy fixed points)
it follows that there is a homotopy fixed points spectral sequence
Conjecture The spectral sequence gives an Azumaya -algebra which is a nontrivial element in but becomes trivial in .
moduli spaces of line n-bundles with connection on -dimensional
Brauer groups are named after Richard Brauer.
Original discussion includes
Alexander Grothendieck, Le groupe de Brauer: II. Théories cohomologiques. Séminaire Bourbaki, 9 (1964-1966), Exp. No. 297, 21 p. (Numdam)
Alexandre Grothendieck, Le groupe de Brauer, Dix exposés sur la cohomologie des schémas, Masson and North-Holland, Paris and Amsterdam, (1968), pp. 46–66.
An introduction is in
See also
John Duskin, The Azumaya complex of a commutative ring, in: Categorical algebra and its applications (Louvain-La-Neuve, 1987), 107–117, Lecture Notes in Math. 1348, Springer 1988.
Ross Street, Descent, Oberwolfach preprint (sec. 5, Brauer groups) pdf; Some combinatorial aspects of descent theory, Applied categorical structures 12 (2004) 537-576, math.CT/0303175 (sec. 12, Brauer groups)
The relation to cohomology/etale cohomology is discussed in
Ofer Gabber, Some theorems on Azumaya algebras, Ph. D. Thesis, Harvard University, 1978, Groupe de Brauer, Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 844, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1981, pp. 129–209.
Aise Johan de Jong, A result of Gabber (pdf)
Brauer groups of superalgebras are discussed in
C. T. C. Wall, Graded Brauer groups, J. Reine Angew. Math. 213 (1963/1964), 187-199.
Pierre Deligne, Notes on spinors in Quantum Fields and Strings
Peter Donovan, Max Karoubi, Graded Brauer groups and K-theory with local coefficients, Publications Math. IHES 38 (1970), 5-25 (pdf)
Refinement to stable homotopy theory and Brauer ∞-groups is discussed in
Markus Szymik, Brauer spaces for commutative rings and structured ring spectra (arXiv:1110.2956)
Andrew Baker, Birgit Richter, Markus Szymik, Brauer groups for commutative -algebras, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 216 (2012) 2361–2376 (arXiv:1005.5370)
Unification of all this in a theory of (infinity,n)-modules is in
The “bigger Brauer group” is discussed in
J. Taylor, A bigger Brauer group Pacific J. Math. 103 (1982), 163-203 (projecteuclid)
S. Caenepeel, F. Grandjean, A note on Taylor’s Brauer group. Pacific J. Math. 186 (1998), 13-27
Jochen Heinloth, Stefan Schröer, The bigger Brauer group and twisted sheaves (arXiv:0803.3563)
See also
The observation that passing to derived algebraic geometry makes also the non-torsion elements in be represented by (derived) Azumaya algebras is due to
Related MO discussion includes
Systematic discussion of Brauer groups in derived algebraic geometry is in
For the Brauer-Picard 2-group of a tensor category, see
Last revised on June 6, 2023 at 04:30:54. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.