Galois Cohomology

This is an updated English translation of Cohomologie Galoisienne, published more than thirty years ago as one of the very first versions of Lecture Notes in Mathematics. It includes a reproduction of an influential paper by R. Steinberg, together with some new material and an expanded bibliography.

This graduate textbook offers an introduction to modern methods in number theory. It gives a complete account of the main results of class field theory as well as the Poitou-Tate duality theorems, considered crowning achievements of modern number theory. Assuming a first graduate course in algebra and number theory, the book begins with an introduction to group and Galois cohomology. Local fields and local class field theory, including Lubin-Tate formal group laws, are covered next, followed by global class field theory and the description of abelian extensions of global fields. The final part of the book gives an accessible yet complete exposition of the Poitou-Tate duality theorems. Two appendices cover the necessary background in homological algebra and the analytic theory of Dirichlet L-series, including the Čebotarev density theorem. Based on several advanced courses given by the author, this textbook has been written for graduate students. Including complete proofs and numerous exercises, the book will also appeal to more experienced mathematicians, either as a text to learn the subject or as a reference.

This is the first detailed elementary introduction to Galois cohomology and its applications. The introductory section is self-contained and provides the basic results of the theory. Assuming only a minimal background in algebra, the main purpose of this book is to prepare graduate students and researchers for more advanced study.

This volume is concerned with algebraic invariants, such as the Stiefel-Whitney classes of quadratic forms (with values in Galois cohomology mod 2) and the trace form of etale algebras (with values in the Witt ring). The invariants are analogues for Galois cohomology of the characteristic classes of topology. Historically, one of the first examples of cohomological invariants of the type considered here was the Hasse-Witt invariant of quadratic forms. The first part classifies such invariants in several cases. A principal tool is the notion of versal torsor, which is an analogue of the universal bundle in topology. The second part gives Rost's determination of the invariants of $G$-torsors with values in $H^3(\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}(2))$, when $G$ is a semisimple, simply connected, linear group. This part gives detailed proofs of the existence and basic properties of the Rost invariant. This is the first time that most of this material appears in print.

The first comprehensive modern introduction to central simple algebra starting from the basics and reaching advanced results.

This second edition is a corrected and extended version of the first. It is a textbook for students, as well as a reference book for the working mathematician, on cohomological topics in number theory. In all it is a virtually complete treatment of a vast array of central topics in algebraic number theory. New material is introduced here on duality theorems for unramified and tamely ramified extensions as well as a careful analysis of 2-extensions of real number fields.

Comprehensive account of recent developments in arithmetic theory of modular forms, for graduates and researchers.

In this volume, a new functor $H^2_{ab}(K,G)$ of abelian Galois cohomology is introduced from the category of connected reductive groups $G$ over a field $K$ of characteristic $0$ to the category of abelian groups. The abelian Galois cohomology and the abelianization map$ab^1:H^1(K,G) \rightarrow H^2_{ab}(K,G)$ are used to give a functorial, almost explicit description of the usual Galois cohomology set $H^1(K,G)$ when $K$ is a number field.