Local Euler characteristic formula

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In the mathematical field of Galois cohomology, the local Euler characteristic formula is a result due to John Tate that computes the Euler characteristic of the group cohomology of the absolute Galois group GK of a non-archimedean local field K.

Statement[edit]

Let K be a non-archimedean local field, let Ks denote a separable closure of K, let GK = Gal(Ks/K) be the absolute Galois group of K, and let Hi(KM) denote the group cohomology of GK with coefficients in M. Since the cohomological dimension of GK is two,[1] Hi(KM) = 0 for i ≥ 3. Therefore, the Euler characteristic only involves the groups with i = 0, 1, 2.

Case of finite modules[edit]

Let M be a GK-module of finite order m. The Euler characteristic of M is defined to be[2]

(the ith cohomology groups for i ≥ 3 appear tacitly as their sizes are all one).

Let R denote the ring of integers of K. Tate's result then states that if m is relatively prime to the characteristic of K, then[3]

i.e. the inverse of the order of the quotient ring R/mR.

Two special cases worth singling out are the following. If the order of M is relatively prime to the characteristic of the residue field of K, then the Euler characteristic is one. If K is a finite extension of the p-adic numbers Qp, and if vp denotes the p-adic valuation, then

where [K:Qp] is the degree of K over Qp.

The Euler characteristic can be rewritten, using local Tate duality, as

where M is the local Tate dual of M.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Serre 2002, §II.4.3
  2. ^ The Euler characteristic in a cohomology theory is normally written as an alternating sum of the sizes of the cohomology groups. In this case, the alternating product is more standard.
  3. ^ Milne 2006, Theorem I.2.8

References[edit]

  • Milne, James S. (2006), Arithmetic duality theorems (second ed.), Charleston, SC: BookSurge, LLC, ISBN 1-4196-4274-X, MR 2261462, retrieved 2010-03-27
  • Serre, Jean-Pierre (2002), Galois cohomology, Springer Monographs in Mathematics, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-540-42192-4, MR 1867431, translation of Cohomologie Galoisienne, Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes 5 (1964).