# Cohomological obstruction theory for Brauer classes and the period-index problem

## TL;DR

This paper develops a cohomological obstruction theory for Brauer classes on schemes, providing bounds on the etale index related to the period and cohomological dimension, with implications for the period-index problem.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel cohomological obstruction framework using K-theory for Brauer classes and derives new bounds on the etale index based on stable homotopy theory.

## Key findings

- The etale index divides the period raised to the power of half the cohomological dimension.
- Stable homotopy theory provides explicit bounds on the etale index.
- For fields of finite cohomological dimension, the etale index divides the period to the power of [d/2].

## Abstract

Let U be a connected scheme of finite cohomological dimension in which every finite set of points is contained in an affine open subscheme. Suppose that alpha is a class in H^2(U_et,Gm)_{tors}. For each positive integer m, the K-theory of alpha-twisted sheaves is used to identify obstructions to alpha being representable by an Azumaya algebra of rank m^2. The etale index of alpha, denoted eti(alpha), is the least positive integer such that all the obstructions vanish. Let per(alpha) be the order of alpha in H^2(U_{et},Gm)_{tors}. Methods from stable homotopy theory give an upper bound on the etale index that depends on the period of alpha and the etale cohomological dimension of U; this bound is expressed in terms of the exponents of the stable homotopy groups of spheres and the exponents of the stable homotopy groups of B(Z/per(alpha)). As a corollary, if U is the spectrum of a field of finite cohomological dimension d, then eti(alpha) divides per(alpha)^[d/2], where [d/2] is the integer part of d/2, whenever per(alpha) is divided neither by the characteristic of k nor by any primes that are small relative to d.