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Essential dimension and classifying spaces of algebras by Abhishek Kumar Shukla BS-MS, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, 2016 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Mathematics) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2020 © Abhishek Kumar Shukla 2020 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Essential dimension and classifying spaces of algebras submitted by Abhishek Kumar Shukla in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics Examining Committee: Zinovy Reichstein, Professor, Department of Mathematics, UBC Supervisor Kai Behrend, Professor, Department of Mathematics, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Rachel Ollivier, Professor, Department of Mathematics, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Ben Williams, Professor, Department of Mathematics, UBC University Examiner Ian Blake, Honorary Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC University Examiner ii Abstract The overarching theme of this thesis is to assign, and sometimes find, numerical values which reflect complexity of algebraic objects. The main objects of interest are field extensions of finite degree, and more generally, ´etalealgebras of finite degree over a ring. Of particular interest to us is the invariant known as essential dimension. The essential dimension of separable field extensions was introduced by J. Buhler and Z. Reichstein in their landmark paper [BR97]. A major (still) open problem arising from that work is to determine the essential dimension of a general separable field extension of degree n (or equivalently, the essential dimension of the symmetric group).
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