Algebraic Groups and Their Birational Invariants

Book excerpt: Since the late 1960s, methods of birational geometry have been used successfully in the theory of linear algebraic groups, especially in arithmetic problems. This book--which can be viewed as a significant revision of the author's book, Algebraic Tori (Nauka, Moscow, 1977)--studies birational properties of linear algebraic groups focusing on arithmetic applications. The main topics are forms and Galois cohomology, the Picard group and the Brauer group, birational geometry of algebraic tori, arithmetic of algebraic groups, Tamagawa numbers, $R$-equivalence, projective toric varieties, invariants of finite transformation groups, and index-formulas. Results and applications are recent. There is an extensive bibliography with additional comments that can serve as a guide for further reading.