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the Azumaya locus does determine the order

Clearly
this cannot be correct for consider for nโˆˆN the order

An=[C[x]C[x](xn)C[x]]

For mโ‰ n the orders An
and Am have isomorphic Azumaya locus, but are not isomorphic as
orders. Still, the statement in the heading is _morally_ what Nikolaus
Vonessen
and Zinovy
Reichstein
are proving in their paper Polynomial identity
rings as rings of functions
. So I better clarify what they do claim
precisely.

Let A be a _Cayley-Hamilton order_, that is, a
prime affine C-algebra, finite as a module over its center
and satisfying all trace relations holding in Mn(C). If A
is generated by m elements, then its _representation variety_
repn A has as points the m-tuples of nร—n matrices

(X1,โ€ฆ,Xm)โˆˆMn(C)โŠ•โ€ฆโŠ•Mn(C)

which satisfy all the defining relations of
A. repn A is an affine variety with a GLn-action
(induced by simultaneous conjugation in m-tuples of matrices) and has
as a Zariski open subset the tuples (X1,โ€ฆ,Xm)โˆˆrepn A having the property that they generate the whole
matrix-algebra Mn(C). This open subset is called the
Azumaya locus of A and denoted by azun A.

One can also define the _generic Azumaya locus_ as being the
Zariski open subset of Mn(C)โŠ•โ€ฆโŠ•Mn(C) consisting of those tuples which generate
Mn(C) and call this subset Azun. In fact, one
can show that Azun is the Azumaya locus of a particular
order namely the trace ring of m generic nร—n matrices.

What Nikolaus and Zinovy prove is that for an order A the Azumaya
locus azun A is an irreducible subvariety of
Azun and that the embedding

azun AโŠ‚Azun

determines A itself! If you have
worked a bit with orders this result is strange at first until you
recognize it as being essentially a consequence of Bill Schelter's
catenarity result for affine p.i.-algebras.

On the positive
side it shows that the study of orders is roughly equivalent to that of
the study of irreducible GLn-stable subvarieties of Azun.
On the negative side, it shows that the GLn-structure of
Azun is horribly complicated. For example, it is still
unknown in general whether the quotient-variety (which is here also the
orbit space) Azun/GLn is a rational variety.

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