A group extension of by the -module is an exact sequence
whose conjugation action on agrees with the prescribed action of on . It is a split group extension when has a group-homomorphic section . Two such extensions are equivalent group extensions when an isomorphism of their middle groups is the identity on and induces the identity on . Transporting a section through that isomorphism proves that every extension equivalent to a split extension is split.
Choose a set-theoretic section with . Its failure to preserve multiplication is the normalized two-cocycle
Associativity gives the two-cocycle identity, and replacing changes by a group coboundary. The resulting class is therefore intrinsic to the extension, as expressed by second group cohomology classifies group extensions.
Now write and let be the augmentation ideal of . The Koszul resolution for a rank-two free abelian group gives, after applying , the last coboundary
Its image is . For this yields the second cohomology of a rank-two free abelian group with truncated group-ring coefficients calculation
The canonical map induces the identity on these final quotients, so is surjective; indeed it is an isomorphism.
Let and let be its lower central series. The class-two quotient is the Integer Heisenberg group. In the class-three free nilpotent group , the module is cyclic over on and is isomorphic to . Quotienting it by gives the central kernel of the Heisenberg group. The kernel of
is , freely generated by and , and is central. Thus it is . This is the central nonsplit extension of the integer Heisenberg group by . If it split, centrality would give , whose abelianization has rank four; but has abelianization . Hence the extension is nonsplit.
The Artin–Wedderburn theorem says that every central simple algebra over has the form for a finite-dimensional central division algebra , uniquely up to the evident data. If and are central simple, extend scalars to an algebraic closure . Both become full matrix algebras, hence
for suitable . Any nonzero proper ideal of would extend to one in this simple matrix algebra, and faithful flatness prevents it from vanishing or becoming the whole algebra. The same scalar-extension argument shows that the center is . This proves the tensor product of central simple algebras theorem.
The Brauer group consists of Morita equivalence classes of central simple -algebras. Its product is , its identity is , and because is a full matrix algebra.
Let be a Finite Galois extension with Galois group , and let be a normalized two-cocycle. The crossed-product algebra of a Galois extension has underlying left -vector space
and multiplication
The cocycle identity is exactly associativity. After scalar extension to , the algebra acts by the twisted regular representation and becomes ; Galois descent shows that it is central simple over . If is multiplied by the coboundary of a one-cochain , rescaling by gives an isomorphic algebra. Hence the cohomological construction of a Brauer class gives a well-defined map
It remains to show that every Brauer class is torsion. For a finite group , restriction and corestriction on normalized bar cochains satisfy
on cohomology: the first equality follows by summing the translated cochain over coset representatives, and each is the identity because an inner automorphism is cochain-homotopic to the identity. Restriction to the trivial subgroup is zero in positive degree, so this proves that finite-group cohomology is annihilated by the group order. In multiplicative notation, every therefore satisfies .
By the permitted assumption, is the image of such an for some . Consequently in . By the definition of Brauer equivalence, this says that for some ,
as required.