Every Brauer class has a central division algebra representative , and every central simple algebra is a matrix algebra over such a . Put ; its reduced norm is a homogeneous degree- polynomial on the -dimensional vector space .
If , then , so the property supplies a nonzero with . But every nonzero element of a division algebra is invertible, and its reduced norm cannot be zero. Thus , and a central division algebra of degree one is itself. Every central simple algebra over is therefore a matrix algebra over , giving
This proves the trivial Brauer group of a C1 field. The essential ingredient is the anisotropy of a division algebra's reduced norm, not the norm polynomial of an arbitrary matrix algebra, which certainly can vanish on nonzero singular matrices.