Operations in Milnor K-theory

Abstract

We show that operations in Milnor K-theory mod $p$ of a field are spanned by divided power operations. After giving an explicit formula for divided power operations and extending them to some new cases, we determine for all fields $k$ and all prime numbers $p$, all the operations $K^M_i/p \to K^M_j/p$ commuting with field extensions over the base field $k$. Moreover, the integral case is discussed and we determine the operations $K^M_i/p \to K^M_j/p$ for smooth schemes over a field.