Symbol $p$-Algebras of Prime Degree and their $p$-Central Subspaces

Abstract

We prove that the maximal dimension of a $p$-central subspace of the generic symbol $p$-algebra of prime degree $p$ is $p+1$. We do it by proving the following number theoretic fact: let $\{s_1,\dots,s_{p+1}\}$ be $p+1$ distinct nonzero elements in the additive group $G=(\mathbb{Z}/p \mathbb{Z}) \times (\mathbb{Z}/p \mathbb{Z})$; then every nonzero element $g \in G$ can be expressed as $d_1 s_1+\dots+d_{p+1} s_{p+1}$ for some non-negative integers $d_1,\dots,d_{p+1}$ with $d_1+\dots+d_{p+1} \leq p-1$.