The representation of quadratic forms by almost universal forms of higher rank

 In this article, we prove that there are only finitely many positive definite integral quadratic forms of rank n+3(n≥2) that represent all positive definite integral quadratic forms of rank n but finitely many exceptions. Furthermore we determine all diagonal quadratic forms having such property and its exceptions remaining four as candidates. Received: 29 November 2000 ; in final form: 8 August 2002 / Published online: 1 April 2003 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 11E12, 11E20.