Algebras with involution that become hyperbolic over the function field of a conic

We study central simple algebras with involution of the first kind that become hyperbolic over the function field of the conic associated to a given quaternion algebra Q. We classify these algebras in degree 4 and give an example of such a division algebra with orthogonal involution of degree 8 that does not contain (Q,⁻), even though it contains Q and is totally decomposable into a tensor product of quaternion algebras.     

Quadratic descent of hermitian forms

Quadratic descent of hermitian and skew hermitian forms over division algebras with involution of the first kind in arbitrary characteristic is investigated and a criterion, in terms of systems of quadratic forms, is obtained. A refined result is also obtained for hermitian (resp. skew hermitian) forms over a quaternion algebra with symplectic (resp. orthogonal) involution.     

A Hermitian analogue of the Bröcker-Prestel theorem

The Bröcker-Prestel local-global principle characterizes weak isotropy of quadratic forms over a formally real field in terms of weak isotropy over the Henselizations and isotropy over the real closures of that field. A Hermitian analogue of this principle is presented for algebras of index at most two. An improved result is also presented for algebras with a decomposable involution, algebras of Pythagorean index at most two, and algebras over SAP and ED fields.     

Separable descent of totally decomposable orthogonal involutions in characteristic two

ABSTRACT

Some necessary and su?cient conditions are obtained for a totally decomposable algebra with orthogonal involution in characteristic two to have a separable descent.     

Minimal weakly isotropic forms

In this article weakly isotropic quadratic forms over a (formally) real field are studied. Conditions on the field are given which imply that every weakly isotropic form over that field has a weakly isotropic subform of small dimension. Fields over which every quadratic form can be decomposed into an orthogonal sum of a strongly anisotropic form and a torsion form are characterized in different ways.     

Classification theorems for central simple algebras with involution (with an appendix by R. Parimala)

The involutions in this paper are algebra anti-automorphisms of period two. Involutions on endomorphism algebras of finite-dimensional vector spaces are adjoint to symmetric or skew-symmetric bilinear forms, or to hermitian forms. Analogues of the classical invariants of quadratic forms (discriminant, Clifford algebra, signature) have been defined for arbitrary central simple algebras with involution. In this paper it is shown that over certain fields these invariants are sufficient to classify involutions up to conjugation. For algebras of low degree a classification is obtained over an arbitrary field. Received: 29 April 1999     

Trialitarian automorphisms of lie algebras

Over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero simple Lie algebras admit outer automorphisms of order 3 if and only if they are of type D₄. Moreover, thereare two conjugacy classes of such automorphisms. Among orthogonal Lie algebras over arbitrary fields of characteristic zero, only orthogonal Lie algebras relative to quadratic norm forms of Cayley algebras admit outer automorphisms of order 3. We give a complete list of conjugacy classes of outer automorphisms of order 3 for orthogonal Lie algebras over arbitrary fields of characteristic zero. For the norm form of a given Cayley algebra, one class is associated with the Cayley algebra and the others with central simple algebras of degree 3 with involution of the second kind such that the cohomological invariant of the involution is the norm form.     

On split products of quaternion algebras with involution in characteristic two

The question of whether a split tensor product of quaternion algebras with involution over a field of characteristic two can be expressed as a tensor product of split quaternion algebras with involution is shown to have an affirmative answer.     

Index reduction formulas for twisted flag varieties, I.

A general formula is proved for the change in the Schur index of a central simple algebra on passing from the ground field F to the function field F(X) of a twisted flag variety X, i.e., a projective variety such that there is an adjoint semisimple algebraic group G acting on X over F such that the action becomes transitive over the separable closure of F. The general formula encompasses special cases previously proved where X is a Brauer-Severi variety, or a generic partial splitting variety of a central simple algebra, or the transfer of such a variety, a quadric, or the involution variety of an algebra with orthogonal involution. For the classical simple groups G of inner type, all the corresponding varieties X are described, and the specific index reduction formula is given for each such X.The second author would like to express his thanks to J.-L. Colliot-Thélène for stimulating discussions on this subject.Supported in part by the NSF.     

Discriminant and Clifford algebras

The centralizer of a square-central skew-symmetric unit in a central simple algebra with orthogonal involution carries a unitary involution. The discriminant algebra of this unitary involution is shown to be an orthogonal summand in one of the components of the Clifford algebra of the orthogonal involution. As an application, structure theorems for orthogonal involutions on central simple algebras of degree 8 are obtained. Received: 30 January 2001; in final form: 28 May 2001 / Published online: 1 February 2002     

UNITARY GRASSMANNIANS OF DIVISION ALGEBRAS

We consider a central division algebra over a separable quadratic extension of a base field endowed with a unitary involution and prove 2-incompressibility of certain varieties of isotropic right ideals of the algebra. The remaining related projective homogeneous varieties are shown to be 2-compressible in general. Together with [17], where a similar issue for orthogonal and symplectic involutions has been treated, the present paper completes the study of Grassmannians of isotropic right ideals of division algebras.     

Pfister involutions

The question of the existence of an analogue, in the framework of central simple algebras with involution, of the notion of Pfister form is raised. In particular, algebras with orthogonal involution which split as a tensor product of quaternion algebras with involution are studied. It is proven that, up to degree 16, over any extension over which the algebra splits, the involution is adjoint to a Pfister form. Moreover, cohomological invariants of those algebras with involution are discussed.     

Weakly hyperbolic involutions

Pfister’s Local–Global Principle states that a quadratic form over a (formally) real field is weakly hyperbolic (i.e. represents a torsion element in the Witt ring) if and only if its total signature is zero. This result extends naturally to the setting of central simple algebras with involution. The present article provides a new proof of this result and extends it to the case of signatures at preorderings. Furthermore the quantitative relation between nilpotence and torsion is explored for quadratic forms as well as for central simple algebras with involution.     

APPLICATIONS OF CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS TO INVOLUTIONS AND QUADRATIC FORMS

ABSTRACT

Let k be a field, char k ≠ 2, F = k(x), D a biquaternion division algebra over k, and σ an orthogonal involution on D with nontrivial discriminant. We show that there exists a quadratic form ? ∈ I ²(F) such that dim ? = 8, [C(?)] = [D], and ? does not decompose into a direct sum of two forms similar to two-fold Pfister forms. This implies in particular that the field extension F(D)/F is not excellent. Also we prove that if A is a central simple K-algebra of degree 8 with an orthogonal involution σ, then σ is hyperbolic if and only if σ _K(A) is hyperbolic. Finally, let σ be a decomposable orthogonal involution on the algebra M _{2 ^m} (K). In the case m ≤ 5 we give another proof of the fact that σ is a Pfister involution. If m ≥ 2 ^n?2 ? 2 and n ≥ 5, we show that q _σ ∈ I ⁿ (K), where q _σ is a quadratic form corresponding to σ. The last statement is founded on a deep result of Orlov et al. (2000) concerning generic splittings of quadratic forms.     

Clifford algebras of hyperbolic involutions

For a central simple algebra of even degree with hyperbolic orthogonal involution, we describe the canonically induced involution on the even Clifford algebra of . When , and the interesting part of is isomorphic to the canonical involution on an exterior power algebra of B. As a corollary, we get some properties of the involution on the exterior power algebra. Received January 27, 1998; in final form June 7, 2000 / Published online October 30, 2000     

On the sum of two Lie algebras with finite-dimensional commutants

We prove that an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra over an arbitrary field which is decomposable into the sum of two of its subalgebras with finite-dimensional commutants is almost solvable.Translated from Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 47, No. 8, pp. 1089–1096, August, 1995.     

Sesquilinear forms over rings with involution

Many classical results concerning quadratic forms have been extended to Hermitian forms over algebras with involution. However, not much is known in the case of sesquilinear forms without any symmetry property. The present paper will establish a Witt cancellation result, an analogue of Springer’s theorem, as well as some local–global and finiteness results in this context.     

Local Galois theory in dimension two

This paper proves a generalization of Shafarevich's Conjecture, for fields of Laurent series in two variables over an arbitrary field. This result says that the absolute Galois group G_K of such a field K is quasi-free of rank equal to the cardinality of K, i.e. every non-trivial finite split embedding problem for G_K has exactly proper solutions. We also strengthen a result of Pop and Haran-Jarden on the existence of proper regular solutions to split embedding problems for curves over large fields; our strengthening concerns integral models of curves, which are two-dimensional.     

Noether’s problem for dihedral 2-groups

Let $K$ be any field and $G$ be a finite group. Let $G$ act on the rational function field $K(x_g: \, g \in G)$ by $K$-automorphisms defined by $g \cdot x_h= x _{gh}$ for any $g, \, h \in G$. Denote by $K(G)$ the fixed field $K(x_g: \, g \in G)^G$. Noethers problem asks whether $K(G)$ is rational (= purely transcendental) over $K$. We shall prove that $K(G)$ is rational over $K$ if $G$ is the dihedral group (resp. quasi-dihedral group, modular group) of order 16. Our result will imply the existence of the generic Galois extension and the existence of the generic polynomial of the corresponding group.