Transfer of quadratic forms and of quaternion algebras over quadratic field extensions

Two different proofs are given showing that a quaternion algebra Q defined over a quadratic étale extension K of a given field has a corestriction that is not a division algebra if and only if Q contains a quadratic algebra that is linearly disjoint from K. This is known in the case of a quadratic field extension in characteristic different from two. In the case where K is split, the statement recovers a well-known result on biquaternion algebras due to Albert and Draxl.     

Division algebras of degree 4 and 8 with involution

We develop necessary and sufficient conditions for central simple algebras to have involutions of the first kind, and to be tensor products of quaternion subalgebras. The theory is then applied to give an example of a division algebra of degree 8 with involution (of the first kind), without quaternion subalgebras, answering an old question of Albert; another example is a division algebra of degree 4 with involution (*) has no (*)-invariant quaternion subalgebras. The research of the second author is supported by the Anshel Pfeffer Chair. The third author would like to express his gratitude to Professor J. Tits for many stimulating conversations.     

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.     

Isotopy and invariants of Albert algebras

Let k be a field with characteristic different from 2 and 3. Let B be a central simple algebra of degree 3 over a quadratic extension K/k, which admits involutions of second kind. In this paper, we prove that if the Albert algebras and have same and invariants, then they are isotopic. We prove that for a given Albert algebra J, there exists an Albert algebra J' with , and . We conclude with a construction of Albert division algebras, which are pure second Tits' constructions. Received: December 9, 1997.     

Nonassociative cyclic algebras

Nonassociative quaternion algebras were first discovered over the real numbers independently by Dickson and Albert and provided some of the first examples of nonassociative division algebras. They were later classified completely by Waterhouse. Cyclic algebras can be seen as a natural generalisation of the classical quaternion algebras. With this in mind we generalise nonassociative quaternion algebras and introduce nonassociative cyclic algebras. These provide new examples of nonassociative central division algebras with Nucleus a separable field extension of degree n.     

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.     

Identities in algebras with involution

One of the main features of the theory of polynomial identities is the existence (for anyn) of a division algebra of degreen, formed by adjoining quotients of central elements of the algebra of genericn×n matrices; this division algebra is extremely interesting and has been used by Amitsur (forn divisible by either 8 or the square of an odd prime) as an example of a non-crossed product central division algebra. The main object of this paper is to obtain, in a parallel method, division algebras with involution of the first kind, knowledge of which would answer some long-standing questions in the theory of division algebras with involution. One such question is, “Is every division algebra with involution of the first kind a tensor product of quaternion division algebras?” In the process, a theory of (polynomial) identities in algebras with involution is developed with emphasis on prime PI-algebras with involution.     

Decomposition of involutions on inertially split division algebras

Let F be a Henselian valued field with , and let S be an inertially splitF}-central division algebra with involution $\sigma ^{\ast }$ that is trivial on an inertial lift in S of the field . We prove necessary and sufficient conditions for S to contain a -stable quaternion {\it F}-subalgebra, and for to decompose into a tensor product of quaternion algebras. These conditions are in terms of decomposability of an associated residue central simple algebra that arises from a Brauer group decomposition of S. Received February 1, 1999; in final form August 26, 1999 / Published online July 3, 2000     

Completely Simple Semigroups,Lie Algebras,and the Road Coloring Problem

Consider a semigroup generated by matrices associated with an edge-coloring of a strongly connected, aperiodic digraph. We call the semigroup Lie-solvable if the Lie algebra generated by its elements is solvable. We show that if the semigroup is Lie-solvable then its kernel is a right group. Next, we study the Lie algebra generated by the kernel. Lie algebras generated by two idempotents are analyzed in detail. We find that these have homomorphic images that are generalized quaternion algebras. We show that if the kernel is not a direct product, then the Lie algebra generated by the kernel is not solvable by describing the structure of these algebras. Finally, we discuss an infinite class of examples that are shown to always produce strongly connected aperiodic digraphs having kernels that are not right groups.     

A proof of the Pfister Factor Conjecture

It is shown that any split product of quaternion algebras with orthogonal involution is adjoint to a Pfister form. This settles the Pfister Factor Conjecture formulated by D.B. Shapiro. A more general problem on decomposability for algebras with involution is posed and solved in the case where the algebra is equivalent to a quaternion algebra.     

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.     

Orthogonal Pfister involutions in characteristic two

We show that over a field of characteristic 2 a central simple algebra with orthogonal involution that decomposes into a product of quaternion algebras with involution is either anisotropic or metabolic. We use this to define an invariant of such orthogonal involutions that completely determines the isotropy behaviour of the involution. We also give an example of a non-totally decomposable algebra with orthogonal involution that becomes totally decomposable over every splitting field of the algebra.     

Some Identities in Algebras Obtained by the Cayley-Dickson Process

Polynomial identities in algebras are the central objects of Polynomial Identities Theory. They play an important role in learning of algebras properties. In particular, the Hall identity is fulfilled in the quaternion algebra and does not hold in other non-commutative associative algebras. For this reason, the Hall identity is important for the quaternion algebra. The idea of this work is to generalize the Hall identity to algebras obtained by the Cayley-Dickson process. Starting from the above remarks, in this paper, we prove that the Hall identity is true in all algebras obtained by the Cayley-Dickson process and, in some conditions, the converse of this statement is also true for split quaternion algebras. From Hall identity, we will find some new properties and identities in algebras obtained by the Cayley-Dickson process.     

Derivations nilpotent on subsets of prime rings

ABSTRACT

Let D be a division algebra with center F. Consider the group CK ₁(D) = D*/F*D′ where D* is the group of invertible elements of D and D′ is its commutator subgroup. In this note we shall show that, assuming a division algebra D is a product of cyclic algebras, the group CK ₁(D) is trivial if and only if D is an ordinary quaternion algebra over a real Pythagorean field F. We also characterize the cyclic central simple algebras with trivial CK ₁ and show that CK ₁ is not trivial for division algebras of index 4. Using valuation theory, the group CK ₁(D) is computed for some valued division algebras.

     

Relative spinor class fields: A counterexample

It is known that classes of indefinite quadratic forms in a genus are classified by the Galois group of a spinor class field [4]. Hsia has proved the existence of a representation field F with the property that a lattice in the genus represents a fixed given lattice if and only if the corresponding element of the Galois group is trivial on F. Spinor class fields can also be used to classify conjugacy classes of maximal orders in a central simple algebra. In [1] we left open the issue of whether for every fixed given non-maximal order in a central simple division algebra there exists a representation field L with the property that embeds into a given maximal order if and only if the corresponding element of the Galois group is trivial on L. In this work we give a negative answer to this question for central simple division algebras of dimension ≥ 3². The case of non-division algebras is also treated by replacing the phrase embeds into by is contained in a conjugate of. As a byproduct of the techniques used in this paper we compute the representation field of an Eichler order in a quaternion algebra. Received: 8 April 2008     

Comtrans algebras, Thomas sums, and bilinear forms

A comtrans algebra is said to decompose as the Thomas sum of two subalgebras if it is a direct sum at the module level, and if its algebra structure is obtained from the subalgebras and their mutual interactions as a sum of the corresponding split extensions. In this paper, we investigate Thomas sums of comtrans algebras of bilinear forms. General necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the decomposition of the comtrans algebra of a bilinear form as a Thomas sum. Over rings in which 2 is not a zero divisor, comtrans algebras of symmetric bilinear forms are identified as Thomas summands of algebras of infinitesimal isometries of extended spaces, the complementary Thomas summand being the algebra of infinitesimal isometries of the original space. The corresponding Thomas duals are also identified. These results represent generalizations of earlier results concerning the comtrans algebras of finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces, which were obtained using known properties of symmetric spaces. By contrast, the methods of the current paper involve only the theory of comtrans algebras.Received: 30 March 2004     

Jordan Algebras Over Algebraic Varieties

General results on the module structure of Jordan algebras over locally ringed spaces are obtained. Albert algebras over a Brauer–Severi variety with associated central simple algebra of degree 3 are constructed using generalizations of the Tits process and the first Tits construction.     

Metric Lie algebras with maximal isotropic centre

A metric Lie algebra is a Lie algebra equipped with an invariant non-degenerate symmetric bilinear form. It is called indecomposable if it is not the direct sum of two metric Lie algebras. We are interested in describing the isomorphism classes of indecomposable metric Lie algebras. In the present paper we restrict ourselves to a certain class of solvable metric Lie algebras which includes all indecomposable metric Lie algebras with maximal isotropic centre. We will see that each metric Lie algebra belonging to this class is a twofold extension associated with an orthogonal representation of an abelian Lie algebra. We will describe equivalence classes of such extensions by a certain cohomology set. In particular we obtain a classification scheme for indecomposable metric Lie algebras with maximal isotropic centre and the classification of metric Lie algebras of index 2.     

Involutions on composition algebras

Involutions on composition algebras over rings where 2 is invertible are investigated. It is proved that there is a one-one correspondence between non-standard involutions of the first kind, and composition subalgebras of half rank. Every non-standard involution of the first kind is isomorphic to the natural generalization of Lewis's hat-involution [L]. Any involution of the second kind on a composition algebra C over a quadratic etale R-algebra S can be written as the tensor product of the standard involution of a unique R-composition subalgebra of C and the standard involution of S/R. The latter generalizes a well-known theorem of Albert on quaternion algebras with unitary involutions.