Motivic equivalence of quadratic forms. II

Let F be a field of characteristic ≠2 and φ be a quadratic form over F. By X _φ we denote the projective variety given by the equation φ=0. For each positive even integer d≥8 (except for d=12) we construct a field F and a pair φ, ψ of anisotropic d-dimensional forms over F such that the Chow motives of X _φ and X _ψ coincide but . For a pair of anisotropic (2 ^{n -1})-dimensional quadrics X and Y, we prove that existence of a rational morphism Y→X is equivalent to existence of a rational morphism Y→X. Received: 27 September 1999 / Revised version: 27 December 1999