On the dimensions of automorphism groups of 8-dimensional ternary fields I

Let be an eight-dimensional, connected, locally compact ternary field and let denote a connected closed subgroup of its automorphism group which is taken with the compact-open topology. It is proved that is either isomorphic to the compact exceptional Lie group G₂, or the (covering) dimension of is at most 11. This bound can be decreased to 10, if the ternary fixed fieldF of is connected.