DOCSLIB.ORG

The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics Mathematics 2021 The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form Deborah H. Blevins University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6815-5290 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2021.173 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Blevins, Deborah H., "The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form" (2021). Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics. 80. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/math_etds/80 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Mathematics at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Deborah H. Blevins, Student Dr. David Leep, Major Professor Dr. Benjamin Braun, Director of Graduate Studies The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Deborah H. Blevins Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. David Leep, Professor of Mathematics Lexington, Kentucky 2021 Copyright© Deborah H. Blevins 2021 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6815-5290 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form Pn Pn An isotropic quadratic form f(x1; : : : ; xn) = i=1 j=1 fijxixj defined on a Z- lattice has a smallest solution, where the size of the solution is measured using the infinity norm (k k1), the `1 norm (k k1), or the Euclidean norm (k k2). Much work has been done to find the least upper bound and greatest lower bound on the smallest solution, beginning with Cassels in the mid-1950's. Defining F := (f11; : : : ; f1n; f21; : : : ; f2n; : : : ; fn1; : : : ; fnn), upper bound results have the form kxki ≤ θ CkFki , with i 2 f1; 2; 1g and C a constant depending only on n. Aside from Cassels and Davenport, authors have concentrated more on finding the smallest exponent θ and less on C. Since Cassels' publication, others have generalized his result and an- swered related questions. In particular, Schlickewei and Schmidt considered cases in which a quadratic form vanishes on a space of dimension greater than 1 and whether or not there is a bound on the product of the norms of multiple linearly independent nontrivial solutions. Schulze-Pillot explored similar questions, in addition to consider- ing bounds on the determinant of the matrix whose columns are linearly independent nontrivial solutions of a quadratic form. Another goal has been to determine the best possible bound in each of these cases. In particular, Kneser demonstrated Cassels' bound is best possible and Schlickewei and Schmidt have shown their results, along with several of Schulze-Pillot's, are best possible. This dissertation gives a detailed, comprehensive exposition of these results. In particular, many of the results of Schulze-Pillot and Schlickewei and Schmidt are re- examined, leading to greater insight into the details of the proofs. The main methods used to solve this problem come from quadratic form theory, lattice theory, and the geometry of numbers. KEYWORDS: isotropic quadratic forms, lattice, geometry of numbers, successive minima Deborah H. Blevins May 12, 2021 The Smallest Solution of an Isotropic Quadratic Form By Deborah H. Blevins Dr. David Leep Director of Dissertation Dr. Benjamin Braun Director of Graduate Studies May 12, 2021 Date \Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air." 1 Corinthians 9:26 To Logan, Daddy, Mama, and Daniel { Thank you for running the race with me and teaching me what matters most. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank Dr. David Leep, whose guidance, direction, and support made this possible. After our first conversation, my impression was that you were kind and thoughtful. The years since have proven this to be true over and over. Thank you for the many hours you have spent helping me, telling me stories, making me laugh, and for your endless advice { both about mathematics and about life. I am a better mathematician, and a better human, for it. I am deeply grateful to the remaining members of my committee { Drs. Corso, Shao, Srinivasan, and Jaromczyk { for your support and commitment. Thank you to Dr. Ben Braun, our Director of Graduate Studies, for helping me decide which prelims to take when I was in despair after so many failed attempts and for always responding kindly to panicked emails. Thank you to Dr. erica Whitaker, our Director of Service Courses, for advocating for graduate students, helping me grow as a teacher, always having your door open, and having candy in your office. Thank you to Christine Levitt, Rejeana Cassady, and Sheri Rhine for holding our department together, and each of us along with it. Dr. Manning, Dr. Newquist, and Dr. Ramey { thank you for believing I could do this before it was a thought in my mind. You all showed me what it looks like to invest in your students both inside and outside the classroom and pushed me to be a leader when I didn't want to be. I hope to be like you. I would also like to thank Dr. Robert Bridges for giving me the opportunity to participate in the NSF Mathematical Sciences Graduate Internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. What I thought would be a ten-week internship turned into a much longer collaboration and richer experience than I could have anticipated. You have gone above and beyond in mentorship and I am so grateful. Thank you also iii to Miki Verma { for making a space in your office for me, for answering a thousand questions, and for understanding my need for a regular schedule. To my dear husband, Logan, thank you for being brave enough to marry a grad- uate student, for believing in me more than I believe in myself, for keeping me moti- vated when my tank is empty, and for being excited about the next adventure. Your steadiness has been my life raft the past three years. This is all better with you by my side. To my parents and brother, David, Donna, and Daniel Wilkerson, there are not words adequate enough to express my gratitude nor enough space to list all the ways you've encouraged and supported me. You are my original support system, my first phone call, and the reason I am in graduate school. Stephen and Kathy Blevins { thank you for caring for me as your own, for asking all the questions in order to understand what I do in graduate school, and for indulging my affinity for infinity. You all are such a precious addition to my life and to this support team. My time as a graduate student would have come to a quick end if it were not for the most spectacular collection of friends I made in the department. Kalila, Julie, Darleen, Kevin, and Rachel P. { thank you for cooking me so many meals, going for walks, laughing with me, crying with me, and cheering me on. Thank you for all of the little moments of humanity we shared in the midst of the graduate school machine { they carried me through. To Katie, Rachel S., Morgan, and Kay { you are the very best of friends. If we really are an average of the people we spend the most time around, I'm glad it's you all. You sharpen me as iron sharpens iron. You are my fiercest supporters and greatest inspirations. Having a roommate in graduate school is no easy task but Krystal, Rebecca, Kristen, and Aimee { you all are champs. Thank you for putting up with countless iv study sessions, for never complaining when school came before keeping the kitchen clean, and for letting me \decorate" the apartment for \prelim season." Thank you to the Young Adult group at Immanuel Baptist Church. If you tired of me requesting prayer for prelims, you never showed it.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Minimal Weakly Isotropic Forms
    Minimal weakly isotropic forms Karim Johannes Becher Abstract 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 sub- form 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. Keywords: quadratic form, weakly isotropic, strongly anisotropic, real field, Pythagoras number, field invariants, SAP-field, local-global principle Classification (MSC 2000): 11E04, 11E81, 12D15 1 Introduction The concept of weak isotropy was introduced by Prestel in [11] and studied in the 1970ies, especially by Prestel and Br¨ocker. The main motivation for this concept is the failure of any kind of local-global principle for isotropy of quadratic forms in a general situation. It turned out that, over any (formally) real field, weakly isotropic forms can be characterized, on the one hand in terms of the semi-orderings (cf. [11]), on the other hand in terms of the real places of the field (cf. [11], [2]). Applications of weakly isotropic forms occur in real algebra and geometry (cf. [13]). The present article investigates weakly isotropic forms in view of the question what kind of subforms and orthogonal decompositions they admit. This leads to consider in particular those weakly isotropic forms which are minimal in the sense that they do not contain any proper subform which is weakly isotropic. The question of how large the dimension of such a form may be gives rise to a new field invariant.
    [Show full text]
  • Differential Forms, Linked Fields and the $ U $-Invariant
    Differential Forms, Linked Fields and the u-Invariant Adam Chapman Department of Computer Science, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, 12208 Israel Andrew Dolphin Department of Mathematics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Abstract We associate an Albert form to any pair of cyclic algebras of prime degree p over a field F with char(F) = p which coincides with the classical Albert form when p = 2. We prove that if every Albert form is isotropic then H4(F) = 0. As a result, we obtain that if F is a linked field with char(F) = 2 then its u-invariant is either 0, 2, 4or 8. Keywords: Differential Forms, Quadratic Forms, Linked Fields, u-Invariant, Fields of Finite Characteristic. 2010 MSC: 11E81 (primary); 11E04, 16K20 (secondary) 1. Introduction Given a field F, a quaternion algebra over F is a central simple F-algebra of degree 2. The maximal subfields of quaternion division algebras over F are quadratic field extensions of F. When char(F) , 2, all quadratic field extensions are separable. When char(F) = 2, there are two types of quadratic field extensions: the separable type which is of the form F[x : x2 + x = α] for some α F λ2 + λ : λ F , and the ∈ \ { 2 ∈ } inseparable type which is of the form F[ √α] for some α F× (F×) . In this case, any quaternion division algebra contains both types of field ext∈ ensions,\ which can be seen by its symbol presentation 2 2 1 [α, β)2,F = F x, y : x + x = α, y = β, yxy− = x + 1 . arXiv:1701.01367v2 [math.RA] 22 May 2017 h i If char(F) = p for some prime p > 0, we let ℘(F) denote the additive subgroup λp λ : λ F .
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Background
    Chapter 0 Historical Background The theory of composition of quadratic forms over fields had its start in the 19th century with the search for n-square identities of the type 2 + 2 +···+ 2 · 2 + 2 +···+ 2 = 2 + 2 +···+ 2 (x1 x2 xn) (y1 y2 yn) z1 z2 zn where X = (x1,x2,...,xn) and Y = (y1,y2,...,yn) are systems of indeterminates and each zk = zk(X, Y ) is a bilinear form in X and Y . For example when n = 2 there is the ancient identity 2 + 2 · 2 + 2 = + 2 + − 2 (x1 x2 ) (y1 y2 ) (x1y1 x2y2) (x1y2 x2y1) . In this example z1 = x1y1 + x2y2 and z2 = x1y2 − x2y1 are bilinear forms in X, Y with integer coefficients. This formula for n = 2 can be interpreted as the “law of moduli” for complex numbers: |α|·|β|=|αβ| where α = x1 −ix2 and β = y1 +iy2. A similar 4-square identity was found by Euler (1748) in his attempt to prove Fermat’s conjecture that every positive integer is a sum of four integer squares. This identity is often attributed to Lagrange, who used it (1770) in his proof of that conjec- ture of Fermat. Here is Euler’s formula, in our notation: 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 · 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 (x1 x2 x3 x4 ) (y1 y2 y3 y4 ) z1 z2 z3 z4 where z1 = x1y1 + x2y2 + x3y3 + x4y4 z2 = x1y2 − x2y1 + x3y4 − x4y3 z3 = x1y3 − x2y4 − x3y1 + x4y2 z4 = x1y4 + x2y3 − x3y2 − x4y1. After Hamilton’s discovery of the quaternions (1843) this 4-square formula was interpreted as the law of moduli for quaternions.
    [Show full text]
  • Isotropy of Quadratic Spaces in Finite and Infinite Dimension
    Documenta Math. 473 Isotropy of Quadratic Spaces in Finite and Infinite Dimension Karim Johannes Becher, Detlev W. Hoffmann Received: October 6, 2006 Revised: September 13, 2007 Communicated by Alexander Merkurjev Abstract. In the late 1970s, Herbert Gross asked whether there exist fields admitting anisotropic quadratic spaces of arbitrarily large finite dimensions but none of infinite dimension. We construct exam- ples of such fields and also discuss related problems in the theory of central simple algebras and in Milnor K-theory. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 11E04, 11E81, 12D15, 12E15, 12F20, 12G05, 12G10, 16K20, 19D45 Keywords and Phrases: quadratic form, isotropy, infinite-dimensional quadratic space, u-invariant, function field of a quadric, totally indef- inite form, real field, division algebra, quaternion algebra, symbol al- gebra, Galois cohomology, cohomological dimension, Milnor K-theory 1 Introduction A quadratic space over a field F is a pair (V, q) of a vector space V over F together with a map q : V F such that −→ q(λx) = λ2q(x) for all λ F , x V , and • ∈ ∈ the map bq : V V F defined by bq(x,y) = q(x + y) q(x) q(y) • (x,y V ) is F -bilinear.× −→ − − ∈ If dim V = n < , one may identify (after fixing a basis of V ) the quadratic space (V, q) with∞ a form (a homogeneous polynomial) of degree 2 in n variables. Via this identification, a finite-dimensional quadratic space over F will also be referred to as quadratic form over F . Recall that a quadratic space (V, q) is Documenta Mathematica 12 (2007) 473–504 474 Karim Johannes Becher, Detlev W.
    [Show full text]
  • Quadratic Form - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Quadratic form - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_form Quadratic form From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In mathematics, a quadratic form is a homogeneous polynomial of degree two in a number of variables. For example, is a quadratic form in the variables x and y. Quadratic forms occupy a central place in various branches of mathematics, including number theory, linear algebra, group theory (orthogonal group), differential geometry (Riemannian metric), differential topology (intersection forms of four-manifolds), and Lie theory (the Killing form). Contents 1 Introduction 2 History 3 Real quadratic forms 4 Definitions 4.1 Quadratic spaces 4.2 Further definitions 5 Equivalence of forms 6 Geometric meaning 7 Integral quadratic forms 7.1 Historical use 7.2 Universal quadratic forms 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Introduction Quadratic forms are homogeneous quadratic polynomials in n variables. In the cases of one, two, and three variables they are called unary, binary, and ternary and have the following explicit form: where a,…,f are the coefficients.[1] Note that quadratic functions, such as ax2 + bx + c in the one variable case, are not quadratic forms, as they are typically not homogeneous (unless b and c are both 0). The theory of quadratic forms and methods used in their study depend in a large measure on the nature of the 1 of 8 27/03/2013 12:41 Quadratic form - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_form coefficients, which may be real or complex numbers, rational numbers, or integers. In linear algebra, analytic geometry, and in the majority of applications of quadratic forms, the coefficients are real or complex numbers.
    [Show full text]
  • Orthogonal Symmetries and Clifford Algebras 11
    ORTHOGONAL SYMMETRIES AND CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS M. G. MAHMOUDI Abstract. Involutions of the Clifford algebra of a quadratic space induced by orthogonal symmetries are investigated. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 16W10, 11E39 Key words: Orthogonal symmetry, reflection, Clifford algebra, Involution, qua- dratic form, even Clifford algebra, multiquaternion algebra, universal property of Clifford algebra, Clifford map 1. Introduction Clifford algebra is one of the important algebraic structures which can be associ- ated to a quadratic form. These algebras are among the most fascinating algebraic structures. Not only they have many applications in algebra and other branches of Mathematics, but also they have wide applications beyond Mathematics, e.g., Physics, Computer Science and Engineering [6], [18], [14], [15]. A detailed historical account of Clifford algebras from their genesis can be found in [21]. See also [7] and [14] for an interesting brief historical account of Clifford algebras. Many familiar algebras can be regarded as special cases of Clifford algebras. For example the algebra of Complex numbers is isomorphic to the Clifford algebra of any one-dimensional negative definite quadratic form over R. The algebra of Hamilton quaternions is isomorphic to the Clifford algebras of a two-dimensional negative definite quadratic form over R. More generally, as shown by D. Lewis in [13, Proposition 1], a multiquaternion algebra, i.e., an algebra like Q1 Qn ⊗···⊗ff where Qi is a quaternion algebra over a field K, can be regarded as the Cli ord algebra of a suitable nondegenerate quadratic form q over the base field K. In [13], such a form q is also explicitly constructed.
    [Show full text]
  • SMALL REPRESENTATIONS of INTEGERS by INTEGRAL QUADRATIC FORMS 1. Introduction and Statement of Results the Question of Effective
    SMALL REPRESENTATIONS OF INTEGERS BY INTEGRAL QUADRATIC FORMS WAI KIU CHAN AND LENNY FUKSHANSKY Abstract. Given an isotropic quadratic form over a number field which as- sumes a value t, we investigate the distribution of points at which this value is assumed. Building on the previous work about the distribution of small-height zeros of quadratic forms, we produce bounds on height of points outside of some algebraic sets in a quadratic space at which the form assumes the value t. Our bounds on height are explicit in terms of the heights of the form, the space, the algebraic set and the value t. 1. Introduction and statement of results The question of effective distribution of zeros of quadratic forms has a long history. In particular, the famous Cassels' theorem (1955) asserts that an isotropic rational quadratic form has zeros of bounded height with effective bounds depending on the height of this form, [2]. By height here we mean a height function, a standard tool of Diophantine geometry, measuring the arithmetic complexity of an object; we provide a brief overview of height functions in Section 2. There have been many extensions and generalizations of Cassels theorem over the years, see [7] for a survey of this lively area. In particular, in the recent years there have been several results assessing the distribution of small-height zeros by proving that they cannot be easily \cut-out" by any finite union of linear subspaces or even projective varieties not completely containing the quadratic hypersurface in question. Specifically, results of [6], [5], [3], [8] prove existence of zeros of bounded height of an isotropic quadratic form outside of a union of projective varieties.
    [Show full text]
  • Classification of Quadratic Forms with Clifford Algebras
    CLASSIFICATION OF QUADRATIC FORMS WITH CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS Dorothy Cheung Supervisor: Associate Professor Daniel Chan School of Mathematics and Statistics The University of New South Wales October 2015 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science with Honours Plagiarism statement I declare that this thesis is my own work, except where acknowledged, and has not been submitted for academic credit elsewhere. I acknowledge that the assessor of this thesis may, for the purpose of assessing it: • Reproduce it and provide a copy to another member of the University; and/or, • Communicate a copy of it to a plagiarism checking service (which may then retain a copy of it on its database for the purpose of future plagiarism check- ing). I certify that I have read and understood the University Rules in respect of Student Academic Misconduct, and am aware of any potential plagiarism penalties which may apply. By signing this declaration I am agreeing to the statements and conditions above. Signed: Date: i Acknowledgements First and foremost, my greatest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Associate Professor Daniel Chan, who has provided much needed guidance throughout the year. He was always more than willing to answer my questions, patiently explaining things on the whiteboard and in general gave me invaluable advice on how to best tackle my Honours years. Also, I want to give thanks to Professor Jie Du, who was my supervisor for vacation research project. He offered great advice and is always passionate about mathemat- ics. I also want to thank Associate Professor Catherine Greenhill for her insightful feedbacks during the Honours talks.
    [Show full text]
  • Unipotent Flows and Isotropic Quadratic Forms in Positive Characteristic
    UNIPOTENT FLOWS AND ISOTROPIC QUADRATIC FORMS IN POSITIVE CHARACTERISTIC A. MOHAMMADI Abstract. The analogous statement to Oppenheim conjecture over a local field of positive characteristic is proved. The dynamical argument is most involved in the case of characteristic 3. 1. Introduction Let Q be a real non-degenerate indefinite quadratic form in n variables. Further assume Q is not proportional to a form with rational coefficients . It was conjectured by Oppenheim in [O31] that if n ≥ 5 then for any ε > 0 there is x ∈ Zn − {0} such that |Q(x)| < ε. Later on in 1946 Davenport stated the conjecture for n ≥ 3, see [DH46]. However the conjecture even in the case n ≥ 3 is usually referred to as Oppenheim conjecture. Note that if the conjecture is proved for n0 then it holds for n > n0. Hence it is enough to show this for n = 3. Note also that the conclusion of the theorem is false for n = 2. Using methods of analytic number theory the aforementioned conjecture was verified for n ≥ 21 and also for diagonal forms in five variables, see [DH46, DR59]. The Oppenheim conjecture in its full generality was finally settled affirmatively by G. A. Margulis in [Mar86]. Margulis actually proved a reformulation of this con- jecture, in terms of closure of orbits of certain subgroup of SL3(R) on the space of unimodular lattices. This reformulation (as is well-known) is due to M. S. Raghu- nathan and indeed is a special case of Raghunathan’s conjecture on the closure of orbits of unipotent groups. S.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:1605.02490V2 [Math.DS] 28 Sep 2017 SMTTCDSRBTO FVLE FIORPCQUADRATIC ISOTROPIC of VALUES of DISTRIBUTION ASYMPTOTIC .Cutn Results 6
    ASYMPTOTIC DISTRIBUTION OF VALUES OF ISOTROPIC QUADRATIC FORMS AT S-INTEGRAL POINTS JIYOUNG HAN, SEONHEE LIM, AND KEIVAN MALLAHI-KARAI Abstract. We prove an analogue of a theorem of Eskin-Margulis-Mozes [10]: suppose we are given a finite set of places S over Q containing the archimedean place and excluding the prime 2, an irrational isotropic form q of rank n ≥ 4 on QS , a product of p-adic intervals Ip, and a product Ω of star-shaped sets. We show that unless n = 4 and q is split in at least one place, the number of S-integral vectors v ∈ TΩ satisfying simultaneously q(v) ∈ Ip for p ∈ S is asymptotically given by − λ(q, Ω)|I| · kTkn 2, as T goes to infinity, where |I| is the product of Haar measures of the p-adic intervals Ip. The proof uses dynamics of unipotent flows on S-arithmetic homogeneous spaces; in particular, it relies on an equidistribution result for certain translates of orbits applied to test functions with a controlled growth at infinity, specified by an S-arithmetic variant of the α-function introduced in [10], and an S-arithemtic version of a theorem of Dani-Margulis [7]. Contents 1. Introduction 2 1.1. The Quantitative Oppenheim Conjecture 2 1.2. The S-arithmetic Oppenheim Conjecture 3 1.3. Statements of results 4 Acknowledgement 6 2. Preliminaries 7 2.1. Norms on exterior products 7 2.2. Quadratic forms 7 2.3. Orthogonal groups 8 3. The S-arithmetic Geometry of Numbers 8 arXiv:1605.02490v2 [math.DS] 28 Sep 2017 3.1.
    [Show full text]
  • Izhboldin's Results on Stably Birational Equivalence Of
    IZHBOLDIN'S RESULTS ON STABLY BIRATIONAL EQUIVALENCE OF QUADRICS NIKITA A. KARPENKO Abstract. Our main goal is to give proofs of all results announced by Oleg Izhboldin in [13]. In particular, we establish Izhboldin's criterion for stable equivalence of 9-dimensional forms. Several other related results, some of them due to the author, are also included. All the ¯elds we work with are those of characteristic di®erent from 2. In these notes we consider the following problem: for a given quadratic form Á de¯ned over some ¯eld F , describe all the quadratic forms Ã=F which are stably birational equivalent to Á. By saying \stably birational equivalent" we simply mean that the projective hypersurfaces Á = 0 and à = 0 are stably birational equivalent varieties. In this case we also say \Á is stably equivalent to Ã"(for short) and write Á st Ã. Let us denote by F (Á) the function ¯eld of the projective quadric Á»= 0 (if the quadric has no function ¯eld, one set F (Á) = F ). Note that Á st à » simply means that the quadratic forms ÁF (Ã) and ÃF (Á) are isotropic (that is, the corresponding quadrics have rational points). For an isotropic quadratic form Á, the answer to the question raised is easily seen to be as follows: Á st à if and only if the quadratic form à is also isotropic. Therefore, we may assu»me that Á is anisotropic. One more class of quadratic forms for which the answer is easily obtained is given by the P¯ster neighbors.
    [Show full text]
  • Fields of U-Invariant 2 R
    Fields of u-invariant 2r + 1 Alexander Vishik1 School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom [email protected] Summary. In this article we provide a uniform construction of fields with all known u-invariants. We also obtain the new values for the u-invariant: 2r + 1, for r > 3. The main tools here are the new discrete invariant of quadrics (so-called, elementary discrete invariant), and the methods of [14] (which permit to reduce the questions of rationality of elements of the Chow ring over the base field to that over bigger field - the generic point of a quadric). 1 Introduction The u-invariant of a field is defined as the maximal dimension of anisotropic quadratic form over it. The problem to describe values of this invariant is one of major open problems in the theory of quadratic forms. Using elementary methods it is easy to establish that the u-invariant can not take values 3, 5 and 7. The conjecture of Kaplansky (1953) suggested that the only possible values are the powers of 2 (by that time, the examples of fields with u-invariant being any power of 2 were known). This conjecture was disproved by A.Merkurjev in 1991, who constructed fields with all even u-invariants. The next chal- lenge was to find out if fields with odd u-invariant > 1 are possible at all. The breakthrough here was made by O.Izhboldin who in 1999 constructed a field of u-invariant 9 - see [4]. Still the question of other possible values remained open.
    [Show full text]