Algebraic Theory of Orthogonal Designs

Introduction Classical theory of symmetric bilinear forms and quadratic forms: Bilinear forms Quadratic forms Forms over rational function fields Function fields of quadrics Bilinear and quadratic forms and algebraic extensions $u$-invariants Applications of the Milnor conjecture On the norm residue homomorphism of degree two Algebraic cycles: Homology and cohomology Chow groups Steenrod operations Category of Chow motives Quadratic forms and algebraic cycles: Cycles on powers of quadrics The Izhboldin dimension Application of Steenrod operations The variety of maximal totally isotropic subspaces Motives of quadrics Appendices Bibliography Notation Terminology.

There are close relations between Bernoulli numbers and quadratic fields or quadratic forms. In order to explain those, we give a survey of the ideal theory of quadratic fields and quadratic forms. Since Gauss , it is well known that there is a deep relation between the ideal theory of quadratic fields (i.e. quadratic extensions of the rational number field) and integral quadratic forms. This is obvious for specialists, but textbooks which explain this in detail are rare. In most textbooks, they treat the correspondence of ideals only in the case of maximal orders (the ring of all integers) for which the description is simple and easy. This is very disappointing. We cannot see the whole picture of the theory of quadratic forms by such a restricted treatment and sometimes it causes misunderstanding. We need the full description of this kind of relation when we explain later the relation between L-functions of prehomogeneous vector spaces and the Bernoulli numbers. So it would be a good chance to try to explain the full relation here.

We consider a class of singular, zero-range perturbations of the quantum Hamiltonian of a system consisting of a test particle and N harmonic oscillators (Rayleigh gas). Using the theory of quadratic forms we construct the self-adjoint and bounded from below perturbed Hamiltonian and we give representation formulas for the resolvent and the unitary group. The one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases are discussed.

Our purpose in this chapter is to introduce three algebras of importance in the theory of quadratic forms, the Clifford algebra, the quaternion algebra, and the Hasse algebra. The Clifford algebra will be developed from first principles and its main use for us will be in the definition of an invariant called the spinor norm. The quaternion algebra and the Hasse algebra play an important role in the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms. The definition of the Hasse algebra depends on some of the structure theory of central simple algebras, in particular it needs Wedderburn’s theorem and the theory of similarity of algebras that is normally used in defining the Brauer group. We have therefore included a proof of Wedderburn’s theorem and some of its consequences. Also included as a convenience to the reader is a brief discussion of the tensor product of finite dimensional vector spaces1.

We show that the theorem of Ellenberg and Venkatesh on representation of integral quadratic forms by integral positive definite quadratic forms is valid under weaker conditions on the represented form.

Classifications and representations are two main topics in the theory of quadratic forms. In this paper, we consider these topics of ternary quadratic forms. For a given squarefree integer N N , first we give the classification of positive definite ternary quadratic forms of level 4 N 4N explicitly. Second, we give explicit formulas of the weighted sum of representations over each class in every genus of ternary quadratic forms of level 4 N 4N , which are involved with modified Hurwitz class number. In the proof of the main results, we use the relations among ternary quadratic forms, quaternion algebras, and Jacobi forms. As a corollary, we get the formula for the class number of positive ternary quadratic forms of level 4 N 4N . As applications, we derive an explicit base of Eisenstein series space of modular forms of weight 3 / 2 3/2 and level 4 N 4N , and give new proofs of some interesting identities involving representation number of ternary quadratic forms.

Field invariants under totally positive quadratic extensions

In this note (cf. sections 3, 4) I shall give an axiomatization of those fields (of characteristic ≠ 2) which have a theory of quadratic forms like the -adic numbers or like the real numbers. This leads then, for instance, to a generalization of the well-known theorems on -adic forms to a wider class of fields, including non-local ones. The main purpose of the exercise is, however, to separate out the roles of the arithmetic in the underlying field, on the one hand, which solely enters into the verification of the axioms, and of the ordinary algebra of quadratic forms on the other hand. The resulting clarification of the structure of the theory is of interest even in the known -adic case.

There are connections, already seen by Gauss himself, between his analytic work and the theory of quadratic forms. Some fragments from the early 1800s show that Gauss was familiar with the rudiments of a theory which eventually found its completion in Klein’s and Fricke’s work on modular forms. Both F. Klein and R. Fricke were deeply involved in the publication of Gauss’s work and had the opportunity to study Gauss’s fragments closely.

An expression is derived for the number of representations of one bilinear form by another (mod pa). From this, an explicit formula for the number of such representations is obtained in the case where both forms have square nonsingular matrices (mod p). A related bilinear analog of a lemma of Siegel on representations by quadratic forms (mod pa) is also proved.

This chapter presents various results about quadratic forms over a field complete with respect to a discrete valuation. The discussion is based on the assumption that K is a field of arbitrary characteristic which is complete with respect to a discrete valuation ν‎ and uses the usual convention that ν‎(0) = infinity. The chapter starts with a notation regarding the ring of integers of K and the natural map from it to the residue field, followed by a number of propositions regarding an anisotropic quadratic space. These include an anisotropic quadratic space with residual quadratic spaces, an unramified quadratic space of finite dimension, unramified finite-dimensional anisotropic quadratic forms over K, unramified anisotropic quadratic forms and a bilinear form, and a round quadratic space over K. The chapter concludes with a theorem that there exists an anisotropic quadratic form over K, unique up to isometry, and is non-singular.

Quadratic Forms and Graphs

It seems that any deeper investigation of the algebraic theory of quadratic forms requires a thorough knowledge of the theory of Pfister forms. They are the subject of this chapter. The investigation of Pfister forms is based essentially on the use of transcendental extensions of the ground field: One considers quadratic forms Σ a ij X i X j . with indeterminates X i . This approach leads naturally to the important concept of the function field of a quadratic form which is the function field of the quadratic Σ a ij X i X j =0.

Historically the theory of quadratic forms has its origins in number-theoretic questions of the following type: Which integers can be written in the form x 2 + 2y 2 , which are sums of three squares, or more generally, which integers can be represented by an arbitrary quadratic form Σ a ij x i x j integral coefficients? This general question is exceptionally difficult and we are still quite far from a complete solution. It is natural and considerably simpler to first investigate these questions over the field of rational numbers, that is, to ask for rational instead of integral solutions to the equation Σ a ij x i x j = a. This leads to the problem of classification of quadratic forms over \( \mathbb{Q} \), which was first solved by Minkowski. His solution appears in this chapter basically unaltered, except for a few simplifications and the use of modern terminology. The Gaussian sums of Gauss and Dirich-let play a significant role in the more formal algebraic part of the theory.

This chapter establishes Gauss’s Law of Quadratic Reciprocity, the theory of binary quadratic forms, and Dirichlet’s Theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions.