The `transcendental methods' in the algebraic theory of quadratic forms are based on two major results, proved in the 60's by Cassels and Pfister, and known as the representation and the subform theorems. A generalization of the representation theorem was proven by Jean-Pierre Tignol in 1996, in the setting of central simple algebras with involution. This paper studies the subform question for orthogonal involutions. A generic characterization of direct summands is given; an analogue of the subform theorem is proven for division algebras and algebras of index at most 2.
We associate to every central simple algebra with involution of orthogonal type in characteristic two a totally singular quadratic form which reflects certain anisotropy properties of the involution. It is shown that this quadratic form can be used to classify totally decomposable algebras with orthogonal involution. Also, using this form, a criterion is obtained for an orthogonal involution on a split algebra to be conjugated to the transpose involution.
We investigate the quadratic descent of totally decomposable algebras with involution of orthogonal type in characteristic two. Both separable and inseparable extensions are included.
We investigate the pfaffians of decomposable biquaternion algebras with involution of orthogonal type. In characteristic two, a classification of these algebras in terms of their pfaffians and some other related invariants is studied. Also, in arbitrary characteristic, a criterion is obtained for an orthogonal involution on a biquaternion algebra to be metabolic.
We obtain some criteria for a symmetric square-central element of a totally decomposable algebra with orthogonal involution in characteristic two, to be contained in an invariant quaternion subalgebra.
It is shown that an anisotropic orthogonal involution in characteristic two is totally decomposable if it is totally decomposable over a separable extension of the ground field. In particular, this settles a characteristic two analogue of a conjecture formulated by Bayer-Fluckiger et al.
We exploit various inclusions of algebraic groups to give a new construction of groups of type E8, determine the Killing forms of the resulting E8's, and define an invariant of central simple algebras of degree 16 with orthogonal involution "in I^3", equivalently, groups of type D8 with a half-spin representation defined over the base field. The determination of the Killing form is done by restricting the adjoint representation to various twisted forms of PGL2 and requires very little computation. An appendix by Kirill Zainoulline contains a type of "index reduction" result for groups of type …
We use the fact that a projective half-spin representation of $Spin_{12}$ has an open orbit to generalize Pfister's result on quadratic forms of dimension 12 in $I^3$ to orthogonal involutions.
We study possible decompositions of totally decomposable algebras with involution, that is, tensor products of quaternion algebras with involution. In particular, we are interested in decompositions in which one or several factors are the split quaternion algebra $M_2(F)$, endowed with an orthogonal involution. Using the theory of gauges, developed by Tignol-Wadsworth, we construct examples of algebras isomorphic to a tensor product of quaternion algebras with $k$ split factors, endowed with an involution which is totally decomposable, but does not admit any decomposition with $k$ factors $M_2…
In this paper, we study the essential dimension of classes of central simple algebras with involutions of index less or equal to 4. Using structural theorems for simple algebras with involutions, we obtain the essential dimension of projective and symplectic groups of small degree.
An orthogonal involution on a central simple algebra becoming isotropic over any splitting field of the algebra, becomes isotropic over a finite odd degree extension of the base field (provided that the characteristic of the base field is not 2). The proof makes use of a structure theorem for Chow motives with finite coefficients of projective homogeneous varieties, of incompressibility of certain generalized Severi-Brauer varieties, and of Steenrod operations.
Using the Rost invariant for non split simply connected groups, we define a relative degree $3$ cohomological invariant for pairs of orthogonal or unitary involutions having isomorphic Clifford or discriminant algebras. The main purpose of this paper is to study general properties of this invariant in the unitary case, that is for torsors under groups of outer type ${\sf A}$. If the underlying algebra is split, it can be reinterpreted in terms of the Arason invariant of quadratic forms, using the trace form of a hermitian form. When the algebra with unitary involution has a symplectic or ortho…
An orthogonal involution $σ$ on a central simple algebra $A$, after scalar extension to the function field $\mathcal{F}(A)$ of the Severi--Brauer variety of $A$, is adjoint to a quadratic form $q_σ$ over $\mathcal{F}(A)$, which is uniquely defined up to a scalar factor. Some properties of the involution, such as hyperbolicity, and isotropy up to an odd-degree extension of the base field, are encoded in this quadratic form, meaning that they hold for the involution $σ$ if and only if they hold for $q_σ$. As opposed to this, we prove that there exists non-totally decomposable orthogonal involuti…
A necessary and sufficient condition for a central simple algebra with involution over a field of characteristic two to be decomposable as a tensor product of quaternion algebras with involution, in terms of its Frobenius subalgebras, is given. It is also proved that a bilinear Pfister form, recently introduced by A. Dolphin, can classify totally decomposable central simple algebras of orthogonal type.
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 $Q$ with its canonical involution, even though it contains $Q$ and is totally decomposable into a tensor product of quaternion algebras with involution.
In characteristic two, it is shown that a central simple algebra of degree equal to a power of two with anisotropic orthogonal involution is totally decomposable, if it becomes either anisotropic or metabolic over all extensions of the ground field. A similar result is obtained for the case where this algebra with involution is Brauer-equivalent to a quaternion algebra and it becomes adjoint to a bilinear Pfister form over all splitting fields of the algebra.
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.
We introduce the notion of maximal orders over quaternion algebras with orthogonal involution and give a classification over local fields, and a partial classification over algebraic number fields.
An element of a group is called bireflectional when it is the product of two involutions of the group (i.e. elements of order 1 or 2). If an element is bireflectional then it is conjugated to its inverse. It is known that all elements of orthogonal groups of quadratic forms are bireflectional. F. Bünger has characterized the elements of unitary groups (over fields of characteristic not $2$) that are bireflectional. Yet in symplectic groups over fields with characteristic different from 2, in general there are elements that are conjugated to their inverse but are not bireflectional (however, ov…
In groups with involution a nonassociative product of elements is defined, which leads to the definition of a certain type of quasigroups. These quasigroups are represented by square tables of complex numbers, with inverses, which differ from the matrix representations of groups in the rule of performing the product of two tables. The row-by-column product of two matrices in representations of groups is replaced by the column-by-column product, which is called the cracovian product, in representations of the defined type of quasigroups. The matrices undergoing the column-by-column product are …
Let ${\mathcal M}$ be a von Neumann algebra without central summands of type $I_1$. Assume that $Φ:{\mathcal M}\rightarrow {\mathcal M}$ is a surjective map. It is shown that $Φ$ is strong skew commutativity preserving (that is, satisfies $Φ(A)Φ(B)-Φ(B)Φ(A)^*=AB-BA^*$ for all $A,B\in{\mathcal M}$) if and only if there exists some self-adjoint element $Z$ in the center of ${\mathcal M}$ with $Z^2=I$ such that $Φ(A)=ZA$ for all $A\in{\mathcal M}$. The strong skew commutativity preserving maps on prime involution rings and prime involution algebras are also characterized.
Generalizing a theorem of Albert, Saltman showed that an Azumaya algebra $A$ over a ring represents a $2$-torsion class in the Brauer group if and only if there is an algebra $A'$ in the Brauer class of $A$ admitting an involution of the first kind. Knus, Parimala, and Srinivas later showed that one can choose $A'$ such that $\mathrm{deg}\, A'=2\mathrm{deg}\, A$. We show that $2\mathrm{deg}\, A$ is the lowest degree one can expect in general. Specifically, we construct an Azumaya algebra $A$ of degree $4$ and period $2$ such that the degree of any algebra $A'$ in the Brauer class of $A$ admitt…
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.
The centers of the generic central simple algebras with involution are interesting objects in the theory of central simple algebras. These fields also arise as invariant fields for linear actions of projective orthogonal or symplectic groups. In this paper, we prove that when the characteristic is not 2, these fields are retract rational, in the case the degree is $8m$ and $m$ is odd. We achieve this by proving the equivalent lifting property for the class of central simple algebras of degree $8m$ with involution. A companion paper ([S3]) deals with the case of $m$, $2m$ and $4m$ where stronge…
The aim of this work is to investigate the structure of some skew twisted algebras, when the coefficient ring is a localization of the polynomial ring over the field of characteristic zero, and an involution is provided. A parallel construction of the rational twisted generalized Weyl algebras is given. We propose a method and explicit formulas for a constructive description of these algebras and their involution-symmetric invariant subalgebras based on the Gelfand-Zeitlin realization of the universal enveloping algebra of some complex Lie algebras. As concrete examples we discuss special unit…
A symmetric quiver $(Q,σ)$ is a finite quiver without oriented cycles $Q=(Q_0,Q_1)$ equipped with a contravariant involution $σ$ on $Q_0\sqcup Q_1$. The involution allows us to define a nondegenerate bilinear form $<,>$ on a representation $V$ of $Q$. We shall say that $V$ is orthogonal if $<,>$ is symmetric and symplectic if $<,>$ is skew-symmetric. Moreover, we define an action of products of classical groups on the space of orthogonal representations and on the space of symplectic representations. So we prove that if $(Q,σ)$ is a symmetric quiver of tame type then the rings of semi-invarian…
We introduce on the abstract level in real Clifford algebras \cl_{p,q} of a non-degenerate quadratic space (V,Q), where Q has signature ε=(p,q), a transposition anti-involution \tp. In a spinor representation, the anti-involution \tp gives transposition, complex Hermitian conjugation or quaternionic Hermitian conjugation when the spinor space \check{S} is viewed as a \cl_{p,q}-left and \check{K}-right module with \check{K} isomorphic to R or R^2, C, or, H or H^2. \tp is a lifting to \cl_{p,q} of an orthogonal involution \tve: V \rightarrow V which depends on the signature of Q. The involution …
In the present paper we set up a connection between the indices of the Tits algebras of a simple linear algebraic group $G$ and the degree one parameters of its motivic $J$-invariant. Our main technical tool are the second Chern class map and Grothendieck's $γ$-filtration. As an application we recover some known results on the $J$-invariant of quadratic forms of small dimension; we describe all possible values of the $J$-invariant of an algebra with orthogonal involution up to degree 8 and give explicit examples; we establish several relations between the $J$-invariant of an algebra $A$ with o…
For an $(n-1)$-Auslander algebra $Λ$ with global dimension $n$, we give some necessary conditions for $Λ$ admitting a maximal $(n-1)$-orthogonal subcategory in terms of the properties of simple $Λ$-modules with projective dimension $n-1$ or $n$. For an almost hereditary algebra $Λ$ with global dimension 2, we prove that $Λ$ admits a maximal 1-orthogonal subcategory if and only if for any non-projective indecomposable $Λ$-module $M$, $M$ is injective is equivalent to that the reduced grade of $M$ is equal to 2. We give a connection between the Gorenstein Symmetric Conjecture and the existence o…
This is my PhD thesis supervised by Professor Jerzy Weyman. A symmetric quiver $(Q,σ)$ is a finite quiver without oriented cycles $Q=(Q_0,Q_1)$ equipped with a contravariant involution $σ$ on $Q_0\sqcup Q_1$. The involution allows us to define a nondegenerate bilinear form $<,>$ on a representation $V$ of $Q$. We shall say that $V$ is orthogonal if $<,>$ is symmetric and symplectic if $<,>$ is skew-symmetric. Moreover we define an action of products of classical groups on the space of orthogonal representations and on the space of symplectic representations. So we prove that if $(Q,σ)$ is a sy…
A direct sum decomposition theory is developed for direct summands (and complements) of modules over a semiring $R$, having the property that $v+w = 0$ implies $v = 0$ and $w = 0$. Although this never occurs when $R$ is a ring, it always does holds for free modules over the max-plus semiring and related semirings. In such situations, the direct complement is unique, and the decomposition is unique up to refinement. Thus, every finitely generated projective module is a finite direct sum of summands of $R$ (assuming the mild assumption that $1$ is a finite sum of orthogonal primitive idempotents…
Scheme-theoretic methods are used to classify ternary quadratic forms with values in line bundles over arbitrary schemes and to canonically determine the isomorphisms between them. The association of a quadratic bundle to its even Clifford algebra induces a natural bijection from the set of equivalence classes of line-bundle-valued quadratic forms on rank 3 vector bundles upto tensoring by twisted discriminant bundles and the set of isomorphism classes of schematic specialisations of rank 4 Azumaya bundles over any fixed scheme X. This statement is a limiting version of the following statement…
