Tensor products and discriminants of unital quadratic forms over commutative rings (Q1921390): Difference between revisions

A unital quadratic form is defined as a triple \((X,Q,1_X)\), where \(X\) is a module over a commutative ring of scalars \(k\), equipped with a quadratic form \(Q\) and a base point \(1_X\) with \(Q(1_X)=1\) and such that \(\alpha (1_X)=1\) for some linear form \(\alpha\) on \(X\). These unital quadratic forms may be considered as higher dimensional analogues of quadratic algebras. The first part of this very well-written paper deals with the construction of a tensor product of two unital quadratic forms, \((X_1,Q_1,1_{X_1})\square(X_2,Q_2,1_{X_2})\), extending the tensor product of separable quadratic algebras. As a \(k\)-module, this is just \(k\oplus \left( (X_1/k1_{X_1})\otimes_k (X_2/k1_{X_2}) \right)\), but the definition of the attached quadratic form is not trivial. This product is shown to satisfy nice functorial properties. The hyperbolic plane plays the role of neutral element, and the invertible elements are given precisely by the separable quadratic algebras. Also, to any unital quadratic form \((X,Q,1_X)\), a symmetric bilinear form on \(X/k1_X\), called the vector discriminant, is assigned and shown to be multiplicative with respect to \(\square\). In the second part of the paper, a large variety of concepts related to the unital quadratic forms are studied. First, a notion of separability for these forms is defined, which extends the notion of nondegeneracy for quadratic forms over fields. The discriminant of the tensor product is computed in terms of the discriminant of the factors. The Clifford algebra and the orthogonal group schemes associated to unital quadratic forms, as well as some cohomological characterizations, are also investigated.