Isometries of quadratic spaces (Q496460): Difference between revisions

The main result is a local-global principle for isometries: let \(k\) be a global field of characteristic not 2, then a non-degenerate quadratic space has an isometry with minimal polynomial \(f\) if and only if such an isometry exists over all completions of \(k\). This extends earlier work of \textit{J. W. Milnor} [Invent. Math. 8, 83--97 (1969; Zbl 0177.05204)].