Annihilators of quadratic and bilinear forms over fields of characteristic two (Q2497458)

Let \(F\) be a field of characteristic \(2\). Let \(WF\) denote the Witt ring of symmetric bilinear forms over \(F\), and \(W_qF\) the \(WF\)-module of nonsingular quadratic forms over \(F\). A bilinear \(n\)-fold Pfister form \(\langle\langle a_1,\dots ,a_n\rangle\rangle\) is a tensor product of \(n\) binary symmetric bilinear forms \(\langle 1,a_i\rangle\), and a quadratic \(n\)-fold Pfister form \(\langle\langle a_1,\dots ,a_n;b]]\) is the product of such a bilinear Pfister form by the binary nonsingular quadratic form \(X^2+XY+bY^2\). Let \(I^nF\) be the ideal in \(WF\) generated by \(n\)-fold bilinear Pfister forms, and let \(I^nW_qF\) denote the \(WF\)-submodule of \(W_qF\) generated by quadratic \(n\)-fold Pfister forms. Finally, let \(\overline{I^nF}=I^nF/I^{n+1}F\) and \(\overline{I^nW_qF}=I^nW_qF/I^{n+1}W_qF\). In the present paper, annihilators of bilinear resp. quadratic Pfister forms are computed. More precisely, let \(x\) be an \(n\)-fold bilinear Pfister form (resp. an \(n\)-fold quadratic Pfister form). The authors determine the annihilator ideal (resp. subgroup) of all \(y\in I^mF\) (resp. \(\overline{y}\in \overline{I^mF}\)) such that \(yx=0\) (resp. \(\overline{y}x=0\)). In the case where \(x\) is a bilinear Pfister form, they furthermore compute the annihilator subgroup of all \(y\in I^mW_qF\) (resp. \(\overline{y}\in \overline{I^mW_qF}\)) such that \(xy=0\) (resp. \(x\overline{y}=0\)). The proofs are based on Kato's correspondence between quadratic and symmetric bilinear forms and differential forms over \(F\) and are quite technical and rather subtle. Analogous results for annihilators of Pfister forms in characteristic \(\neq 2\) were obtained by \textit{D. Orlov, A. Vishik} and \textit{V. Voevodsky} [Ann. Math. (2) 165, No. 1, 1--13 (2007)] in the case of the graded Witt ring, and based on this by \textit{J. K. Arason} and \textit{R. Elman} [J. Algebra 239, No. 1, 150--160 (2001; Zbl 0990.11021)] for the ungraded Witt ring.