Class numbers of classical groups

Publication date 20 February 2002

Published in Mathematical Notes (Search for Journal in Brave)

class groups class numbers linear algebraic groups number fields positive definite quadratic forms skew-Hermitean forms special unitary groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Class numbers of quadratic and Hermitian forms (11E41) Classical groups (11E57) Representation theory for linear algebraic groups (20G05) Linear algebraic groups over global fields and their integers (20G30)

Review text

The main object of the paper under review is a linear algebraic group \(G\) defined over a number field \(K\) considered together with its faithful representation \(\varphi\colon G\to\text{GL}_r\) defined over \(K\) and a lattice \(L(\varphi)\) in \(K^r\). Given such data (called a realization of \(G\)), one can define the class number \(\text{cl}(G)\). To be more precise, \(\text{cl}(G)\) is a shortening for \(\text{cl}(\varphi(G))\) or \(\text{cl}(G^{L(\varphi)})\) (see \textit{V.~P.~Platonov} and \textit{A.~S.~Rapinchuk} [Algebraic groups and number theory, Nauka, Moscow (1991; Zbl 0732.20027); English transl. Academic Press, Boston (1994; Zbl 0841.20046)]). The author revisits his short notes of late 70's-early 80's with the goal to present the proofs of two results announced there. First, he considers the case where \(G\) is a group of non-compact type. For such groups, \(\text{cl}(G)\) can be any number dividing the exponent of the fundamental group of \(G\) (with respect to a suitable realization of \(G\)). In the paper under review, this is proved for the case where \(G\) is a simple classical group in its canonical representation. (In fact, the problem here can be reduced to consideration of the case of the special unitary group \(G=\text{SU}_l(D,h)\) where \(h\) is a skew-Hermitian form of dimension \(l\) over a quaternion \(K\)-algebra \(D\) with its canonical involution.) Second, groups of compact type are considered. Here the author proves a criterion for \(G\) to have class number one in a given realization. This criterion is applied to the problem of existence of a one-class form in the genus of a given positive definite quadratic form in \(\geq 3\) variables.

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