Fields of cohomological 2-dimension three (Q1065077)

One of the primary problems in the theory of quadratic forms over a field F of characteristic different from two is the determination of its graded Witt ring GWF, where GWF is the graded ring associated to the Witt ring relative to the fundamental ideal of even dimensional forms. In particular, a relationship between this ring and the cohomology ring \(H^*(G_ F, {\mathbb{Z}}/2{\mathbb{Z}})\), where \(G_ F\) denotes the absolute Galois group of F, has been sought. In this paper, an isomorphism between these two rings is established whenever the cohomological 2-dimension of F(\(\sqrt{-1})\) is at most three. This includes fields of transcendence degree one over any global field. This result depends on the establishment that two 4-fold Pfister forms are isometric over any field if and only if their corresponding cohomology classes are the equal. A Hasse principle for quadratic forms with trivial classical invariants over an algebraic function field in one variable over a global field is also established.