A determinantal identity for skewfields (Q1068906)

Let \(A\) be an \(n\times n\) matrix over the real quaternions, \(H\), with the usual basis \(1, i, j, k\). Then \(A=A_0 +A_1i +A_2j +A_3k\) where the \(A_ i\) are real \(n\times n\) matrices. Let \(M\) be the \(4n\times4n\) block matrix given by \[ M = \left[ \begin{matrix} A_0 & A_1 & A_2 & A_3 \\ -A_1 & A_0 & -A_3 & A_2 \\ -A_2 & A_3 & A_0 & -A_1 \\ -A_3 & -A_2 & A_1 & A_0 \end{matrix} \right] \] \textit{A. Bagazoitia} [A determinantal identity for quaternions, Proceedings of 1983 Conference on Algebra Lineal y Aplicaciones, 127-132 (1984)] obtained the following identity: \(\det(M) = [N(\delta \varepsilon \tau A)]^ 2\), where det is the usual matrix determinant, \(N\) is the usual reduced norm \((N(x)=x\bar x\), for \(x\in H)\), and \(\delta\varepsilon\tau\) is the Dieudonné determinant. In this paper the author presents an alternate proof of Bagazoitia's result and then proceeds to extend the result to the case of an arbitrary skewfield which is finite dimensional over its center.