Spinor norms of local integral rotations. II (Q1228500)

The spinor norms of integral rotations on an arbitrary quadratic form over a dyadic local field in which 2 is prime are determined. The calculations are divided into three sections depending upon the form of a Jordan splitting of the given form. The spinor norm group is determined for binary forms in the first section. For a large class of higher dimensional forms having all one-dimensional components, the spinor norm group is then obtained as the set of all products of an even number of elements from the spinor norm groups of the binary subforms consisting of adjacent components. The third section reduces the computations for a form having arbitrary components to a consideration of the individual components. The results obtained for the specific field \(\mathbb Q_2\) are applied in the fourth section to improve the bounds appearing in a theorem of Kneser giving sufficient conditions, in terms of the exponents occurring in the prime factorization of the reduced determinant, for an indefinite \(\mathbb Z\)-lattice to have class number one. The new bounds obtained are shown to be the best possible. These local computations are further applied in a subsequent paper by the same authors studying the behavior of a global lattice under field extensions. For Part I, cf. [Pac. J. Math. 57, 199--206 (1975; Zbl 0283.10009)].