Pfister involutions. (Q1425693)

The paper under review raises the question of whether the notion of a Pfister form admits a satisfactory generalization in the framework of the theory of central simple algebras with involution. The authors restrict to the special case of ground fields of characteristic not equal to \(2\), where a Pfister form means a quadratic form of type \(\bigotimes_{i=1}^r(x_i^2-a_iy_i^2)\), for some \(r\in\mathbb{N}\), with \(a_i\neq 0\), \(i=1,\dots,r\). Their starting point is the fact that a quadratic form \(q\) over such a field \(F\) is similar to a Pfister form if and only if the dimension of \(q\) is a power of \(2\), and viewed as a quadratic form over any extension \(K\) of \(F\), \(q\) is hyperbolic, provided that it is isotropic. Consider now a central simple \(F\)-algebra \(A\) with an involution \(\sigma\) of orthogonal type, and denote by \(F_A\) the function field of the Severi-Brauer variety of \(A\). It is known [\textit{S.~A.~Amitsur}, Ann. Math. (2) 62, 8-43 (1955; Zbl 0066.28604)] that \(F_A\) is a generic splitting field of \(A\). This implies that after a scalar extension to \(F_A\), \(\sigma\) becomes the adjoint involution \(\sigma_{F_A}\) to some quadratic form \(q_\sigma\) over \(F_A\). We say that \((A,\sigma)\) is a Pfister algebra with involution, if \(\sigma_{F_A}\) is adjoint to a Pfister form. When this occurs and \(q_\sigma\) is an \(i\)-fold Pfister form over \(F_A\), the paper obtains several results about the Arason invariant \(e_i(\sigma)\) of \(q_\sigma\). In particular, it proves that \(e_i(\sigma)\) belongs to the unramified cohomology group \(H^i_{nr}(F_A/F)\). Also, the authors show that if \(A\) is of degree \(8\), then \((A,\sigma)\) is Pfister if and only if it is a tensor product of quaternion algebras with involution, and that this is so if and only if \((A\otimes_FK,\sigma_K)\) is hyperbolic whenever \(K/F\) is a field extension, such that \((A\otimes_FK,\sigma_K)\) is isotropic. They prove that tensor products of \(r\leq 5\) quaternion \(F\)-algebras with involution are Pfister \(F\)-algebras with involution.