The discriminant of a decomposable symplectic involution. (Q1427415)

Let \(A\) be a finite-dimensional central simple algebra over a field \(F\) of characteristic different from \(2\), \(\deg(A)=n\) the degree of \(A\) and \(\mu_2\) the subgroup of the multiplicative group \(F^*\) generated by \(-1\). Recall also that a symplectic (respectively, an orthogonal) involution on \(A\), is a map \(\sigma\colon A\to A\), which can be identified after a scalar extension to a splitting field \(K\) of \(A\) with the adjoint involution of a nonsingular alternating (respectively, symmetric) bilinear form over a \(K\)-vector space. If \(\sigma\) is orthogonal and the degree \(n\) is even, then the discriminant of \(\sigma\) is defined by the formula \(\text{disc\,}\sigma=(-1)^m\det\sigma\), where \(m=n/2\) and \(\det\sigma\in F^*/F^{*2}\) is the square class of any alternating unit of \(A\) (for a proof of the correctness of this definition, and more details, see \textit{M.-A. Knus, A. Merkurjev, M. Rost} and \textit{J.-P. Tignol} [The book of involutions. With a preface by J. Tits. (Am. Math. Soc. Colloq. Publ. 44, AMS, Providence, RI) (1998; Zbl 0955.16001)]. It can be viewed as an element of the cohomology group \(H^1(F,\mu_2)\). If \(\sigma\) and \(\sigma_0\) are symplectic involutions of \(A\) and \(n\) is divisible by \(4\), a relative discriminant \(\Delta_{\sigma_0}(\sigma)\) has been introduced by \textit{G. Berhuy, M. Monsurrò} and \textit{J.-P. Tignol} as an element of \(H^3(F,\mu_2)\) (its definition is recalled in the paper under review); they have shown that \(\Delta(\sigma)\) does not depend on the choice of \(\sigma_0\), provided that the (Schur) index of \(A\) divides \(n/2\) and \(\sigma_0\) is hyperbolic [see Pac. J. Math. 209, No. 2, 201-218 (2003; Zbl 1057.16012)]. The main result of the present paper shows that if \(B\) is a central simple \(F\)-algebra of degree divisible by \(4\) with orthogonal involution \(\rho\), \(Q\) is a quaternion \(F\)-algebra with a canonical (symplectic) involution \(\gamma\), \([Q]\) is the class associated with \(Q\) in the cohomology group \(H^2(F,\mu_2)\), and the central simple \(F\)-algebra \(T=B\otimes_FQ\) is of index dividing \(\deg(T)/2\), then \(\Delta(\tau)(\text{disc\,}\rho)\cup[Q]\), where \(\tau=\rho\otimes\gamma\) and \(\cup\) denotes the cup-product of \(H^1(F,\mu_2)\times H^2(F,\mu_2)\) into \(H^3(F,\mu_2)\). This is used for obtaining an alternative proof of Shapiro's ``Pfister factor conjecture'' for tensor products of at most 5 quaternion algebras.