On the Milnor conjectures: history, influence, applications. (Q1569725)

The present paper is a survey article written for non-experts. It summarizes the developments around the prominent Milnor Conjectures in algebraic \(K\)-theory. A lot of progress has been made here lately. Most importantly, Voevodsky and his coworkers have succeeded in proving the Milnor Conjectures. The article is organized as follows. The author starts with a discussion of the classical theory of quadratic forms (after \textit{E. Witt} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 176, 31--44 (1936; Zbl 0015.05701)]) and summarizes some of his own works on the Witt ring [Invent. Math. 1, 116--132 (1966; Zbl 0142.27203)]. He then introduces the graded Witt group, Galois cohomology as well as the Milnor \(K\)-groups and states the Milnor Conjectures. He moves on and discusses various partial results concerning the Milnor Conjectures that have been obtained before Voevodsky and his coworkers finally gave a proof of the Milnor Conjectures in the general case. The author also devotes a paragraph to the work of Voevodsky. However, he does not try to give an outline of the proof. He just mentions some new aspects and the new ingredients that enter the proof. He closes with a sequence of applications which rely on the recent results. The list of applications includes e.g.~a proof of the Knebusch Conjecture, and the solution of Lam's Open Problem B.