Some versions of the \(u\)-invariant of a field (Q2207279)

Let \(F\) be a field of characteristic different from 2. In [\textit{T. Y. Lam}, Introduction to quadratic forms over fields. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2005; Zbl 1068.11023)] the \(u\)-invariant of \(F\) is defined to be the maximal dimension of an anisotropic quadratic form over \(F\). In particular, \(u(F)=\infty\) whenever \(F\) is real. Note that in [\textit{R. Elman} and \textit{T. Y. Lam}, Invent. Math. 21, 125--137 (1973; Zbl 0267.10029)] it was defined in a different way, considering only forms in the torsion part of the Witt ring, which gives more meaningful values for real fields, but in the paper under discussion the author follows the previous definition. The goal of this paper is to propose another invariant, \(\hat{u}\), which is defined as follows: \(\hat{u}(F;a)\) is the maximal dimension of anisotropic tensor multiples of \(\langle 1, -a \rangle\), and \(\hat{u}(F)\) is the supremum of \(\hat{u}(F;a)\) where \(a\) ranges over all the elements in \(F^\times \setminus (F^\times)^2\). Clearly, \(\hat{u}\leq u(F)\), and in some cases there is an equality (like global fields) and in other cases this inequality is strict (like for the fields constructed in [\textit{A. S. Merkur'ev}, Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 55, No. 1, 218--224 (1991; Zbl 0733.12008)]) where \(u(F)\) can take any even number but \(I^3F=0\). The author then studies the behavior of \(\hat{u}\) under quadratic field extension. In particular, he proves that if \(L=F[\sqrt{b}]\) and \(a \in F^\times \setminus((F^\times)^2 \cup b(F^\times)^2)\), then \(\hat{u}(L;a)\leq \frac{5}{2}\hat{u}(F;a)\) (Proposition 2), and if \(\sqrt{-1}\in F\) then \(\hat{u}(L)\geq \frac{1}{4} \hat{u}(F)\) (Proposition 8).