Universal algebras \(\mathcal U(V,Q)\) for quadratic mappings \(Q:V\rightarrow V\) (Q2361385)

Given a field \(F\), an \(F\)-vector space \(V\) of finite dimension \(n\) and a quadratic form \(Q : V \rightarrow F\), the classical Clifford algebra \(\mathrm{Cl}(V,Q)\) is the universal (associative) algebra generated over \(F\) by the elements \(v \in V\) subject to the relations \(v^2=Q(v)\). This algebra has a neat structure and has been proved to be extremely useful in mathematics and physics. In this paper, instead of a quadratic form \(V \rightarrow F\), the author is interested in a quadratic mapping \(Q : V \rightarrow V\), i.e., a map that satisfies \(Q(a v)=a^2 Q(v)\) for any \(v \in V\) and \(a \in F\), such that the map \(B : V \times V \rightarrow V\) defined by \(B(u,v)=\frac{1}{2}(Q(u+v)-Q(u)-Q(v))\) is symmetric and bilinear. The algebra \(\mathcal{U}(V,Q)\) is defined to be the universal (associative) \(F\)-algebra generated by elements \(v \in V\) with relations \(v^2=Q(v)\). For example, if \(\dim V=1\) and \(Q \not \equiv 0\), then \(\mathcal{U}(V,Q)\) is the étale algebra generated over \(F\) by some \(v\) satisfying \(v^2=Q(v)=av\) for some \(a \in F^\times\). Since the characteristic polynomial of \(v\) is \(\lambda^2-a\lambda\), this étale algebra is the unique split quadratic étale algebra \(F \times F\). By its definition, this algebra tends to have many zero-divisors, and it often vanishes completely (except for the copy of \(F\)). The main theorem of the paper (Theorem 3.1) lists a few necessary and sufficient conditions for \(\mathcal{U}(V,Q)\) to be of the maximal possible dimension \(2^n\), e.g the bijectivity of the canonical morphism from the exterior algebra \(\bigwedge V\) to the graded algebra \(G \mathcal{U}(V,Q)\) of \(\mathcal{U}(V,Q)\).