Characterization of special points of orthogonal symmetric spaces (Q2376703)

The paper under review considers the following question: Given a quadratic form \(q\) with its corresponding orthogonal group \(O_q\), what are the conditions on an étale algebra \(E\) such that \(E\) is associated to a maximal torus \(T\) of \(O_q\)? The author extracts various necessary and sufficient conditions on the algebra \(E\) from a work of \textit{R. Brusamarello} et al. [J. Algebra 266, No. 1, 87--101 (2003; Zbl 1079.11023)]. There exists an étale algebra with involution \((E,\sigma)\) over a field \(k\) such that for the maximal torus \(T\) of \(O_q\) we get \(T=T_{E,\sigma}=\{t\in T_E\mid t\sigma(t)=1\}.\) Moreover, suppose \(T_{E,\sigma}\subset O_q\) is a maximal torus. Then \(q(x)=q_{E,\lambda}(x)=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}_{E/k}(\lambda x \sigma(x))\) for some choice of \(\lambda\in (E^\sigma)^\ast\). Hence to answer the question one has to calculate certain invariants of scaled trace forms of étale algebras. The main theorem gives three conditions, which are equivalent to the fact, that \(O_q\) contains a torus of type \((E,\sigma)\). These are conditions on the signatures of \(q\); the discriminant of \(E/k\) and \(D(q)\) of \(q\), the dimension of \(q\) as well on the associated Clifford algebra.