Realizing profinite reduced special groups (Q2431635)

The theory of special groups is a first-order axiomatization of the algebraic theory of quadratic forms developed by \textit{M. A. Dickmann} and \textit{F. Miraglia} [``Special groups. Boolean-theoretic methods in the theory of quadratic forms'', Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 689 (2000; Zbl 1052.11027)], with the category of special groups being equivalent to the category of abstract Witt rings. The restriction to reduced special groups yields an equivalence with the category of abstract reduced Witt rings, which in turn is equivalent to the category of abstract spaces of orderings. The special group functor associates to each field \(F\) a special group \(G(F)\), and \(G(F)\) is reduced if and only if \(F\) is formally real and Pythagorean. It is still an open question whether or not every (reduced) special group can be realized as the special group of a (formally real and Pythagorean) field. \textit{M. Marshall} [Can. J. Math. 32, 603--627 (1980; Zbl 0433.10009)] proved that every finite reduced special group arises this way. \textit{M. Kula, M. A. Marshall} and \textit{A. Sładek} [Pac. J. Math. 112, 391--406 (1984; Zbl 0535.10020)] showed that every profinite reduced special group is isomorphic to a quotient of the reduced special group of some field. In the present paper, the authors improve on these results by giving a full answer to the above question for profinite reduced special groups. They show that in fact every profinite reduced special group can be realized as the special group of some (necessarily formally real and Pythagorean) field.