Jordan algebras, exceptional groups, and Bhargava composition (Q2456209)

M. Bhargava showed that Gauss's composition law of binary quadratic forms is one case in a series of more examples of a similar kind, which he referred as \textit{higher composition laws}. Certain integral linear groups \(G_\mathbb{Z}\) and modules \(V_\mathbb{Z}\) appear here such that the \(G_\mathbb{Z}\)-orbits in \(V_\mathbb{Z}\) can be described in terms of ideal classes of rings of integers in number fields. In the paper under review the author observes that these integral linear groups and modules appear in an integral version of the Freudenthal construction. He studies the structure of the orbits in the case of the Jordan cubic algebras of Hermitian matrices over split composition algebras. The approach is algorithmic and the Reduction Lemma (lemma 35) plays a central role. Its reduction procedure is somewhat similar to that of the matrices with integer entries yielding to the Smith normal form.