An invariant for quadratic forms valued in Galois rings of characteristic 4 (Q2467326)

An invariant \(I\) for quadratic forms over certain rings is produced. One may define the family of rings to work with - Galois rings of characteristic \(4\) -- as factor-rings \[ \text{GR}(q^{2},2^{2})=\mathbb{Z}[X]/( p(X),4) , \] where \(p(X)\) is a monic polynomial such that \(\text{GR}(q,2)=\mathbb{Z}[X]/( p(X),2) \) is a Galois field of \(q\) elements. Similarly defined rings \(\text{GR}(q^{n}, p^{n})\) are important in coding theory and cryptography. Nonsingular quadratic forms over \(\text{GR}(q^{2},2^{2})\) are classified by the invariant \(I\) and the type of associated bilinear form. The invariant \(I\) is an unique up to a norming condition \(I(1)=1\) injective additive homomorphism with respect to orthogonal sum of quadratic modules. It admits values in the additive group \(\text{GR}(q^{3},2^{3})/4P\), where \(P\) is a subgroup of \(\text{GR}(q^{3},2^{3})\) generated by all \(x^{2}+x\).