Essential dimension of spinor and Clifford groups (Q2509407)

Let \(F\) be a field. Consider a functor \(\mathcal{F}: \mathit{Fields}/F\to \text\textsl{Sets}\) from the category of field extensions over \(F\) to that of sets. Now for any extension \(E/F\) and any \(\alpha\in \mathcal{F}(E)\) the essential dimension \(\text{ed}^{\mathcal{F}}(\alpha)\) is defined to be the least possible transcendence degree of fields \(K/F\) inside \(E\) for which \(\alpha\) is in the image \(\mathcal{F}(K)\to \mathcal{F}(E)\), and the essential dimension \(\text{ed}(\mathcal{F})\) of the functor \(\mathcal{F}\) is the supremum of all \(\text{ed}^{\mathcal{F}}(\alpha)\) for all such \(E\) and \(\alpha\). In some sense, the essential dimension counts the number of algebraically independent variables needed to parametrize \(\mathcal{F}\). The essential \(p\)-dimension \(\text{ed}^{\mathcal{F}}_p(\alpha)\) for a prime \(p\) is the minimum over all \(\text{ed}^{\mathcal{F}}(\alpha_{E'})\) where \(E'/E\) runs over all finite extension of \(E\) of degree prime to \(p\), and the essential \(p\)-dimension \(\text{ed}_p(\mathcal{F})\) is again the supremum over all \(\text{ed}^{\mathcal{F}}_p(\alpha)\) as before. Clearly, \(\text{ed}(\mathcal{F})\geq \text{ed}_p(\mathcal{F})\). Over the last years, there has been a rapid growth of literature pertaining to questions regarding the essential dimension of various algebraic objects. In the present paper, the authors study essential dimensions of spinor and Clifford groups and give some nice applications in the algebraic theory of quadratic forms. If \(G\) denotes an algebraic group scheme over \(F\), the essential (\(p\)-)dimension \(\text{ed}(G)\) resp. \(\text{ed}_p(G)\) is defined to be that of the functor that takes an extension \(E/F\) to \(H^1_{\text{ét}}(E,G)\), the set of isomorphism classes of principal homogeneous \(G\)-torsors. The authors complete the determination of the essential dimension in the case of \(\mathbf{Spin}_n\) that has been previously studied by the second author [in: Quadratic forms -- algebra, arithmetic, and geometry. Chile, 2007. Baeza, Ricardo (ed.) et al., Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) Contemporary Mathematics 493, 299--325 (2009; Zbl 1188.14006)], \textit{S. Garibaldi} [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 937, 81 p. (2009; Zbl 1191.11009)] and \textit{P. Brosnan} et al. [Ann. Math. (2) 171, No. 1, 533--544 (2010; Zbl 1252.11034)]. The authors show that in the last remaining case \(n=2^mk\geq 16\) with \(m\geq 2\) and \(2\) not dividing \(k\), one has \(\text{ed}(\mathbf{Spin}_n)=\text{ed}_2(\text\textbf{Spin}_n)= 2^{(n-2)/2}+2^m-n(n-2)/2\). Consider a field \(F\) of characteristic not \(2\) and the \(m\)-th power \(I^mF\) of the fundamental ideal \(IF\) of Witt classes of even-dimensional quadratic forms in the Witt ring \(WF\). \(I^mF\) is additively generated by the classes of so-called \(m\)-fold Pfister forms. The Pfister number \(\text{Pf}(m,n)\) measures how many \(m\)-folds are generally needed to express the class of any form of dimension \(n\) in \(I^mF\) for any \(F\) (see Brosnan et al. [loc. cit.]). As an application of the above result, it follows that \(\text{Pf}(3,n)\) is at least exponential in \(n\). As a further application, the authors determine all pairs \((n,b)\) (except perhaps two such pairs) such that for any \(F\) any form in \(I^3F\) of dimension \(n\) contains a subform of trivial discriminant of dimension \(b\). This result is then further used to compute the essential dimension of the split even Clifford group \({\boldsymbol\Gamma}_n^+\) which translates into the essential dimension of the functor given by \(n\)-dimensional quadratic forms whose discriminant and Clifford invariant are trivial.