Quadratic reciprocity laws (Q2553638)

Quadratic reciprocity laws for the rationals and rational function fields are proved. An elementary proof for Hilbert's reciprocity law is given. This proof proceeds by reduction to the rationals (via the trace-homomorphism for the Witt group) and uses a local result due to \textit{J. Milnor} [Invent. Math. 8, 83--97 (1969; Zbl 0177.05204)]. By generalizing Milnor's theorem slightly, Hilbert's reciprocity law is extended to certain algebraic function fields. The results of this paper are greatly extended in [\textit{W.-D. Geye}, \textit{G. Harder}, \textit{M. Knebusch} and \textit{W. Scharlau}, Invent. Math. 11, 319--328 (1970; Zbl 0203.53401); \textit{M. Knebusch} and \textit{W. Scharlau}, Math. Z. 121, 346--368 (1971; Zbl 0216.04602)].