Motivic equivalence and similarity of quadratic forms (Q273861)

In this paper, the author considers the question of when the motivic equivalence of two quadratic forms implies that they are similar. In general, similarity implies motivic equivalence, but the converse is not true. It was also shown in [\textit{O. T. Izhboldin}, Manuscr. Math. 102, No. 1, 41--52 (2000; Zbl 0972.11019)] that motivic equivalence implies similarity if the forms are of odd dimension, hence this paper is mainly concerned with even dimensional forms. Rather than working with motives directly, the results use the following criterium, due to \textit{A.~Vishik} [Lect. Notes Math. 1835, 25--101 (2004; Zbl 1047.11033)]; two forms over a field \(F\) of the same dimension are motivically equivalent if and only if they have the same Witt index over every field extension \(E/F\). Using this criterion, the author studies fields that satisfy a property known as \textit{effective diagonalisation} (see [\textit{R.~Ware}, Nagoya Math. J. 61, 117--125 (1976; Zbl 0311.10028)]). He shows that if two quadratic forms over an ED-field \(F\) are motivically equivalent then there exists an \(x\in F^\times\) such that \(\varphi\perp -x\psi\in I^3_tF\), where \(I^3_tF\) is the torsion part of the third power of the fundamental ideal. In particular, if \(F\) is an ED-field with \(I^3_tF=0\), then motivic equivalence is equivalent to similarity. Finally, the author gives counter-examples to this equivalence for several types of field under only slightly weaker conditions than ED or \(I^3_tF=0\).