Square-central elements and standard generators for biquaternion algebras. (Q375789)

Let \(F\) be a field of characteristic different from \(2\). An element \(x\) of an algebra \(A\) over \(F\) is said to be square-central (or \(2\)-central), if \(x^2\in F^*\) and \(x\not\in F\). By a standard quadruple of generators of a biquaternion algebra, we mean a set consisting of two commuting pairs of anticommuting elements \(x_1,y_1\) and \(x_2,y_2\). The paper under review shows that if \(A\) is a biquaternion algebra and \(S_1\), \(S_2\) are standard quadruples of generators of \(A\), then \(S_1\) and \(S_2\) are connected by a chain of at most \(10\) steps of the form \((x_1,y_1,x_2,y_2)\to (x_1,uy_1,x_2,uy_2)\), and by a chain of at most \(135\) steps in each of which only one generator is being changed. The proof of this result is based on an interesting analysis of the set \(\chi\) of square-central elements in a quaternion \(F\)-algebra \(B\) modulo \(F^*\). The authors consider two graph structures on \(\chi\): \(\chi^+\), where an edge connects two elements if they commute, and \(\chi^-\), where elements are connected if they anticommute. Specifically, they show that \(\chi^+\) is of diameter \(2\), which enables them to prove that the graph of elementary Abelian maximal subfields of \(B\), where two subfields are neighbours, if they intersect nontrivially, is of diameter at most \(3\). -- The paper concludes with a classification of the maximal subspaces of square central elements in a biquaternion algebra, which follows from the structure of Clifford algebras of quadratic forms.