Isomorphic pairs of quadratic forms (Q402444)

Let \(k\) be a field of characteristic \(\neq2\), let \(V\) be a \(k\)-vector space of finite dimension \(n\). Consider two pairs \((f_1,g_1)\), \((f_2, g_2)\) of quadratic forms on \(V\). If they are isomorphic over \(k\), then clearly \(f_1+tg_1\) is isomorphic to \(f_2+ tg_2\) over the rational function field \(k(t)\). Using Amer's theorem on pairs, the author shows that the converse holds provided that \(f_1+ tg_1\) is anisotropic over \(k(t)\) (Prop. 1) or that \(\text{det}(f_1+tg_1)\) is a squarefree polynomial of degree \(\geq n-1\) (Prop. 4). Examples show that some further conditions on \(f_1+tg_1\) are necessary for the converse. In addition, the paper contains several related results and two open conjectures.