Infinite dimensional quadratic forms admitting composition (Q4372302)

Let \(A\) be a nonassociative algebra over a field \(K.\) Assume that \(A\) is endowed with a nondegenerate quadratic form \(q\) such that \(q(xy) = q(x)q(y)\) for any \(x, y \in A.\) In this case \(A\) is said to be a \textit{composition algebra} relative to \(q.\) A well-known result of \textit{I. Kaplansky} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 4, 956-960 (1953; Zbl 0052.11004)] asserts that if \(A\) is a composition algebra with unit element \(e,\) then either (i) \(K\) has characteristic \(2\), \(q(A, A) = 0\) and \(A\) is a purely inseparable field extension of \(K\) with \(x^2 = q(x)e\) for any \(x\in A,\) or (ii) \(q\) is strictly nondegenerate and \(A\) is a composition algebra of dimension 1, 2, 4 or 8 completely described in terms of the classical Cayley-Dickson process. This paper is devoted to studying what happens if only the existence of an element \(e\) in the composition algebra with the left multiplication operator \(L_e\) bijective is assumed. Because the existence of one-sided division infinite-dimensional absolutely valued algebras previously has been proved by \textit{A. Rodríguez Palacios} [Publ. Mat., Barc. 36, No. 2B, 925-954 (1992; Zbl 0797.46040)] and the reviewer [Publ. Mat., Barc. 36, No. 2A, 485-488 (1992; Zbl 0783.17001)], we cannot hope in characteristic \(\neq 2\) to have the finite dimension of all composition algebra with an element \(e\) with \(L_e\) bijective. In this paper examples are given of composition algebras with left unit of arbitrary infinite dimension. The main theorem asserts that for a composition algebra \(A\) with an element \(e\) such that \(L_e\) is a bijection, one of the following possibilities holds: (1) the ground field has characteristic \(2\) and \(A\) is as in (i) of Kaplansky's theorem; (2) \(A\) has infinite dimension; (3) \(A\) has dimension 1, 2, 4 or 8.