No label defined (Q4673871)

Let \(K\) be a field, \(V\) a finite dimensional \(K\)-vector space and \(f_1,f_2\) be bilinear forms on \(V\), either both symmetric or both alternating. The triple \(F=(V,f_1,f_2)\) is said to be indecomposable if \(V\) cannot be written as \(U+U^\perp\) for a nonzero proper subspace \(U\) of \(V\), where \(U^\perp =\{ x\in V: f_1(x,U)=f_2(x,U)=0\}\). The study of the classification of such indecomposable modules goes all the way back to Weierstrass, Kronecker, Dickson etc. The most general classification in the symmetric case is due to Waterhouse, and in the alternating case to R.~Scharlau. In the present note, the authors give a unified proof of the two cases based on the theory of Kronecker modules, an approach already used by Scharlau. Recall that a Kronecker module over \(K\) is an ordered quadruple \(\Phi = (V,W;\varphi_1,\varphi_2)\) of \(K\)-vector spaces \(V,W\) and linear maps \(\varphi_i:V\to W\). The basic idea is to associate to a triple \(F=(V,f_1,f_2)\) as above the Kronecker module \(\Phi (F)=(V,V^*;f_1^*,f_2^*)\) where \(f_i^*\) is the map sending \(y\in V\) to \(f_i(\,.\,,y):V\to K:x\mapsto f_i(x,y)\). Using the classification of indecomposable Kronecker modules (due to Dieudonné), the authors derive the structure of \(\Phi (F)\) for indecomposable \(F\) and thus arrive at an explicit description of the triple \(F=(V,f_1,f_2)\) for a suitable basis of \(V\).