A note on the Witt group of \(\mathbb P^n\) (Q5947803)

The author gives a new proof of a classical result of Arason that the Witt group of symmetric bilinear forms of the projective \(n\)-space \(\mathbb P^n_k\) of a field \(k\), \(\text{char}(k) \neq 2\), is isomorphic to the Witt group of \(k\) [cf. \textit{J. K. Arason}, Math. Ann. 253, 205-212 (1980; Zbl 0431.10011)]. The proof uses Balmer's Witt group theory of triangulated categories [\textit{P. Balmer}, \(K\)-Theory 19, No. 4, 311-363 (2000; Zbl 0953.18003)] as well as the description of the bounded derived category \(D^b(\mathbb P^n_k)\) of the category of locally free modules over \(\mathbb P^n_k\) due to Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand [\textit{J. N. Bernstein, I. M. Gelfand} and \textit{S. I. Gelfand}, Funkts. Anal. Prilozh. 12, No. 3, 66-67 (1978; Zbl 0402.14005)]. The method works equally well for skew-symmetric forms and yields the vanishing of the corresponding Witt group for \(\mathbb P^n_k\).