2-universal Hermitian lattices over imaginary quadratic fields (Q5962079)

Let \(m\) be a positive square free integer and let \({\mathcal O}\) be the ring of algebraic integers in \({\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{-m})\). The authors classify all ternary and quaternary positive definite Hermitian \({\mathcal O}\)-lattices that are \(2\)-universal, i.e., that represent all binary positive definite Hermitian \({\mathcal O}\)-lattices. The only ternary such lattices are the lattices \(\langle 1,1,1\rangle\) for \(m\in\{ 1,3,7\}\) and the lattice \(\langle 1,1,2\rangle\) for \(m=3\). There are exactly three quaternary \(2\)-universal such lattices that do not contain one of the above ternary ones as sublattice, one each for \(m=1\), \(m=2\), and \(m=11\). Such lattices can be constructed using the escalation method. For a binary lattice \(\ell\) and a minimal generating set \(G\) of \(\ell\) let \(S(G)\) be the maximum norm of all vectors in \(G\), and let \(S(\ell)\) be the minimum of all the values \(S(G)\) as \(G\) runs over all minimal generating sets. Now given a lattice \(L\), consider all binary lattices \(\ell\) that are not represented by \(L\) and let \(T(L)\) (the truant of \(L\)) be the minimum of the values \(S(\ell)\) for all such \(\ell\). An escalation of \(L\) is a lattice generated by \(L\) and a vector of norm \(T(L)\). An escalation lattice is obtained by a succession of escalations starting with the rank \(0\) lattice. To show that the lattices in the above lists are indeed \(2\)-universal, one uses facts about local representations at the primes spots of \({\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{-m})\).