Hasse principles for quadratic forms over function fields (Q6038525)

Throughout, all fields are assumed to have characteristic not \(2\). Let \(K\) be a field and let \(V\) be a set of valuations on \(K\), and denote by \(K_v\) the completion of \(K\) at \(v\in V\). One says that the Hasse principle for isotropy (resp. isometry) of quadratic forms over \(K\) holds with respect to \(V\) if a quadratic form \(q\) defined over \(K\) is isotropic over \(K\) iff it is isotropic over every \(K_v\), \(v\in V\) (resp. two quadratic forms \(q_1\), \(q_2\) defined over \(K\) are isometric iff they are so over every \(K_v\), \(v\in V\)). Hasse principles in this context (or counterexamples to them) have been studied extensively, the most famous result being the original Hasse-Minkowski theorem that states that both these Hasse principles hold over global fields with respect to the set of all non-trivial valuations. The main purpose of the present paper is the construction of counterexamples to the Hasse principle for isotropy for certain function fields and certain sets of valuations. Consider first the case where \(K/k\) is a field extension of transcendence degree \(r\geq 1\). If \(K/k\) is purely transcendental with \(r=1\), then the Hasse principle for isometry holds for the set \(V_{K/k}\) of discrete valuations that are trivial on \(k\). This follows from Milnor's exact sequence relating the Witt groups of \(k\) and its finite extensions to that of \(k(t)\). However, depending on \(k\), the Hasse principle for isotropy need not hold in that case. To explain the first main result of the present paper, recall that the \(u\)-invariant of a field \(K\) is defined to be the supremum of the dimensions of anisotropic quadratic forms over \(K\). Furthermore, \(K\) is said to satisfy property \(\mathcal{ A}_i(2)\) if any system of \(s\) quadratic forms over \(K\) in \(n > s \cdot 2^i\) common variables has a non-trivial simultaneous zero in an extension field of \(K\) of odd degree. Any field \(K\) with property \(\mathcal{ A}_i(2)\) will have \(u(K)\leq 2^i\). For example, any \(C_i\) field has property \(\mathcal{ A}_i(2)\). The author shows the following (Theorem 2.3): Let \(\ell\) be a field that satisfies \(\mathcal{ A}_i(2)\) and such that \(u(\ell)=2^i\). Let \(L_r=\ell(x_1,\ldots,x_r)\) be the rational function field in \(r\) variables over \(\ell\) and \(V_r\) be the set of valuations on \(L_r\) that are trivial on \(L_{r-1}\). Then for any \(r\geq 2\) and \(m\neq 3\) with \(2^{i+r-1}<m\leq 2^{i+r}\), there exists a quadratic form over \(L_r\) for which the Hasse principle for isotropy fails with respect to \(V_r\). In [``Failure of the local-global principle for isotropy of quadratic forms over function fields'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1709.03707}], \textit{A. Auel} and \textit{V. Suresh} showed that if \(K\) is any finitely generated field extension of transcendence degree \(r\geq 2\) over an algebraically closed field \(k\) that in turn contains a global field, then there is a quadratic form over \(K\) of dimension \(2^r\) for which the Hasse principle for isotropy with respect to the set of all discrete valuations on \(K\) fails. The second main result in the present paper (Theorem 3.4) provides counterexamples of smaller dimension when restricting the set of valuations somewhat. More precisely, under the same assumptions on \(K/k\), consider now any non-empty set \(V\) of non-trivial divisorial discrete valuations on \(K\) that satisfies the finite support property (the latter means that for any \(a\in K^\times\), the set \(\{ v\in V\,|\,v(a)\neq 0\}\) is finite). Then for any \(m\neq 3\) satisfying \(2^{r-1}<m\leq 2^{r}\), there exists a quadratic form over \(K\) for which the Hasse principle for isotropy fails with respect to \(V\). The counterexamples that the author constructs are quite explicit and make use of the theory of Pfister forms and Pfister neighbors. The proof of the second main result employs methods from Galois and unramified cohomology.