Hasse principle for Witt groups of function fields with special reference to elliptic curves. (Appendix by J.-L. Colliot-Thélène) (Q674635)

The main result describes the obstruction to the weak Hasse principle for the Witt group of the function field of a curve in terms of the 2-torsion of the Tate-Shafarevich group of the Jacobian of the curve. For a smooth, projective, geometrically integral curve \(X\) over a global field \(k\) with nonempty \(X(k)\) it is proved that the kernel of the map \[ h:W(k(X)) \to \prod_v W(k_v(X)) \] is isomorphic to the 2-torsion subgroup of the Tate-Shafarevich group of the Jacobian of \(X.\) Here \(v\) runs through all places of \(k\) and \(k_v\) is the completion of \(k\) at \(v.\) This result is used to give a more explicit description of the obstruction to the Hasse principle in the case of the function field of an elliptic curve. The elements in the kernel of \(h\) in this case are shown to be the norm forms of quaternion algebras unramified on the curve. The relation with some other Hasse principles (for isotropicity of totally indefinite quadratic forms, and for hyperbolicity of torsion forms) is studied, and for this a result proved in an appendix by J.-L. Colliot-Thélène is used.