Cohomological invariants of quaternionic skew-hermitian forms (Q884665)

Let \(k\) be a field of characteristic different from \(2\), let \(I^nk\) be the \(n\)th power of the fundamental ideal of classes of even-dimensional quadratic forms in the Witt ring \(Wk\) of \(k\), and denote by \(H^n(k,\mu_2)\) the \(n\)th Galois cohomology group with mod \(2\) coefficients. The Milnor conjecture, as proved by Voevodsky, implies that there are well-defined group homomorphisms \(e_n:I^nk\to H^n(k,\mu_2)\), \(n\geq 1\), mapping an \(n\)-fold Pfister form \(\langle 1,-a_1\rangle \otimes\cdots\otimes \langle 1,-a_n\rangle\) to the \(n\)-fold cup product \((a_1)\cup\cdots\cup(a_n)\), and the kernel of \(e_n\) is \(I^{n+1}k\). Together with \(e_0(q)=\dim q\bmod 2\in {\mathbb Z}/2{\mathbb Z}\), these invariants \(e_n\) form a complete set of invariants of quadratic forms in the sense that a form \(q\) over \(k\) is hyperbolic iff \(e_n(q)=0\) for all \(n\geq 0\) The author's aim in the present article is to get an analogous complete set of cohomological invariants for skew-hermitian forms over a quaternion \(k\)-algebra \(Q\) with canonical involution \(\gamma\). To achieve this, the basic idea is roughly as follows. If \(Q\) is split, then by Morita equivalence, any skew-hermitian form over \((Q,\gamma)\) of rank \(n\) corresponds to a \(2n\)-dimensional quadratic form \(q_h\) over \(k\) such that \(h\) is isometric (resp. Witt equivalent) to another skew-hermitian form \(h'\) iff \(q_h\) is isometric (resp. Witt equivalent) to \(q_{h'}\). Since \(Q\) is split over \(k(Q)\), the function field of the Severi-Brauer variety of \(Q\) (which is nothing but the function field of a certain conic), one thus can attach to any skew-hermitian form a quadratic form \(q_{h_{k(Q)}}\) over \(k(Q)\). Using known facts concerning unramified cohomology for the function field of a conic, the author then shows that for \(d\geq 1\), the residue map in cohomology yields a group isomorphism \[ \text{Res}_{k(Q)/k}: H^d(k,{\mathbb Q}/{\mathbb Z}(d-1))/[Q]\cup H^{d-2}(k,\mu_2)\to H^d_{nr}(k(Q),{\mathbb Q}/{\mathbb Z}(d-1)) \] (where in case \(d=1\), \([Q]\cup H^{d-2}(k,\mu_2)\) is considered to be trivial). He then shows that for any skew-hermitian form \(h\) over \((Q,\gamma)\), there exists a unique \(e_{d,Q}(h)\in H^d(k,\mu_4^{\otimes d})/[Q]\cup H^{d-2}(k,\mu_2)\) for \(d\geq 2\) (resp. a unique \(e_{1,Q}(h)\in H^d(k,{\mathbb Z}/2{\mathbb Z})\) for \(d=1\)) such that \(\text{Res}_{k(Q)/k}(e_{d,Q}(h))=e_d(q_{h_{k(Q)}})\). Together with \(e_{0,Q}(h)=\dim q_{h_{k(Q)}}\bmod 4\in {\mathbb Z}/4{\mathbb Z}\), this now yields a complete set of cohomological invariants, i.e., \(h\) is hyperbolic iff \(e_{n,Q}(h)=0\) for all \(n\geq 0\). The author also shows that the invariants \(e_{n,Q}\) for \(1\leq n\leq 3\) correspond to analogues of the discriminant \((n=1)\), the Clifford invariant (\(n=2\)), and the Rost invariant (\(n=3\)) as previously defined for hermitian forms. As an application, it is shown that over fields of \(2\)-cohomological dimension at most \(3\), skew-hermitian forms over quaternion algebras with canonical involution are classified by their rank, discriminant, Clifford invariant and Rost invariant.