Signatures of Hermitian forms and ``prime ideals'' of Witt groups (Q887312)

Let \((A,\sigma)\) be an algebra with involution over a formally real field \(F\). In this important paper, the authors continue to develop their theory of signatures of hermitian forms over \((A,\sigma)\). Let \(P\) be an ordering on \(F\). In [Ann. Math. (2) 147, No. 3, 651--693 (1998; Zbl 0909.20029)], \textit{E. Bayer-Fluckiger} and \textit{R. Parimala} introduced the notion of the signature \(\mathrm{sign}_Ph\) of a hermitian form \(h\) with respect to \(P\), which is, in a certain sense, a relative invariant because their definition requires a `reference form', more precisely, the unit form \(\langle 1\rangle_\sigma\). However, as was noticed by the present authors in [Math.\ Ann.\ 358, No.\ 3-4, 925-947 (2014; Zbl 1294.11045)], this unit form has signature \(0\) whenever the involution \(\sigma\) becomes hyperbolic over the real closure \(F_P\) at \(P\), in which case choosing this form as reference form will not yield any meaningful information on the signature of arbitrary forms. To remedy this problem, the authors show in [\textit{loc. cit.}] that the definition can be made meaningful in general if one chooses a suitable tuple \(H\) of reference forms instead, giving rise to a refined notion of \(H\)-signature \(\mathrm{sign}_P^Hh\). These \(H\)-signatures have various nice and desirable properties, e.g., both Pfister's local-global principle and Knebusch's trace formula hold for \(H\)-signatures. In the present paper, the authors show that this tuple \(H\) can be replaced by just one reference form that has non-zero \(H\)-signature at all relevant orderings on \(F\). They show furthermore that this \(H\)-signature satisfies another important and desirable property, namely, that it is invariant under Morita equivalence of \(F\)-algebras with involution. A further nice result concerns a certain notion of `prime ideal' in the Witt group \(W(A,\sigma)\). If \(M\) is a module over a commutative ring \(R\), \(N\) is a submodule of \(M\) and \(I\) is an ideal in \(R\), then the authors call the pair \((I,N)\) an m-ideal if \(IM\subseteq N\). \((I,N)\) is called prime if \(I\) is a prime ideal in \(R\), \(N\neq M\), and we have that \(rm\in N\) for \(r\in R\), \(m\in M\) implies \(r\in I\) or \(m\in N\). In the context of this paper, \(M=W(A,\sigma)\) is considered as a module over \(R=WF\), the Witt ring of \(F\). It is shown that the prime \(m\)-ideals of \(W(A,\sigma)\) allow a classification analogous to the well-known classification of prime ideals in the Witt ring due to \textit{D. K. Harrison} [Witt rings. Lecture notes, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky (1970)] and \textit{F. Lorenz} and \textit{J. Leicht} [Invent. Math. 10, 82--88 (1970; Zbl 0227.13015)]. As a consequence, one obtains a canonical correspondence between \(H\)-signatures and a natural set of morphisms from \(W(A,\sigma)\) to \(\mathbb{Z}\).