On the non-neutral component of outer forms of the orthogonal group
Let \(R\) be a semilocal commutative ring, and suppose throughout that \(2\) is invertible in \(R\). If \(A\) is an Azumaya algebra over \(R\) and \(\sigma\) is an \(R\)-linear involution of \(A\), then it is possible to define both \(\mathrm{O}(A, \sigma)\) -- the group of elements \(a \in A\) such that \(a^\sigma a = 1\) -- and \(\mathrm{SO}(A, \sigma)\), which is the kernel of the reduced norm map from \(O(A, \sigma)\) to the group \(\mu_2(R)\) of square-roots of \(1\) in \(R\). It should be noted that \(\mu_2(R) = \{-1, 1\}\) if \(R\) is connected. This short paper establishes two properties of \(\mathrm{O}(A, \sigma)\) and \(\mathrm{SO}(A, \sigma)\). Theorem 1 is that \(\mathrm{O}(A, \sigma)\) contains elements that have reduced norm \(-1\) if and only if the Brauer class of \(A\) is trivial. Theorem 2, which is used in proving Theorem 1, is that the natural map \(\mathrm{SO}(A, \sigma) \to \prod_{\mathfrak m} SO(A/\mathfrak m A, \sigma)\) is surjective, where \(\mathfrak m\) runs over the maximal ideals of \(R\). The first main theorem generalizes a result that is already known when \(R\) is a field, and the second generalizes a result of \textit{M. Knebusch}'s Satz 0.4, Lemma 3.1 of [Math. Z. 108, 255--268 (1969; Zbl 0188.35502)] in which \(A\) is assumed to be a matrix algebra. The proofs of the theorems rely on elements called \textit{reflections} in unitary groups (of which the orthogonal groups are a special case). Reflections were studied in much greater generality by the same author in [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 219, No. 12, 5673--5696 (2015; Zbl 1356.11019)] (generalizing constructions of [\textit{H. Reiter}, J. Algebra 35, 483--499 (1975; Zbl 0306.16017)]), and this paper is in part a pleasant working-out of that theory in a special case. The paper also contains some examples to show that the ``if direction of Theorem 1 fails in general if \(R\) is not assumed to be semilocal, and that Theorem 2 fails for the orthogonal, as distinct from the special-orthogonal, group. This contrasts with the case proved by Knebusch. The author conjectures that if \(R\) is a commutative ring (no longer assumed semilocal) such that \(2\) is invertible in \(R\), then \(O(A,\sigma)\) can contain elements of reduced norm \(-1\) only if \(A\) has trivial Brauer class.
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