Characterization of minimal Pfister neighbors via Rost projectors (Q5939905)

In this paper, the author discusses the use of Rost correspondence to characterize a smooth projective quadric over a field \(F\) of characteristic different from \(2\). A Pfister neighbor of dimension \(2^n+1\) with \(n\geq 1\) is called a minimal Pfister neighbor, and a Rost correspondence on a smooth \(n\)-dimensional projective quadric \(X\) over \(F\) is a cycle \(\rho \in \text{CH}^n(X\times X)\) such that over the algebraic closure \(\overline F\) of \(F\), it is equal to the cycle \(l_0\times 1 + 1\times l_0\), where \(\text{CH}^n(\cdot)\) is the Chow group of \(n\)-codimensional cycles, \(l_0\) is the class of a rational point in the Chow group of \(0\)-dimensional cycles \(\text{CH}^n(X\times_F \overline{F})\) and \(1\) is the class \([X]\in \text{CH}^0(X)\). The author conjectures that if a projective quadric possesses a Rost correspondence then it is given by a minimal Pfister neighbor. An important result of this paper is that this conjecture is true for \(7\)-dimensional projective quadrics. The author gives a consequence about the isotropy of what is called an essential quadratic form, i.e. an anisotropic quadratic form which is not a Pfister neighbor and whose even Clifford algebra is of Schur index at least \(4\). He proves that such a quadratic form becomes isotropic over the function field of the projective quadric of another anisotropic \(9\)-dimensional quadratic form if and only if the two quadratic forms are similar. This result is considered as the initial step in Izhboldin's construction of a field of characteristic not \(2\) with \(u\)-invariant \(9\) [Ann. Math. (2) 154, 529-587 (2001; Zbl 0998.11015)]. The proof on essential forms uses: descriptions of cycles \(\rho \in \text{CH}^n(X\times X)\) after extension to \(\overline F\) where \(X\) is a projective quadric of odd dimension \(n\leq 7\); results of A. Vishik and O. T. Izhboldin about the motivic equivalence of odd-dimensional projective quadrics and another result of O. T. Izhboldin, which asserts that if an anisotropic quadratic form \(\phi\) of dimension \(2^n+1\) (with \(n\geq 1\)) becomes isotropic over the function field of another anisotropic quadratic form \(\psi\) of dimension \(\geq \dim \phi\), then \(\psi\) is also isotropic over the function field of the quadric given by \(\phi\).