English

Splitting of quaternions and octonions over purely inseparable extensions in characteristic 2

Rings and Algebras 2020-12-18 v1 Commutative Algebra Number Theory

Abstract

We give examples of quaternion and octonion division algebras over a field FF of characteristic 22 that split over a purely inseparable extension EE of FF of degree 4\geq 4 but that do not split over any subextension of FF inside EE of lower exponent, or, in the case of octonions, over any simple subextension of FF inside EE. Thus, we get a negative answer to a question posed by Bernhard M\"uhlherr and Richard Weiss. We study this question in terms of the isotropy behaviour of the associated norm forms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.09644,
  title  = {Splitting of quaternions and octonions over purely inseparable extensions in characteristic 2},
  author = {Detlev W. Hoffmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.09644},
  year   = {2020}
}