Related papers: Hamlet and Pfister forms (A tragedy in four acts)

Let $q$ be a unimodular quadratic form over a field $K$. Pfister's famous local--global principle asserts that $q$ represents a torsion class in the Witt group of $K$ if and only if it has signature $0$, and that in this case, the order of…

In 1888, Hilbert proved that every non-negative quartic form f=f(x,y,z) with real coefficients is a sum of three squares of quadratic forms. His proof was ahead of its time and used advanced methods from topology and algebraic geometry. Up…

The point-line geometry known as a \textit{partial quadrangle} (introduced by Cameron in 1975) has the property that for every point/line non-incident pair $(P,\ell)$, there is at most one line through $P$ concurrent with $\ell$. So in…

Let $\psi$ and $F$ be positive definite forms with integral coefficients of equal degree. Using the circle method, we establish an asymptotic formula for the number of identical representations of $\psi$ by $F$, provided $\psi$ is…

In 1888, Hilbert proved that every nonnegative quartic form $f=f(x,y,z)$ with real coefficients is a sum of three squares of quadratic forms. His proof was ahead of its time and used advanced methods from topology and algebraic geometry. In…

We study domination of quadratic forms in the abstract setting of ordered Hilbert spaces. Our main result gives a characterization in terms of the associated forms. This generalizes and unifies various earlier works. Along the way we…

We examine quadratic surfaces in 3-space that are tangent to nine given figures. These figures can be points, lines, planes or quadrics. The numbers of tangent quadrics were determined by Hermann Schubert in 1879. We study the associated…

Quaternions, discovered by Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the 19th century, are a significant extension of complex numbers and a profound tool for understanding three-dimensional rotations. This work explores the quaternion's history,…

Exactly 170 years ago, the construction of the real quaternion algebra by William Hamilton was announced in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. It became the first example of non-commutative division rings and a major turning point…

Using Hecke characters, we construct two infinite families of newforms with complex multiplication, one by $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-3})$ and the other by $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-2})$. The values of the $p$-th Fourier coefficients of all the forms in…

We study singularities obtained by the contraction of the maximal divisor in compact (non kaehlerian) surfaces which contain global spherical shells. These singularities are of genus 1 or 2, may be Q-Gorenstein, numerically Gorenstein or…

Inspired by the relation between the algebra of complex numbers and plane geometry, William Rowan Hamilton sought an algebra of triples for application to three dimensional geometry. Unable to multiply and divide triples, he invented a…

The isotropy of multiples of Pfister forms is studied. In particular, an improved lower bound on the value of their first Witt index is obtained. This result and certain of its corollaries are applied to the study of the weak isotropy index…

Izhboldin and Karpenko proved in 2000 that any quadratic form of dimension 8 with trivial discriminant and Clifford algebra of index 4 is isometric to the transfer, with respect to some quadratic \'etale extension, of a quadratic form…

We settle an old question about the existence of certain "sums-of-squares" formulas over a field F (which are the simplest examples of composition formulas for quadratic forms). A classical theorem says that if such a formula exists over a…

Given a field $F$ of positive characteristic $p$, $\theta \in H_p^{n-1}(F)$ and $\beta,\gamma \in F^\times$, we prove that if the symbols $\theta \wedge \frac{d \beta}{\beta}$ and $\theta \wedge \frac{d \gamma}{\gamma}$ in $H_p^n(F)$ share…

The law of centripetal force governing the motion of celestial bodies in eccentric conic sections, has been established and thoroughly investigated by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica. Yet its profound implications on the…

Representations of primes by simple quadratic forms, such as $\pm a^2\pm qb^2$, is a subject that goes back to Fermat, Lagrange, Legendre, Euler, Gauss and many others. We are interested in a comprehensive list of such results, for $q\le…

We use the fact that a projective half-spin representation of $Spin_{12}$ has an open orbit to generalize Pfister's result on quadratic forms of dimension 12 in $I^3$ to orthogonal involutions.

We study the subfields of quaternion algebras that are quadratic extensions of their center in characteristic 2. We provide examples of the following: two non-isomorphic quaternion algebras that share all their quadratic subfields, two…