Holes in I^n

dc.creatorKarpenko, Nikita A.
dc.date2003-12-15
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T05:03:54Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T05:03:54Z
dc.descriptionLet F be an arbitrary field of characteristic not 2. We write W(F) for the Witt ring of F, consisting of the isomorphism classes of all anisotropic quadratic forms over F. For any element x of W(F), dimension dim x is defined as the dimension of a quadratic form representing x. The elements of all even dimensions form an ideal denoted I(F). The filtration of the ring W(F) by the powers I(F)^n of this ideal plays a fundamental role in the algebraic theory of quadratic forms. The Milnor conjectures, recently proved by Voevodsky and Orlov-Vishik-Voevodsky, describe the successive quotients I(F)^n/I(F)^{n+1} of this filtration, identifying them with Galois cohomology groups and with the Milnor K-groups modulo 2 of the field F. In the present article we give a complete answer to a different old-standing question concerning I(F)^n, asking about the possible values of dim x for x in I(F)^n. More precisely, for any positive integer n, we prove that the set dim I^n of all dim x for all x in I(F)^n and all F consisists of 2^{n+1}-2^i, i=1,2,...,n+1 together with all even integers greater or equal to 2^{n+1}. Previously available partial informations on dim I^n include the classical Arason-Pfister theorem, saying that no integer between 0 and 2^n lies in dim I^n, as well as a recent Vishik's theorem, saying the same on the integers between 2^n and 2^n+2^{n-1} (the case n=3 is due to Pfister, n=4 to Hoffmann). Our proof is based on computations in Chow groups of powers of projective quadrics (involving the Steenrod operations); the method developed can be also applied to other types of algebraic varieties.
dc.description29 pages
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/math/0312273
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/math/0312273
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/69597
dc.subjectAlgebraic Geometry
dc.subjectCommutative Algebra
dc.subject11E04; 14C25
dc.titleHoles in I^n
dc.typetext

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