Biquaternion division algebras and fourth power-central elements

Abstract

Let A be a biquaternion division algebra over a field F ( char F ≠ 2 ). We prove that an element e ∈ F ⁎ such that A F ( e 4 ) = 0 exists if and only if there is a decomposition A ≃ ( a , b ) ⊗ ( c , d ) with 《 − a , b , c , d 》 = 0 . This statement strengthens the result of Rost, Serre and Tignol ( [7] ), where the additional condition − 1 ∈ F ⁎ holds. Another result is a construction of a field F with − 1 ∈ F ⁎ , a quartic cyclic field extension L / F , and quaternion algebras ( a , b ) and ( c , d ) over F such that ( a , b ) L = ( c , d ) L = 0 , but the quadratic form 〈 a , b , a b 〉 ⊥ 《 c , d 》 is anisotropic. As a consequence, for any algebraically closed field k 0 , we give an example of an anisotropic 7-dimensional quadratic form Ψ over k 0 ( z , x , y ) with ind ( C 0 ( Ψ ) ) = 4 such that for any discrete k 0 ( z ) -valuation v on k 0 ( z , x , y ) the form Ψ becomes isotropic over the completion k 0 ( z , x , y ) v . In other words, the form Ψ provides a counterexample to the strong Hasse principle for 7-dimensional quadratic forms with respect to the rational extension K ( x , y ) / K , where K = k 0 ( z ) .