THE LIFTING PROBLEM FOR UNIVERSAL QUADRATIC FORMS OVER SIMPLEST CUBIC FIELDS

Abstract

Abstract The lifting problem for universal quadratic forms over a totally real number field K consists of determining the existence or otherwise of a quadratic form with integer coefficients (or $\mathbb {Z}$ -form) that is universal over K. We prove the nonexistence of universal $\mathbb {Z}$ -forms over simplest cubic fields for which the integer parameter is big enough. The monogenic case is already known. We prove the nonexistence in the nonmonogenic case by using the existence of a totally positive nonunit algebraic integer in K with minimal (codifferent) trace equal to one.