Exploration of quadratic forms over rational numbers and rational integers offers elementary introduction. Covers quadratic forms over local fields, forms with integral coefficients, reduction theory for definite forms, more. 1968 edition.

For a long time - at least from Fermat to Minkowski - the theory of quadratic forms was a part of number theory. Much of the best work of the great number theorists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century was concerned with problems about quadratic forms. On the basis of their work, Minkowski, Siegel, Hasse, Eichler and many others crea ted the impressive "arithmetic" theory of quadratic forms, which has been the object of the well-known books by Bachmann (1898/1923), Eichler (1952), and O'Meara (1963). Parallel to this development the ideas of abstract algebra and abstract linear algebra introduced by Dedekind, Frobenius, E. Noether and Artin led to today's structural mathematics with its emphasis on classification problems and general structure theorems. On the basis of both - the number theory of quadratic forms and the ideas of modern algebra - Witt opened, in 1937, a new chapter in the theory of quadratic forms. His most fruitful idea was to consider not single "individual" quadratic forms but rather the entity of all forms over a fixed ground field and to construct from this an algebra ic object. This object - the Witt ring - then became the principal object of the entire theory. Thirty years later Pfister demonstrated the significance of this approach by his celebrated structure theorems.

This book is a comprehensive study of the algebraic theory of quadratic forms, from classical theory to recent developments, including results and proofs that have never been published. The book is written from the viewpoint of algebraic geometry and includes the theory of quadratic forms over fields of characteristic two, with proofs that are characteristic independent whenever possible. For some results both classical and geometric proofs are given. Part I includes classical algebraic theory of quadratic and bilinear forms and answers many questions that have been raised in the early stages of the development of the theory. Assuming only a basic course in algebraic geometry, Part II presents the necessary additional topics from algebraic geometry including the theory of Chow groups, Chow motives, and Steenrod operations. These topics are used in Part III to develop a modern geometric theory of quadratic forms.

A gem of a book bringing together 30 years worth of results that are certain to interest anyone whose research touches on quadratic forms.

This book is divided into two parts. The first part is preliminary and consists of algebraic number theory and the theory of semisimple algebras. There are two principal topics: classification of quadratic forms and quadratic Diophantine equations. The second topic is a new framework which contains the investigation of Gauss on the sums of three squares as a special case. To make the book concise, the author proves some basic theorems in number theory only in some special cases. However, the book is self-contained when the base field is the rational number field, and the main theorems are stated with an arbitrary number field as the base field. So the reader familiar with class field theory will be able to learn the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms with no further references.

The arithmetic theory of quadratic forms is a rich branch of number theory that has had important applications to several areas of pure mathematics--particularly group theory and topology--as well as to cryptography and coding theory. This book is a self-contained introduction to quadratic forms that is based on graduate courses the author has taught many times. It leads the reader from foundation material up to topics of current research interest--with special attention to the theory over the integers and over polynomial rings in one variable over a field--and requires only a basic background in linear and abstract algebra as a prerequisite. Whenever possible, concrete constructions are chosen over more abstract arguments. The book includes many exercises and explicit examples, and it is appropriate as a textbook for graduate courses or for independent study. To facilitate further study, a guide to the extensive literature on quadratic forms is provided.