Albert algebras over curves of genus zero and one

Albert algebras and other Jordan algebras are constructed over curves of genus zero and one, using a generalization of the Tits process and the first Tits construction due to Achhammer.Comment: 37 page

Conjugacy classes of trialitarian automorphisms and symmetric compositions

The trialitarian automorphisms considered in this paper are the outer automorphisms of order 3 of adjoint classical groups of type D_4 over arbitrary fields. A one-to-one correspondence is established between their conjugacy classes and similarity classes of symmetric compositions on 8-dimensional quadratic spaces. Using the known classification of symmetric compositions, we distinguish two conjugacy classes of trialitarian automorphisms over algebraically closed fields. For type I, the group of fixed points is of type G_2, whereas it is of type A_2 for trialitarian automorphisms of type II

Trialitarian automorphisms of lie algebras

Over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero simple Lie algebras admit outer automorphisms of order 3 if and only if they are of type D4. Moreover, thereare two conjugacy classes of such automorphisms. Among orthogonal Lie algebras over arbitrary fields of characteristic zero, only orthogonal Lie algebras relative to quadratic norm forms of Cayley algebras admit outer automorphisms of order 3. We give a complete list of conjugacy classes of outer automorphisms of order 3 for orthogonal Lie algebras over arbitrary fields of characteristic zero. For the norm form of a given Cayley algebra, one class is associated with the Cayley algebra and the others with central simple algebras of degree 3 with involution of the second kind such that the cohomological invariant of the involution is the norm for

Surjectivity of the total Clifford invariant and Brauer dimension

Merkurjev's theorem--the statement that the 2-torsion of the Brauer group is represented by Clifford algebras of quadratic forms--is in general false when the base is no longer a field. The work of Parimala, Scharlau, and Sridharan proves the existence of smooth complete curves over local fields, over which Merkurjev's theorem is equivalent to the existence of a rational theta characteristic. Here, we prove that for smooth curves over a local field or surfaces over a finite field, replacing the Witt group by the total Witt group of all line bundle-valued quadratic forms recovers Merkurjev's theorem: the 2-torsion of the Brauer group is always represented by even Clifford algebras of line bundle-valued quadratic forms.Comment: Final published versio

Vector bundles of rank four and A_3 = D_3

Over a scheme with 2 invertible, we show that a vector bundle of rank four has a sub or quotient line bundle if and only if the canonical symmetric bilinear form on its exterior square has a lagrangian subspace. For this, we exploit a version of "Pascal's rule" for vector bundles that provides an explicit isomorphism between the moduli functors represented by projective homogeneous bundles for reductive group schemes of type A_3 and D_3. Under additional hypotheses on the scheme (e.g. proper over a field), we show that the existence of sub or quotient line bundles of a rank four vector bundle is equivalent to the vanishing of its Witt-theoretic Euler class.Comment: 16 pages, final version; IMRN 2012 rns14

Beno Eckmann 1917-2008

Am 25. November 2008 verstarb Beno Eckmann in seinem 92. Lebensjahr. Dieser Nachruf beleuchtet Leben und Werk dieses bedeutenden Vertreters der Algebra und der Topologi