The non-orthogonal Cayley–Dickson construction and the octonionic structure of the E8-lattice
Using a conic [Formula: see text] algebra [Formula: see text] over an arbitrary commutative ring, a scalar [Formula: see text] and a linear form [Formula: see text] on [Formula: see text] as input, the non-orthogonal Cayley–Dickson construction produces a conic algebra [Formula: see text] and collapses to the standard (orthogonal) Cayley–Dickson construction for [Formula: see text]. Conditions on [Formula: see text] that are necessary and sufficient for [Formula: see text] to satisfy various algebraic properties (like associativity or alternativity) are derived. Sufficient conditions guaranteeing non-singularity of [Formula: see text] even if [Formula: see text] is singular are also given. As an application, we show how the algebras of Hurwitz quaternions and of Dickson or Coxeter octonions over the rational integers can be obtained from the non-orthogonal Cayley–Dickson construction.