Quadratic Forms

This chapter presents a few standard definitions and results about quadratic forms and polar spaces. It begins by defining a quadratic module and a quadratic space and proceeds by discussing a hyperbolic quadratic module and a hyperbolic quadratic space. A quadratic module is hyperbolic if it can be written as the orthogonal sum of finitely many hyperbolic planes. Hyperbolic quadratic modules are strictly non-singular and free of even rank and they remain hyperbolic under arbitrary scalar extensions. A hyperbolic quadratic space is a quadratic space that is hyperbolic as a quadratic module. The chapter also considers a split quadratic space and a round quadratic space, along with the splitting extension and splitting field of of a quadratic space.