Jacques Tits motivic measure

In this article we construct a new motivic measure called the Jacques Tits motivic measure. As a first main application, we prove that two Severi-Brauer varieties (or, more generally, two twisted Grassmannian varieties), associated to 2-torsion central simple algebras, have the same class in the Grothendieck ring of varieties if and only if they are isomorphic. In addition, we prove that if two Severi-Brauer varieties, associated to central simple algebras of period $$\{3, 4, 5, 6\}$$ { 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 } , have the same class in the Grothendieck ring of varieties, then they are necessarily birational to each other. As a second main application, we prove that two quadric hypersurfaces (or, more generally, two involution varieties), associated to quadratic forms of dimension 6 or to quadratic forms of arbitrary dimension defined over a base field k with $$I^3(k)=0$$ I 3 ( k ) = 0 , have the same class in the Grothendieck ring of varieties if and only if they are isomorphic. In addition, we prove that the latter main application also holds for products of quadric hypersurfaces.

An identification system based on the explicit isomorphism problem

We propose a new identification system based on algorithmic problems related to computing isomorphisms between central simple algebras. We design a statistical zero knowledge protocol which relies on the hardness of computing isomorphisms between orders in division algebras which generalizes a protocol by Hartung and Schnorr, which relies on the hardness of integral equivalence of quadratic forms.

The Norm of a Skew Polynomial

Let D be a finite-dimensional division algebra over its center and R = D[t;σ,δ] a skew polynomial ring. Under certain assumptions on δ and σ, the ring of central quotients D(t;σ,δ) = {f/g|f ∈ D[t;σ,δ],g ∈ C(D[t;σ,δ])} of D[t;σ,δ] is a central simple algebra with reduced norm N. We calculate the norm N(f) for some skew polynomials f ∈ R and investigate when and how the reducibility of N(f) reflects the reducibility of f.

A generalisation of Amitsur’s A-polynomials

We find examples of polynomials f ∈ D [t; σ, δ] whose eigenring ℰ(f) is a central simple algebra over the field F = C ∩ Fix(σ) ∩ Const(δ).

Splitting quaternion algebras defined over a finite field extension

We study systems of quadratic forms over fields and their isotropy over [Formula: see text]-extensions. We apply this to obtain particular splitting fields for quaternion algebras defined over a finite field extension. As a consequence we obtain that every central simple algebra of degree [Formula: see text] is split by a [Formula: see text]-extension of degree at most [Formula: see text].