Semiorderings and Witt rings

For a pythagorean field F with semiordering Q and associated preordering T, it is shown that the Witt ring WT (F) is isomorphic to the Witt ring W (K) whre K is a closure of F with respect to Q. For an arbitrary preordering T, it is shown how the covering number of T relates to the construction of WT (F).

W-Groups under Quadratic Extensions of Fields

To each field F of characteristic not 2, one can associate a certain Galois group , the so-called W-group of F, which carries essentially the same information as the Witt ring W(F) of F. In this paperwe investigate the connection between and (√a), where F(√a) is a proper quadratic extension of F. We obtain a precise description in the case when F is a pythagorean formally real field and a = −1, and show that the W-group of a proper field extension K/F is a subgroup of the W-group of F if and only if F is a formally real pythagorean field and K = F(√−1). This theorem can be viewed as an analogue of the classical Artin-Schreier’s theorem describing fields fixed by finite subgroups of absolute Galois groups. We also obtain precise results in the case when a is a double-rigid element in F. Some of these results carry over to the general setting.

Valuations and Prufer Rings

The word ring is used to mean commutative ring. Just as valuations on fields are used to study domains, so valuations on rings can be used to study rings; these rings need not have units [12]. We introduce slightly weaker conditions than having identity in order to get a more general theory. A Prufer ring A is one in which every finitely generated regular ideal is invertible. If we replace invertibility in the total quotient ring K, by invertibility in a ring R where A ⊆ R ⊆ K we get an R-Prufer ring. These rings do occur, for example the Witt ring of a non-Pythagorean field or a ring of bounded continuous functions.