Hermitian Forms and Systems of Quadratic Forms

Abstract

We associate to every symmetric (antisymmetric) Hermitian form a system of quadratic forms over the base field which determines its isotropy and metabolicity behaviour. It is shown that two even Hermitian forms are isometric if and only if their associated systems are equivalent. As an application, it is also shown that an anisotropic symmetric Hermitian form over a quaternion division algebra in characteristic two remains anisotropic over all odd degree extensions of the ground field.