Proposition. Binary local spinor norms and the Spin index [fcap-0049]

Let \(K\) be a nonarchimedean local field of characteristic different from two, as in Definition [fcap-0044], and let \(Q\) be a nondegenerate form on a finite-dimensional \(K\)-space. Use the reverse-norm convention of Proposition [fcap-002D]: \(\nu _Q^O\) is the spinor norm on \(O(Q)\), and \(\nu _Q\) is its restriction to \(SO(Q)\). Write \[\begin {gathered} S=K^{\times }/(K^{\times })^2,\\ I_Q=[SO(Q):\rho (\operatorname {Spin}(Q))]. \end {gathered}\] The kernel theorem Theorem [fcap-0023] gives \(I_Q=|\operatorname {im}\nu _Q|\). Thus the index of the Spin image in \(SO(Q)\) measures the size of the spinor-norm image, not its index in \(S\).

For the anisotropic form \(Q_+=\langle 1,1\rangle \) over \(\mathbb Q_3\) from Example [fcap-0048], both spinor-norm images are the square classes of norms from \(\mathbb Q_3(\sqrt {-1})\). They form the same index-two subgroup of \(S\). Since \(|S|=4\), the Spin index is \(I_{Q_+}=2\). The square-class count is [lam2005quadratic, VI.2, Theorem 2.22, p. 162]; the norm-image calculation follows from the general binary formulas below.

Suppose \(Q=\langle a,b\rangle \) is anisotropic, with \(a,b\in K^\times \), and put \(d=-b/a\). Then \(d\) is nonsquare and \(E=K(\sqrt d)\) is a quadratic field. Its field norm is \[N_{E/K}(x+y\sqrt d)=x^2-dy^2.\] The norm subgroup \(N=N_{E/K}(E^\times )\) contains \((K^\times )^2\), since \(N_{E/K}(c)=c^2\) for \(c\in K^\times \). Let \(H=N/(K^\times )^2\subseteq S\). Then \[\begin {gathered} \operatorname {im}\nu _Q=H,\\ \operatorname {im}\nu _Q^O=H\cup [a]H,\\ [S:H]=2,\\ I_Q=|H|=|S|/2. \end {gathered}\] In particular, \(\nu _Q^O\) is surjective exactly when \(a\notin N\). If \(a\in N\), both images are \(H\). If \(Q\) is split binary instead, both images are \(S\) and \(I_Q=|S|\).

The lower-dimensional boundary, with \(0\) denoting the form on the zero space, is \[\begin {array}{c|c|c} Q&\operatorname {im}\nu _Q&\operatorname {im}\nu _Q^O\\ \hline 0&\{1\}&\{1\}\\ \langle a\rangle &\{1\}&\langle [a]\rangle \end {array}\] In both rows \(SO(Q)\) is trivial and \(I_Q=1\). In rank one, \(O(Q)=\{1,-1\}\), and \(-1\) is reflection in the basis vector of value \(a\); its norm is \([a]\). These statements agree with CliffordAlgebra.spinorNorm_eq_one_of_finrank_le_one and CliffordAlgebra.orthogonalSpinorNorm_range_eq_zpowers_of_finrank_eq_one.

The two binary image formulas are CliffordAlgebra.range_spinorNorm_of_equivalent_binary and CliffordAlgebra.range_orthogonalSpinorNorm_of_equivalent_binary. They use the parameter \(-ab=a^2d\), which gives the same quadratic extension and norm subgroup. The local index and orthogonal surjectivity criterion are CliffordAlgebra.index_range_spinorNorm_of_finrank_eq_two_of_anisotropic and CliffordAlgebra.orthogonalSpinorNorm_surjective_iff_not_mem_quadraticNormSubgroup_of_anisotropic_binary. The image formulas require finite dimension, nondegeneracy and invertible two over a field; the index-two conclusion additionally uses the stated local-field and anisotropy hypotheses.