Vishik's and Hoffmann's Pfister-neighbour conjectures for nondegenerate forms

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Let φ\varphi be a nondegenerate anisotropic form, let XX be its associated variety, and let ΛU(X)\Lambda^U(X) denote the set of upper motives appearing in the relevant motivic decomposition. Let nn be such that 2n<dim⁡φ≤2n+12^n<\dim\varphi\leq2^{n+1}.

Vishik–Hoffmann conjectures. The following assertions should hold:

  1. If ∣ΛU(X)∣=2|\Lambda^U(X)|=2, then φ\varphi is a Pfister neighbour.
  2. If φ\varphi has maximal splitting and dim⁡φ>2n+2n−2\dim\varphi>2^n+2^{n-2}, then φ\varphi is a Pfister neighbour.

These are presented as essentially due to Vishik and Hoffmann, respectively. They connect motivic decomposition and maximal splitting to the Pfister-neighbour property; the source gives no resolution of either assertion.

References

Primary source

Stephen Scully and Guangzhao Zhu, “Rationality of cycles modulo 2 on products of generically smooth quadrics in characteristic 2”, arXiv:2510.22502 (2025).

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