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We give examples of quaternion and octonion division algebras over a field $F$ of characteristic $2$ that split over a purely inseparable extension $E$ of $F$ of degree $\geq 4$ but that do not split over any subextension of $F$ inside $E$ of lower exponent, or, in the case of octonions, over any simple subextension of $F$ inside $E$. Thus, we get a negative answer to a question posed by Bernhard M\"uhlherr and Richard Weiss. We study this question in terms of the isotropy behaviour of the associated norm forms.

We say that a field extension $L/F$ has the descent property for isometry (resp. similarity) of quadratic or symmetric bilinear forms if any two forms defined over $F$ that become isometric (resp. similar) over $L$ are already isometric (resp. similar) over $F$. The famous Artin-Springer theorem states that anisotropic quadratic or symmetric bilinear forms over a field stay anisotropic over an odd degree field extension. As a consequence, odd degree extensions have the descent property for isometry of quadratic as well as symmetric bilinear forms. While this is well known for nonsingular quadratic forms, it is perhaps less well known for arbitrary quadratic or symmetric bilinear forms in characteristic $2$. We provide a proof in this situation. More generally, we show that odd degree extensions also have the descent property for similarity. Moreover, for symmetric bilinear forms in characteristic $2$, one even has the descent property for isometry and for similarity for arbitrary separable algebraic extensions. We also show Scharlau's norm principle for arbitrary quadratic or bilinear forms in characteristic $2$., Comment: 17 pages

Suppose a positive integer $n$ is written as a sum of squares of $m$ integers. What can one say about the value $T$ of the sum of these $m$ integers itself? Which $T$ can be obtained if one considers all possible representations of $n$ as a sum of squares of $m$ integers? Denoting this set of all possible $T$ by $\mathscr{S}_m(n)$, Goldmakher and Pollack have given a simple characterization of $\mathscr{S}_4(n)$ using elementary arguments. Their result can be reinterpreted in terms of Mordell's theory of representations of binary integral quadratic forms as sums of squares of integral linear forms. Based on this approach, we characterize $\mathscr{S}_m(n)$ for all $m\leq 11$ and provide a few partial results for arbitrary $m$. We also show how Mordell's results can be used to study variations of the original problem where the sum of the integers is replaced by a linear form in these integers. In this way, we recover and generalize earlier results by Z.W. Sun et. al.., Comment: 17 pages