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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

Let $F$ be a field of characteristic $2$ and let $E/F$ be a field extension of degree $4$. We determine the kernel $W_q(E/F)$ of the restriction map $W_qF\to W_qE$ between the Witt groups of nondegenerate quadratic forms over $F$ and over $E$, completing earlier partial results by Ahmad, Baeza, Mammone and Moresi. We also deduct the corresponding result for the Witt kernel $W(E/F)$ of the restriction map $WF\to WE$ between the Witt rings of nondegenerate symmetric bilinear forms over $F$ and over $E$ from earlier results by the first author. As application, we describe the $2$-torsion part of the Brauer kernel for such extensions.

Let $F$ be a field of characteristic $2$ and let $K/F$ be a purely inseparable extension of exponent $1$. We show that the extension is excellent for quadratic forms. Using the excellence we recover and extend results by Aravire and Laghribi who computed generators for the kernel $W_q(K/F)$ of the natural restriction map $W_q(F)\to W_q(K)$ between the Witt groups of quadratic forms of $F$ and $K$, respectively, where $K/F$ is a finite multiquadratic extension of separability degree at most $2$., Comment: 9 pages