On the axiomatic foundations of the theory of Hermitian forms

Abstract

In recent work on some topological problems (7), I was forced to adopt a complicated definition of ‘Hermitian form’ which differed from any in the literature. A recent paper by Tits(5) on quadratic forms over division rings contains a new and simple definition of these. A major objective of this paper is to formulate both these definitions in somewhat more general terms, and to show that they are equivalent.