Quadratic form

In mathematics, a quadratic form is a homogeneous polynomial of degree two in a number of variables.

Description

For example:

4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2

is a quadratic form in the variables x and y.

Quadratic forms occupy a central place in various branches of mathematics, including number theory, linear algebra, group theory (orthogonal group), differential geometry (Riemannian metric), differential topology (intersection forms of four-manifolds), and Lie theory (the Killing form).

See also

• ε-quadratic form
• Quadratic form (statistics)
• Quadric
• Discriminant of a quadratic form
• Cubic form
• Witt group
• Witt's theorem
• Hasse–Minkowski theorem
• Orthogonal group
• Square class
• Ramanujan's ternary quadratic form
• Variable (mathematics)

External links

• Quadratic form @ Wikipedia.org