A Mordell Inequality for Lattices over Maximal Orders

Abstract

In this paper we prove an analogue of Mordell's inequality for lattices in finite-dimensional complex or quaternionic Hermitian space that are modules over a maximal order in an imaginary quadratic number field or a totally definite rational quaternion algebra. This inequality implies that the 16-dimensional Barnes-Wall lattice has optimal density among all 16-dimensional lattices with Hurwitz structures.