Slices of hermitian K-theory and Milnor's conjecture on quadratic forms

Abstract

We advance the understanding of K-theory of quadratic forms by computing the slices of the motivic spectra representing hermitian K-groups and Witt-groups. By an explicit computation of the slice spectral sequence for higher Witt-theory, we prove Milnor's conjecture relating Galois cohomology to quadratic forms via the filtration of the Witt ring by its fundamental ideal. In a related computation we express hermitian K-groups in terms of motivic cohomology.