Grothendieck classes of quadric hypersurfaces and involution varieties

Abstract

In this article, by combining the recent theory of noncommutative motives with the classical theory of motives, we prove that if two quadrics (or, more generally, two involution varieties) have the same Grothendieck class, then they have the same even Clifford algebra and the same signature. As an application, we show in numerous cases (e.g., when the base field is a local or global field) that two quadrics (or, more generally, two involution varieties) have the same Grothendieck class if and only if they are isomorphic.