Quadratic descent of hermitian forms (with an erratum)

Abstract: Quadratic descent of hermitian and skew hermitian forms over division algebras with involution of the first kind in arbitrary characteristic is investigated and a criterion, in terms of systems of quadratic forms, is obtained. A refined result is also obtained for hermitian (resp. skew hermitian) forms over a quaternion algebra with symplectic (resp. orthogonal) involution.