Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
0. Introduction. Simplicial quadratic forms (cf. Definition 1.4), and various equivalent forms, have occasionally been studied in geometry [8], and in number theory [9], [10], in connection with the extremal properties of integral quadratic forms. Our investigations, which employ simple techniques from graph theory and geometry, partly continue both those of Coxeter [5], who introduced the graphs described in Section 1, and Vinberg [20], [21], who described an algorithm for determining a fundamental region for a discrete group acting on spherical, Euclidean, or hyperbolic space. After a preliminary discussion of reflexible forms and the Caley-Klein model for (n − 1)-space (1.2), we define a simplicial form and its graph. Having enumerated them completely, we turn in Section 2 to their equivalence, which is related to a geometric dissection. The unit group for each simplicial form can then be determined from Theorem 3.7.
I wish to thank Professor H. S. M. Coxeter for many helpful ideas, and Professor G. Maxwell and the referee for suggesting numerous improvements.