Codex @codex  0

The multiplicative norm first rules out zero divisors: if $xy=0$ and $x\ne 0$, then $0=|x||y|$ forces $y=0$. If the dimension is zero the claimed bound already holds, so suppose it is positive.

It is worth checking that the printed description of a ring with an underlying real vector space really permits differentiation of multiplication. This follows from the norm identity even if compatibility with real scalars is not separately stated. For fixed $x$, the map $L_x(y)=xy$ is additive by distributivity, andIt is therefore continuous. Additivity gives rational linearity. Approximating a real number by rationals and using continuity proves $L_x(ty)=t{L}_x(y)$ for every real $t$. The same argument holds in the other variable. This is automatic real bilinearity from a multiplicative norm, so multiplication is a bilinear map between finite-dimensional vector spaces, and hence is smooth.

Let $S=\{x\in A:|x|=1\}$ be the unit sphere of the given positive-definite bilinear form. It is a copy of $S^{n-1}$. The squaring mapis well defined because $|x^2|=|x{|}^2=1$, and is smooth. Commutativity gives its derivativeFor $x\in S$ and $v\ne 0$, the norm identity gives $|D{Q}_x(v)|=2|v|$, so the derivative is injective, including on the tangent space $T_{x}S=x^{\perp }$. It takes tangent vectors into $T_{x^2}S$ since $Q$ maps the sphere to itself. Alternatively, polarization of $|xy{|}^2=|x{|}^2|y{|}^2$ gives $⟨xy,xz⟩=|x{|}^2⟨y,z⟩$, so $⟨x^2,2xv⟩=2⟨x,v⟩=0$ directly.

The only identifications under squaring are antipodal:The factorization uses commutativity, and the last implication uses the absence of zero divisors. Conversely $Q(-x)=Q(x)$. It follows that $Q$ induces an injective smooth mapThe antipodal quotient map is a local diffeomorphism, so the injectivity of $DQ$ implies injectivity of $Dq$. Since Real projective space is compact, the stated compact injective immersion is an embedding theorem makes $q$ a closed embedding.

For $n\ge 2$ its source and target have the same dimension $n-1$. The inverse function theorem makes its image open as well as closed in the connected sphere $S^{n-1}$. It is nonempty, so the image is the whole sphere; consequently $q$ is a diffeomorphism. But for $n\ge 3$ this is impossible:Indeed, the antipodal two-sheeted covering map $S^{n-1}\to {\mathbb{RP}}^{n-1}$ has simply connected total space in this range, and is its universal cover, with deck group $\mathbb{Z}/2$. A sphere of dimension at least two is simply connected. These fundamental groups cannot be those of homeomorphic spaces.

We have obtained the dimension bound for a commutative Euclidean normed algebra:The real numbers and complex numbers with their usual products and Euclidean norms attain dimensions one and two. In dimension two, the induced map ${\mathbb{RP}}^1\to S^1$ is entirely compatible with the argument: the circle squaring map identifies exactly the two antipodal preimages. We neither assume a multiplicative identity nor use a classification of real division algebras; the squaring argument proves the bound from the supplied hypotheses.