In mathematics, a quaternionic structure or -structure is an axiomatic system that abstracts the concept of a quaternion algebra over a field.
A quaternionic structure is a triple where is an elementary abelian group of exponent with a distinguished element, is a pointed set with distinguished element, and is a symmetric surjection satisfying axioms
\begin{align}1. &q(a,(-1)a)=1,\\ 2. &q(a,b)=q(a,c)\Leftrightarrowq(a,bc)=1,\\ 3. &q(a,b)=q(c,d) ⇒ \existsx\midq(a,b)=q(a,x),q(c,d)=q(c,x)\end{align}.
Every field gives rise to a -structure by taking to be, the set of Brauer classes of quaternion algebras in the Brauer group of with the split quaternion algebra as distinguished element and the quaternion algebra .