English

Affine vector space partitions and spreads of quadrics

Combinatorics 2024-02-13 v1

Abstract

An affine spread is a set of subspaces of AG(n,q)\mathrm{AG}(n, q) of the same dimension that partitions the points of AG(n,q)\mathrm{AG}(n, q). Equivalently, an {\em affine spread} is a set of projective subspaces of PG(n,q)\mathrm{PG}(n, q) of the same dimension which partitions the points of PG(n,q)H\mathrm{PG}(n, q) \setminus H_{\infty}; here HH_{\infty} denotes the hyperplane at infinity of the projective closure of AG(n,q)\mathrm{AG}(n, q). Let Q\mathcal{Q} be a non degenerate quadric of HH_\infty and let Π\Pi be a generator of Q\mathcal{Q}, where Π\Pi is a tt-dimensional projective subspace. An affine spread P\mathcal{P} consisting of (t+1)(t+1)-dimensional projective subspaces of PG(n,q)\mathrm{PG}(n, q) is called hyperbolic, parabolic or elliptic (according as Q\mathcal{Q} is hyperbolic, parabolic or elliptic) if the following hold: each member of P\mathcal{P} meets HH_\infty in a distinct generator of Q\mathcal{Q} disjoint from Π\Pi; elements of P\mathcal{P} have at most one point in common; if S,TPS, T \in \mathcal{P}, ST=1|S \cap T| = 1, then S,TQ\langle S, T \rangle \cap \mathcal{Q} is a hyperbolic quadric of Q\mathcal{Q}. In this note it is shown that a hyperbolic, parabolic or elliptic affine spread of PG(n,q)\mathrm{PG}(n, q) is equivalent to a spread of Q+(n+1,q)\mathcal{Q}^+(n+1, q), Q(n+1,q)\mathcal{Q}(n+1, q) or Q(n+1,q)\mathcal{Q}^-(n+1, q), respectively.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.07882,
  title  = {Affine vector space partitions and spreads of quadrics},
  author = {Somi Gupta and Francesco Pavese},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.07882},
  year   = {2024}
}