English

Null Polarities as Generators of the Projective Group

Metric Geometry 2014-06-03 v1 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

It is well-known that the group of regular projective transformations of P3(R)\mathbb{P}^3(\mathbb{R}) is isomorphic to the group of projective automorphisms of Klein's quadric M24P5(R)M_2^4\subset\mathbb{P}^5(\mathbb{R}). We introduce the Clifford algebra C(3,3)\mathcal{C}\ell_{(3,3)} constructed over the quadratic space R(3,3)\mathbb{R}^{(3,3)} and describe how points on Klein's quadric are embedded as null vectors, {\it i.e.}, grade-11 elements squaring to zero. Furthermore, we discuss how geometric entities from Klein's model can be transferred to this homogeneous Clifford algebra model. Automorphic collineations of Klein's quadric can be described by the action of the so called sandwich operator applied to vectors v1V\mathfrak{v}\in\bigwedge^1 V. Vectors correspond to null polarities in P3(R)\mathbb{P}^3(\mathbb{R}). We introduce a factorization algorithm. With the help of this algorithm we are able to factorize an arbitrary versor gC(3,3)\mathfrak{g}\in\mathcal{C}\ell_{(3,3)} into a set of non-commuting vectors vi1V,i=1,,k,1k6\mathfrak{v}_i\in\bigwedge^1 V,\,i=1,\dots, k,\, 1\leq k\leq 6 corresponding to null polarities with g=v1vk\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{v}_1\dots\mathfrak{v}_k. Thus, we present a method to factorize every collineation in P5(R)\mathbb{P}^5(\mathbb{R}) that is induced by a projective transformation acting on P3(R)\mathbb{P}^3(\mathbb{R}) into a set of at most six involutoric automorphic collineations of Klein's quadric corresponding to null polarities respectively skew-symmetric 4×44 \times 4 matrices. Moreover, we give an outlook for Lie's sphere geometry, i.e., the homogeneous Clifford algebra model constructed with the quadratic form corresponding to Lie's quadric L1n+1Pn+2(R)L_1^{n+1}\subset\mathbb{P}^{n+2}(\mathbb{R}). Keywords: Clifford algebra, line geometry, Klein's quadric, null polarity, factorization

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1406.0278,
  title  = {Null Polarities as Generators of the Projective Group},
  author = {Daniel Klawitter},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.0278},
  year   = {2014}
}