Related papers: Products of involutions in symplectic groups over …

Let $s$ be an $n$-dimensional symplectic form over a field $\mathbb{F}$ of characteristic other than $2$, with $n>2$. In a previous article, we have proved that if $\mathbb{F}$ is infinite then every element of the symplectic group…

In the stable general linear group over an arbitrary field, we prove that every element with determinant $\pm 1$ is the product of three involutions, and of no less in general. We also obtain several results of the same flavor, with…

We classify bireflectional elements (products of 2 involutions) in symplectic groups Sp$(2n, K)$ over a field $K$. We also classify rev ersible elements (elements conjugate to their inverses) and bireflectional elements in finite projective…

We prove that every automorphism of an infinite-dimensional vector space over a field is the product of four involutions, a result that is optimal in the general case. We also characterize the automorphisms that are the product of three…

A first characterization of the isomorphism classes of $k$-involutions for any reductive algebraic groups defined over a perfect field was given by Helminck in 2000 using $3$ invariants. In 2004, Helminck, Wu, and Dometrius gave a full…

An element of a group is called bireflectional when it is the product of two involutions of the group (i.e. elements of order 1 or 2). If an element is bireflectional then it is conjugated to its inverse. It is known that all elements of…

For a finite group generated by involutions, the involution width is defined to be the minimal $k\in\mathbb{N}$ such that any group element can be written as a product of at most $k$ involutions. We show that the involution width of every…

In this paper we study symplectic involutions and quadratic pairs that become hyperbolic over the function field of a conic. In particular, we classify them in degree 4 and deduce results on 5 dimensional minimal quadratic forms, thus…

Let $V$ be a $2n$-dimensional vector space over a field $F$ and $\Omega$ be a non-degenerate symplectic form on $V$. Denote by ${\mathfrak H}_{k}(\Omega)$ the set of all $2k$-dimensional subspaces $U\subset V$ such that the restriction…

It is shown that a finite group in which more than 3/4 of the elements are involutions must be an elementary abelian 2-group. A group in which exactly 3/4 of the elements are involutions is characterized as the direct product of the…

Let $G=\Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$ be the symplectic group over the integers. Given $m\in \mathbb{N}$, it is natural to ask if there exists a non-trivial matrix $A\in G$ such that $A^{m}=I$, where $I$ is the identity matrix in $G$. In this paper,…

The projective orthogonal and symplectic groups $PO_n(F)$ and $PSp_n(F)$ have a natural action on the $F$ vector space $V' = M_n(F) \oplus ... \oplus M_n(F)$. Here we assume $F$ is an infinite field of characteristic not 2. If we assume…

This paper is a new important step towards the complete classification of the finite simple groups which are $(2, 3)$-generated. In fact, we prove that the symplectic groups $Sp_{2n}(q)$ are $(2,3)$-generated for all $n\geq 4$. Because of…

Suppose $\ell$ is a prime number, $\ell >3$, $K$ is a field that is an unramified finite extension of the field $\Q_\ell$ of $\ell$-adic numbers, and $G$ is a finite group that is a semi-direct product of a normal $\ell'$-subgroup $H$ and a…

Symmetric $k$-varieties generalize Riemannian sym\-me\-tric spaces to reductive groups defined over arbitrary fields. For most perfect fields, it is known that symmetric $k$-varieties are in one-to-one correspondence with isomorphy classes…

We study the numbers of involutions and their relation to Frobenius-Schur indicators in the groups $\mathrm{SO}^{\pm}(n,q)$ and $\Omega^{\pm}(n,q)$. Our point of view for this study comes from two motivations. The first is the conjecture…

We describe a curious structure of the special orthogonal, special unitary, and symplectic groups that has not been observed, namely, they can be expressed as matrix products of their corresponding Grassmannians realized as involution…

We study totally decomposable symplectic and unitary involutions on central simple algebras of index 2 and on split central simple algebras respectively. We show that for every field extension, these involutions are either anisotropic or…

We consider the adjoint action of the symplectic Lie group $\mathrm{Sp}(2n,\mathbb{C})$ on its Lie algebra $\mathfrak{sp}(2n,\mathbb{C})$. An element $X \in \mathfrak{sp}(2n,\mathbb{C})$ is called…

Answering a question of Geoff Robinson, we compute the large n limiting proportion of i(n,q)/q^[n^2/2], where i(n,q) denotes the number of involutions in GL(n,q). We give similar results for the finite unitary, symplectic, and orthogonal…