Search

We realize Frobenius conjugacy classes in Galois groups of certain $q$-polynomials over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ using specific degree 1 ideals. We combine this with methods from elementary linear algebra and group theory to realize transvections in some linear Galois groups. This enables the Galois group to be identified as a known classical group in several reasonably general cases., Comment: This updates and extends an earlier version, including a new title and abstract

Let $L(x)$ be any $q$-linearized polynomial with coefficients in $\mathbb{F}_q$, of degree $q^n$. We consider the Galois group of $L(x)+tx$ over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$, where $t$ is transcendental over $\mathbb{F}_q$. We prove that when $n$ is a prime, the Galois group is always $GL(n,q)$, except when $L(x)=x^{q^n}$. Equivalently, we prove that the arithmetic monodromy group of $L(x)/x$ is $GL(n,q)$.

Let $F$ be a field of prime characteristic $p$ and let $q$ be a power of $p$. We assume that $F$ contains the finite field of order $q$. A $q$-polynomial $L$ over $F$ is an element of the polynomial ring $F[x]$ with the property that those powers of $x$ that occur as terms of $L$ with nonzero coefficient have exponent a power of $q$. If the exponent of the leading term of $L$ is $q^n$, we say that $L$ has $q$-degree $n$. We assume that the coefficient of the $x$ term of $L$ is nonzero. We investigate the Galois group $G$, say, of $L$ over $F$, under the assumption that $L(x)/x$ is irreducible in $F[x]$. It is well known that if $L$ has $q$-degree $n$, its roots are an $n$-dimensional vector space over the field of order $q$ and $G$ acts linearly on this space. Our main theorem is the following. We consider a monic $q$-polynomial $L$ whose $q$-degree is a prime, $r$, say, with $L(x)/x$ irreducible over $F$. Assuming that the coefficient of the $x$ term of $L$ is $(-1)^r$, we show that the Galois group of $L$ over $F$ must be the special linear group $SL(r,q)$ of degree $r$ over the field of order $q$ when $q>2$. We also prove a projective version for the projective special linear group $PSL(r,q)$, and we present the analysis when $q=2$.

We investigate some Galois groups of linearized polynomials over fields such as $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$. The space of roots of such a polynomial is a module for its Galois group. We present a realization of the symmetric powers of this module, as a subspace of the splitting field of another linearized polynomial.

Let K be a field and let M_n(K) denote the space of n x n matrices with entries in K. Let M be a subspace of M_n(K) of dimension d with the property that there are elements in M with non-zero determinant. Given a basis of M, we define the determinantal polynomial P_{M} of M with respect to the basis. It is a homogeneous polynomial of degree n in d indeterminates that gives the determinant of any element of M by evaluation in K^d. This paper investigates the interrelationship of M and P_{M}. We confine ourselves to finite fields K, where we can obtain useful information by applying the Lang-Weil theorem on the number of zeros of absolutely irreducible polynomials. A combination of Chevalley's theorem on the zeros of polynomials in several variables and the Lang-Weil theorem leads to theorems about the characteristic polynomials of elements of M when n is a prime. We also draw attention to cases when the elements of M with non-zero determinant are a proper subspace, and provide non-trivial examples of this phenomenon., Comment: 23 pages

Let $F$ be any field. We give a short and elementary proof that any finite subgroup $G$ of $PGL(2,F)$ occurs as a Galois group over the function field $F(x)$. We also develop a theory of descent to subfields of $F$. This enables us to realize the automorphism groups of finite subgroups of $PGL(2,F)$ as Galois groups., Comment: Material already known

For a subgroup of $PGL(2,q)$ we show how some irreducible polynomials over $\mathbb{F}_q$ arise from the field of invariant rational functions. The proofs rely on two actions of $PGL(2,F)$, one on the projective line over a field $F$ and the other on the rational function field $F(x)$. The invariant functions in $F(x)$ are used to show that regular patterns exist in the factorization of certain polynomials into irreducible polynomials. We use some results about group actions and the orbit polynomial, whose proofs are included. An unusual connection to the conjugacy classes of $PGL(2,q)$ is shown. At the end of the paper we present an alternative approach, using Lang's theorem on algebraic groups., Comment: New section added

We prove Clifford theoretic results on the representations of finite groups which only hold in characteristic $2$. Let $G$ be a finite group, let $N$ be a normal subgroup of $G$ and let $\varphi$ be an irreducible $2$-Brauer character of $N$ which is self-dual. We prove that there is a unique self-dual irreducible Brauer character $\theta$ of $G$ such that $\varphi$ occurs with odd multiplicity in the restriction of $\theta$ to $N$. Moreover this multiplicity is $1$. Conversely if $\theta$ is an irreducible $2$-Brauer character of $G$ which is self-dual but not of quadratic type, the restriction of $\theta$ to $N$ is a sum of distinct self-dual irreducible Brauer character of $N$, none of which have quadratic type. Let $b$ be a real $2$-block of $N$. We show that there is a unique real $2$-block of $G$ covering $b$ which is weakly regular., Comment: 19 pages, example added

We prove the following result. Let q be a power of an odd prime and let Sp(2m,q) denote the symplectic group of degree 2m over F_q. Then if q=1 mod 4, no solvable subgroup of Sp(2m,q) acts transitively on a complete symplectic spread defined on the underlying vector space of dimension 2m, unless m=1 and q=5. The solvable group Sp(2,3) of order 24 acts transitively on a complete symplectic spread defined on a two-dimensional vector space over F_5. By contrast, when q=3 mod 4, there is a metacyclic group of order 2m(q^m+1) that acts transitively on a complete symplectic spread., Comment: 15 pages

Let $P$ be a principal indecomposable module of a finite group $G$ in characteristic $2$ and let $\varphi$ be the Brauer character of the corresponding simple $G$-module. We show that $P$ affords a non-degenerate $G$-invariant quadratic form if and only if there are involutions $s,t\in G$ such that $st$ has odd order and $\varphi(st)/2$ is not an algebraic integer. We then show that the number of isomorphism classes of quadratic principal indecomposable $G$-modules is equal to the number of strongly real conjugacy classes of odd order elements of $G$., Comment: 14 pages

Let $K$ be a field and let $V$ be a vector space of dimension $n$ over $K$. Let $M$ be a subspace of bilinear forms defined on $V\times V$. Let $r$ be the number of different non-zero ranks that occur among the elements of $M$. Our aim is to obtain an upper bound for $\dim M$ in terms of $r$ and $n$ under various hypotheses. As a sample of what we prove, we mention the following. Suppose that $m$ is the largest integer that occurs as the rank of an element of $M$. Then if $m\leq \lceil n/2\rceil$ and $|K|\geq m+1$, we have $\dim M\leq rn$. The case $r=1$ corresponds to a constant rank space and it is conjectured that $\dim M\leq n$ when $M$ is a constant rank $m$ space and $|K|\geq m+1$. We prove that the dimension bound for a constant rank $m$ space $M$ holds provided $|K|\geq m+1$ and either $K$ is finite or $K$ has characteristic different from 2 and $M$ consists of symmetric forms. In general, we show that if $M$ is a constant rank $m$ subspace and $|K|\geq m+1$, then $\dim M\leq \max\,(n,2m-1)$. We also provide more detailed results about constant rank subspaces over finite fields, especially subspaces of alternating or symmetric bilinear forms., Comment: 24 pages

Let K be a field of characteristic different from 2 and let V be a vector space of dimension n over K. Let M be a non-zero subspace of symmetric bilinear forms defined on V x V and let r=rank(M) denote the set of different positive integers that occur as the ranks of the non-zero elements of M. The main result of this paper is the inequality that dim M is at most rn-r(r-1)/2 provided that |K| is at least n., Comment: The results of this paper are all contained in the author's paper "Connections between rank and dimension for subspaces of bilinear forms", arXiv:1801.07529

Let q be a power of a prime and let V be a vector space of finite dimension n over the field of order q. Let Bil(V) denote the set of all bilinear forms defined on V x V, let Symm(V) denote the subspace of Bil(V) consisting of symmetric bilinear forms, and Alt(V) denote the subspace of alternating bilinear forms. Let M denote a subspace of any of the spaces Bil(V), Symm(V), or Alt(V). In this paper we investigate hypotheses on the rank of the non-zero elements of M which lead to reasonable bounds for dim M. Typically, we look at the case where exactly two or three non-zero ranks occur, one of which is usually n. In the case that M achieves the maximal dimension predicted by the dimension bound, we try to enumerate the number of forms of a given rank in M and describe geometric properties of the radicals of the degenerate elements of M., Comment: 25 pages

Let m be an integer greater than 2 and let V be a vector space of dimension 2^m over F_2. Let Q be a non-degenerate quadratic form of maximal Witt index defined on V. We show that the symmetric group S_{2m+1} acts on V as a group of isometries of Q and permutes the members of a partial orthogonal spread of size 2m+1. This implies that any group of even order 2m or odd order 2m+1 acts transitively and regularly on a partial orthogonal spread in V. We also show that the alternating group A_9 acts in a natural manner on a complete spread of size 9 defined on a vector space of dimension 8 over F_2., Comment: 9 pages, Corollary 1 extended to all finite groups of order at least 6

Let V be a vector space of dimension n over a field K and let Symm(V) denote the space of symmetric bilinear forms defined on V x V. Let M be a subspace of Symm(V). We investigate a variety of hypotheses concerning the rank of elements in M that lead to reasonable bounds for dim M. For example, if every non-zero element of M has odd rank, and r is the maximum rank of the elements of M, then dim M is at most r(r+1)/2 (thus dim M is bounded independently of n). This should be contrasted with the simple observation that Symm(V) contains a subspace of dimension n-1 in which each non-zero element has rank 2. The bound r(r+1)/2 is almost certainly too large, and a bound r seems plausible, this being true when K is finite. We also show that dim M is at most r$ when K is any field of characteristic 2. Finally, suppose that n=2r, where r is an odd integer, and the rank of each non-zero element of M is either r or n. We show that if K has characteristic 2, then dim M is at most 3r. Furthermore, if dim M=3r, we obtain interesting subspace decompositions of M and V related to spreads, pseudo-arcs and pseudo-ovals. Examples of such subspaces M exist if K has an extension field of degree r., Comment: 11 pages

Let V be a vector space of dimension n over the finite field F_q, where q is odd, and let Symm(V) denote the space of symmetric bilinear forms defined on V x V. We investigate constant rank r subspaces of Symm(V) in this paper. We have proved elsewhere that such a subspace has dimension at most n when q is larger than r but in this paper we provide generally improved upper bounds. Our investigations yield information about common isotropic points for such constant rank subspaces, and also how the radicals of the elements in the subspace are distributed throughout V., Comment: 14 pages; fixed simple typos

K be a field and let m and n be positive integers, where m does not exceed n. We say that a non-zero subspace of m x n matrices over K is a constant rank r subspace if each non-zero element of the subspace has rank r, where r is a positive integer that does not exceed m. We show in this paper that if K is a finite field containing at least r+1 elements, any constant rank r subspace of m x n matrices over K has dimension at most n., Comment: 4 pages

We prove the following two results relating real mutually unbiased bases and representations of finite groups of odd order. Let $q$ be a power of 2 and $r$ a positive integer. Then we can find a $q^{2r}\times q^{2r}$ real orthogonal matrix $D$, say, of multiplicative order $q^{2r-1}+1$, whose $q^{2r-1}+1$ powers $D$, \dots, $D^{q^{2r-1}+1}=I$ define $q^{2r-1}+1$ mutually unbiased bases in $\mathbb{R}^{q^{2r}}$. Thus the scaled matrices $q^rD$, \dots, $q^rD^{q^{2r-1}}$ are $q^{2r-1}$ different Hadamard matrices. When we take $q=2$, we achieve the maximum number of real mutually unbiased bases in dimension $2^{2r}$ using the elements of a cyclic group. We also prove the following. Let $G$ be an arbitrary finite group of odd order $2k+1$, where $k\geq 3$. Then $G$ has a real representation $R$, say, of degree $2^{2^{k-1}}$ such that the elements $R(\sigma)$, $\sigma\in G$, define $|G|$ mutually unbiased bases in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$, where $d= 2^{2^{k-1}}$. In addition, a group of order 5 defines five real mutually unbiased bases in $\mathbb{R}^{16}$ and a group of order 3 defines three real mutually unbiased bases in $\mathbb{R}^{4}$. Thus, an arbitrary group of odd order has a faithful representation by real scaled Hadamard matrices of 2-power size., Comment: 17 pages. Replaces previous version with more comprehensive results

In this paper we investigate partial spreads of $H(2n-1,q^2)$ through the related notion of partial spread sets of hermitian matrices, and the more general notion of constant rank-distance sets. We prove a tight upper bound on the maximum size of a linear constant rank-distance set of hermitian matrices over finite fields, and as a consequence prove the maximality of extensions of symplectic semifield spreads as partial spreads of $H(2n-1,q^2)$. We prove upper bounds for constant rank-distance sets for even rank, construct large examples of these, and construct maximal partial spreads of $H(3,q^2)$ for a range of sizes.

Let K be a field admitting a cyclic Galois extension of degree n. The main result of this paper is a decomposition theorem for the space of alternating bilinear forms defined on a vector space of odd dimension n over K. We show that this space of forms is the direct sum of (n-1)/2 subspaces, each of dimension n, and the non-zero elements in each subspace have constant rank defined in terms of the orders of the Galois automorphisms. Furthermore, if ordered correctly, for each integer k lying between 1 and (n-1)/2, the rank of any non-zero element in the sum of the first k subspaces is at most n-2k+1. Slightly less sharp similar results hold for cyclic extensions of even degree., Comment: 13 pages

A Costas array of order $n$ is an arrangement of dots and blanks into $n$ rows and $n$ columns, with exactly one dot in each row and each column, the arrangement satisfying certain specified conditions. A dot occurring in such an array is even/even if it occurs in the $i$-th row and $j$-th column, where $i$ and $j$ are both even integers, and there are similar definitions of odd/odd, even/odd and odd/even dots. Two types of Costas arrays, known as Golomb-Costas and Welch-Costas arrays, can be defined using finite fields. When $q$ is a power of an odd prime, we enumerate the number of even/even odd/odd, even/odd and odd/even dots in a Golomb-Costas array. We show that three of these numbers are equal and they differ by $\pm 1$ from the fourth. For a Welch-Costas array of order $p-1$, where $p$ is an odd prime, the four numbers above are all equal to $(p-1)/4$ when $p\equiv 1\pmod{4}$, but when $p\equiv 3\pmod{4}$, we show that the four numbers are defined in terms of the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-p})$, and thus behave in a much less predictable manner., Comment: To appear in Advances in Mathematics of Communications

When n is odd, consider the finite general linear and unitary groups of rank n, extended by the inverse transpose automorphism. There are elements in the extended groups which square to a regular unipotent element, and we evaluate the values of irreducible characters of the extended groups on these elements. Several intermediate results on real conjugacy classes and real-valued characters of these groups are obtained along the way., Comment: 27 pages

Let q be a power of 2. We show by representation theory that there exists a q x q unitary matrix of multiplicative order q+1 whose powers generate q+1 pairwise mutually unbiased base in C^q. When q is a power of an odd prime, there is a q x q unitary matrix of multiplicative order q+1 whose first (q+1)/2 powers generate (q+1)/2 pairwise mutually unbiased bases. We also show how the existence of these matrices implies the existence of a special type of orthogonal decomposition with respect to the Killing form of the special linear and symplectic Lie algebras., Comment: 9 pages, some earlier questions resolved