Veronesean embeddings of dual polar spaces of orthogonal type

Given a point-line geometry P and a pappian projective space S,a veronesean embedding of P in S is an injective map e from the point-set of P to the set of points of S mapping the lines of P onto non-singular conics of S and such that e(P) spans S. In this paper we study veronesean embeddings of the dual polar space \Delta_n associated to a non-singular quadratic form q of Witt index n >= 2 in V = V(2n + 1; F). Three such embeddings are considered,namely the Grassmann embedding gr_n,the composition vs_n of the spin (projective) embedding of \Delta_n in PG(2n-1; F) with the quadric veronesean map of V(2n; F) and a third embedding w_n defined algebraically in the Weyl module V (2\lambda_n),where \lambda_n is the fundamental dominant weight associated to the n-th simple root of the root system of type Bn. We shall prove that w_n and vs_n are isomorphic. If char(F) is different from 2 then V (2\lambda_n) is irreducible and w_n is isomorphic to gr_n while if char(F) = 2 then gr_n is a proper quotient of w_n. In this paper we shall study some of these submodules. Finally we turn to universality,focusing on the case of n = 2. We prove that if F is a finite field of odd order q > 3 then sv_2 is relatively universal. On the contrary,if char(F) = 2 then vs_2 is not universal. We also prove that if F is a perfect field of characteristic 2 then vs_n is not universal,for any n>=2

On certain submodules of Weyl modules for SO(2n+1,F) with char(F) = 2

For $k = 1, 2,...,n-1$ let $V_k = V(\lambda_k)$ be the Weyl module for the special orthogonal group G = \mathrm{SO}(2n+1,\F) with respect to the $k$-th fundamental dominant weight $\lambda_k$ of the root system of type $B_n$ and put $V_n = V(2\lambda_n)$. It is well known that all of these modules are irreducible when \mathrm{char}(\F) \neq 2 while when \mathrm{char}(\F) = 2 they admit many proper submodules. In this paper, assuming that \mathrm{char}(\F) = 2, we prove that $V_k$ admits a chain of submodules $V_k = M_k \supset M_{k-1}\supset ... \supset M_1\supset M_0 \supset M_{-1} = 0$ where $M_i \cong V_i$ for $1,..., k-1$ and $M_0$ is the trivial 1-dimensional module. We also show that for $i = 1, 2,..., k$ the quotient $M_i/M_{i-2}$ is isomorphic to the so called $i$-th Grassmann module for $G$. Resting on this fact we can give a geometric description of $M_{i-1}/M_{i-2}$ as a submodule of the $i$-th Grassmann module. When \F is perfect G\cong \mathrm{Sp}(2n,\F) and $M_i/M_{i-1}$ is isomorphic to the Weyl module for \mathrm{Sp}(2n,\F) relative to the $i$-th fundamental dominant weight of the root system of type $C_n$. All irreducible sections of the latter modules are known. Thus, when \F is perfect, all irreducible sections of $V_k$ are known as well

A geometric approach to alternating kk-linear forms

Given an $n$-dimensional vector space $V$ over a field $\mathbb K$, let $2\leq k < n$. There is a natural correspondence between the alternating $k$-linear forms $\varphi$ of $V$ and the linear functionals $f$ of $\bigwedge^kV$. Let $\varepsilon_k:{\mathcal G}_k(V)\rightarrow {\mathrm{PG}}(\bigwedge^kV)$ be the Plucker embedding of the $k$-Grassmannian ${\mathcal G}_k(V)$ of $V$. Then $\varepsilon_k^{-1}(\ker(f)\cap\varepsilon_k(\mathcal{G}_k(V)))$ is a hyperplane of the point-line geometry ${\mathcal G}_k(V)$. All hyperplanes of ${\mathcal G}_k(V)$ can be obtained in this way. For a hyperplane $H$ of ${\mathcal G}_k(V)$, let $R^\uparrow(H)$ be the subspace of ${\mathcal G}_{k-1}(V)$ formed by the $(k-1)$-subspaces $A\subset V$ such that $H$ contains all $k$-subspaces that contain $A$. In other words, if $\varphi$ is the (unique modulo a scalar) alternating $k$-linear form defining $H$, then the elements of $R^\uparrow(H)$ are the $(k-1)$-subspaces $A = \langle a_1,\ldots, a_{k-1}\rangle$ of $V$ such that $\varphi(a_1,\ldots, a_{k-1},x) = 0$ for all $x\in V$. When $n-k$ is even it might be that $R^\uparrow(H) = \emptyset$. When $n-k$ is odd, then $R^\uparrow(H) \neq \emptyset$, since every $(k-2)$-subspace of $V$ is contained in at least one member of $R^\uparrow(H)$. If every $(k-2)$-subspace of $V$ is contained in precisely one member of $R^\uparrow(H)$ we say that $R^\uparrow(H)$ is spread-like. In this paper we obtain some results on $R^\uparrow(H)$ which answer some open questions from the literature and suggest the conjecture that, if $n-k$ is even and at least $4$, then $R^\uparrow(H) \neq \emptyset$ but for one exception with ${\mathbb K}\leq{\mathbb R}$ and $(n,k) = (7,3)$, while if $n-k$ is odd and at least $5$ then $R^\uparrow(H)$ is never spread-like.Comment: 29 Page

Grassmann embeddings of polar Grassmannians

In this paper we compute the dimension of the Grassmann embeddings of the polar Grassmannians associated to a possibly degenerate Hermitian, alternating or quadratic form with possibly non-maximal Witt index. Moreover, in the characteristic $2$ case, when the form is quadratic and non-degenerate with bilinearization of minimal Witt index, we define a generalization of the so-called Weyl embedding (see [I. Cardinali and A. Pasini, Grassmann and Weyl embeddings of orthogonal Grassmannians. J. Algebr. Combin. 38 (2013), 863-888]) and prove that the Grassmann embedding is a quotient of this generalized "Weyl-like" embedding. We also estimate the dimension of the latter.Comment: 25 pages/revised version after revie

Line Polar Grassmann Codes of Orthogonal Type

Polar Grassmann codes of orthogonal type have been introduced in I. Cardinali and L. Giuzzi, \emph{Codes and caps from orthogonal Grassmannians}, {Finite Fields Appl.} {\bf 24} (2013), 148-169. They are subcodes of the Grassmann code arising from the projective system defined by the Pl\"ucker embedding of a polar Grassmannian of orthogonal type. In the present paper we fully determine the minimum distance of line polar Grassmann Codes of orthogonal type for $q$ odd