1. Introduction
Projective Klingenberg spaces (PKS) are incidence structures whose homomorphic image is a projective space over a field. W. Klingenberg [
1] started studying these structures (originally
projective planes with homomorphisms) as a special case of ring geometry in the mid-20th Century; PKS of a general dimension
was introduced by H.H. Lück [
2]. In the 1980s, F. Machala [
3] introduced projective Klingenberg spaces over local rings. The arithmetical fundament of such spaces is a free finite dimensional
A-module over a local ring
A (
A-space in the sense of B.R. McDonald [
4]). Projective geometry is also related to the theory of geodesic mappings (see, e.g., in [
5]).
In the case of PKS over certain local rings (
plural algebras [
6]), we may study in more detail the structure of PKS and we can find some special properties—some of these are presented in [
7], where “linear subsets” of KPS were described, while this article is devoted to some polar properties of quadrics in KPS over plural algebra. We present some geometric interpretation of certain “algebraic” properties of quadrics and quadratic forms in such case.
Now, to make the paper self-contained, we remind some properties of KPS over the following local algebra A.
Definition 1. [
6]
A plural algebra of order m over a field T is every linear algebra A on T having as a vector space over T a basis: Remark 1. It follows from Definition 1 that any element α of A may be uniquely expressed in the form A is a local ring with the maximal ideal 𝔞 = and all proper ideals of A are just . Evidently, .
Furthermore, A has following properties,
Definition 2. An incidence structure (plane, space) is understood to be any triple , where , . Elements of the set P are called points, elements of the set H are called hyperplanes, and I is called the incidence relation; instead of we will also write .
If and are incidence structures then a homomorphism of to is understood to be any mapping such that and
According to [
8], let us define the following.
Definition 3. A projective Klingenberg space of dimension n, , is an incidence structure with a homomorphism μ of onto an n-dimensional projective space such that
If are points in P such that are independent in , then there exists a hyperplane in H such that . This hyperplane is unique if .
This condition is dual of the condition 1.
If and are such that are independent, are independent and , then and imply .
Definition 4. Points are called neighbors, if . Otherwise, we speak of non-neighbor points.
Let us remind the reader of a definition of a
(coordinate) projective Klingenberg space over the ring A (according to Machala [
3]). For
, any projective Klingenberg space is isomorphic to a certain projective Klingenberg space over a local ring. In the case of planes, it is true only for Desarguesian ones.
Through this paper, by the symbol we will denote the linear span of a set G; the symbol will denote the coset determined by an element x.
Definition 5. Let A be a local ring and 𝔞 be its maximal ideal. Let us denote . Then, an incidence structure such that
points in are just all submodules such that is a nonzero element of ,
hyperplanes in are just all submodules such that are linearly independent elements of ,
the incidence relation is an inclusion,
is called an n-dimensional projective Klingenberg space over the ring A.
For any point of , an element x is called an arithmetical representative of the point X. The module M is called the arithmetical fundament of the space , any of basis of M is called an arithmetical basis of .
Let us remark that the homomorphic image of
is defined to be the
n-dimensional projective space
over the field
(with an arithmetical fundament
). The respective homomorphism
is defined by
The following definition is natural.
Definition 6. Let be an n-dimensional projective Klingenberg space and M be its arithmetical fundament. Let a submodule K of M be given. A setis called a k-dimensional subspace in , if , where are linearly independent elements of . The submodule K is called an arithmetical fundament of the subspace .
Using this definition, we have that points and hyperplanes (according to Definition 5) correspond to the cases and , respectively.
Through the the rest of the paper, we study an n-dimensional PKS over a plural algebra A (the generator of A is denoted by ) with arithmetical fundament denoted by M (Definition 5). Obviously, the module M is an A-space.
Now, subspaces of may be characterized as follows:
Theorem 1. [
9]
Let be a projective Klingenberg space. Then k-dimensional subspaces of , , are just all subsets (
2)
such that K is a -dimensional A-subspace in M. (Let us remark, that Theorem 1 holds not only for KPSs over the plural algebra
A, it follows from [
9] (cf. the proof of Lemma 1) that it holds true also in cases, when in the respective
A-module
M (arithmetical fundament of
), any linearly independent system of elements of
M can be completed to a basis of
M.)
Definition 7. [
9]
Let and be points of a projective Klingenberg space and let r be a non-negative integer satisfying:The number r is called the degree of neighborhood of the points X and Y.
Remark 2. For a couple of non-neighbor points we have , for neighbor but distinct points and for identical points .
Definition 8. [
7]
Let X be a point and be a subset of points of a projective Klingenberg space. We say that r is a degree of neighborhood of X and if there exists at least one point such that the degree of neighborhood of points is equal to r and the degree of neighborhood of X and any point of is not greater than r. Remark 3. If is a subspace of and K is an arithmetical fundament of , then the degree of neighborhood of a point and subspace is equal to r if and only if Let us recall (see [
10]) that any linear form
may be written in the form
, where
is a linear form with Im
and
, is uniquely determined integer (called the
order of the linear form ).
Theorem 2. [
7]
Let be a projective Klingenberg space. Let φ be an arbitrary linear form on M of order k. Then, the setis formed by all points with the degree of neighborhood at least to a certain hyperplane of . If is a form of zero order such that , then 2. Quadrics in Projective Klingenberg Spaces
The notions of bilinear and quadratic forms will be used in the usual sense.
A quadratic form determines a quadric. Any quadratic form on an A-space over the algebra A has two important algebraic characteristics—an order (Definition 9) and a characteristic (Definition 11). Naturally, these notions may be assigned to a quadric (determined by a given quadratic form). Then, there is a question how these algebraic properties may be described from a geometric point of view. Geometric interpretations of them will be found in this section.
Let be a symmetric bilinear form on the A-space M. Then, denotes the quadratic form determined by the form (polar bilinear form of the quadratic form ), i.e., .
The image of any bilinear and quadratic form has the following algebraic characterization (cf. [
11]).
Definition 9. A nonzero bilinear form is called a bilinear form of order k, , ifthe order of a zero bilinear form is defined to be equal to m. By the order of a quadratic form we mean the order of its polar bilinear form.
Theorem 3. [
11]
If Φ
is a bilinear form of order k, then there exists at least one bilinear form of zero order such that . The notion of a quadric in KPS will be defined in the natural way.
Definition 10. Let a quadratic form on M be given. Then, the set defined by is called a
In [
11], the existence of a basis of
M polar with respect to arbitrary quadratic form is proved (the notion of
polar basis is used in the usual sense, i.e., it is any basis of
M so that the matrix of given quadratic form with respect to this basis is diagonal). If a quadric
is given, then a basis of
M polar with respect to
is called an
arithmetical basis of polar with respect to the quadric .
In what follows, we will consider that A is a complex plural algebra, i.e., (Definition 1). As for every unit there exists a unit with , any polar basis may be “normalized” and the following theorem holds.
Theorem 4. Let be a quadratic form on M. Then, there exists at least one basis of M such that the matrix of Φ
with respect to is equal to with Definition 11. [
11]
Let be a quadratic form on M and let be a basis of M polar with respect to Φ.
Let us define a set of integers as follows,Then is called a characteristic of the quadratic form with respect to the basis .
In [
11], it is proved that for arbitrary bases
,
is polar with respect to the same quadratic form
it holds:
(invariance of the characteristic). Further, it may be shown that two quadratic forms
determine the same quadric in
if and only if there exists a unit
such that
. Therefore, the following definition is correct.
Definition 12. Let a quadric Q in be given. Let be a quadratic form with and be a characteristic of with respect to an arbitrary arithmetical basis of polar with respect to Q. Then, the characteristic is called a characteristic of the quadric Q and it is denoted by .
The correctness of the following definition follows from the note before the Definition 12.
Definition 13. Let a quadric in be given. Then, an order of the polar bilinear form Φ is called an order of the quadric Q.
Remark 4. Let be a quadric in and k be its order. Then, there exist elements with . Are they representatives of some points of ? As any element from A-space M may be written by x, where , (see [10]), we have that (the opposite case yields, for example, , and we get , which contradicts (3)). It means that are points of (cf. Definition 5). Let z be an element from M. Then the mapping defined for every byis a linear form on M. Let us construct to the given quadric Q the set of all linear forms defined by (4), i.e., (this set is determined by Q uniquely up to a multiplication by a unit of A). From the consideration in this remark and from Definition 9, it follows that all of these forms are of order , and at least one of them—e.g., —has order equal to k. The following notion is a natural generalization of the notion polar subspace of a quadric and a given point (as it is known in projective geometry over field).
Definition 14. Let a quadric in be given. Let be a point of . Then, the setis called a polar submodule of a quadric Q and a point Y. Remark 5. Let us remind that the notion of submodule of is in [7] defined as a set of points of the arithmetical representatives of which belong to a submodule of the arithmetical fundament M of . Let . We clearly see thatit means that is a submodule of . The following Theorems 5 and 6 bring a geometric interpretation of the order of a quadric.
Theorem 5. Let Q be a quadric in . The order of Q is equal to zero if and only if there exists a point such that the polar submodule is a hyperplane of .
Proof. Let
. According to Remark 4, there exists at least one element
such that the order of a linear form
is equal to zero. Let us consider a point
. Using Theorem 2, Remark 2, and relation (
5), we get
where
is a hyperplane of
and
is its arithmetical fundament. □
Theorem 6. Let Q be a quadric in . The order of Q is equal to , if and only if
there exists a point such that the polar submodule is formed by all points with the degree of neighborhood at least to a certain hyperplane of ;
if and is a linear form of zero order with , then for the hyperplane it holds
there is no point such that the polar submodule is formed by all points with the degree of neighborhood at least to some hyperplane of .
Proof. Let . Using Remark 4 and examining the system of linear forms , we see that Q is of order if and only if there exists at least one element such that the order of a linear form is equal to k and there is no element such that the order of is less than k.
Let us consider a point
. First, let us construct a linear form
of zero order such that
(cf. a note before Theorem 2). Then, using the relation (
5) and Theorem 2 we obtain a submodule
with
and a hyperplane
such that
is formed by the set of points of
and all points of the degree of neighborhood at least
to it.
As there is no linear form of order less than k, there is no point and no hyperplane of such that a submodule is formed only by points of degree of neighborhood at least to a hyperplane. □
In the last part of the article we will find the link between the polarity of a KPS induced by a quadric and a characteristic of the quadric.
Definition 15. Let a quadric in be given. Then, a mapping of the set of points of to the set of submodules of a space , which assigns a polar submodule to any point is called a polarity on induced by a quadric Q.
There is a natural question whether a polarity may be a bijection of the set of points onto the set of hyperplanes of .
Theorem 7. Let Q be a quadric in . A polarity on induced by a quadric Q is a bijection of the set of points of onto the set of hyperplanes of if and only if
Proof. Let
be a quadric and
be a point in
. Let us choose an arithmetical basis
of
. If a point
Y has homogeneous coordinates
over
(a system of homogeneous coordinates in the space
is considered in the usual way: a point
has over over
coordinates
—which is denoted by
—if and only if
and an element
has coordinates
over
), then a polar submodule
is according to (
5) given by the following relation:
where
is a matrix of
with respect to a basis
.
Let
be an arbitrary hyperplane in
. Then, there exists a linear form
of zero order such that
(cf. 2). Thus, a point
belongs to
if and only if
where
are coefficients of a linear form
in a basis
.
As
is of zero order, at least one of
does not belong to the ideal
. Respecting the fact that an
-tuple
of elements of
A may represent homogeneous coordinates of some point of
only if at least one
, from (
6) and (
7) we obtain that there exists a point
Y with
if and only if a matrix
is invertible (the unicity of a point
Y is in this case evident).
A matrix over the ring A is invertible if and only if its determinant belongs to . Using Theorem 4 and Definition 11, we see that the matrix is invertible if and only if . □
The notion of the “degree of neighborhood” has shown up as a key one for a pure geometric description of the set of points conjugated with respect to the given quadric in KPS A to a given point (a polar submodule). In general, such set does not have to be a hyperplane, but it is formed by points with a certain degree of neighborhood to the hyperplane. This “certain degree” is determined by an algebraic property of an image of the quadratic form associated with the given quadric (an order of quadric). The polarity of a KPS induced by a quadric does not have to be a bijection of the set of points of KPS onto the set of hyperplanes. We found a sufficient and necessary condition for the polarity to be such a bijection.