Veronesean embeddings of dual polar spaces of orthogonal type

TL;DR

This paper investigates Veronesean embeddings of dual polar spaces of orthogonal type, comparing different embeddings, analyzing their algebraic properties, and studying their universality over various fields.

Contribution

It introduces and compares three Veronesean embeddings of dual polar spaces, proving their isomorphisms or differences, and examines their universality properties over different fields.

Findings

w_n and vs_n are isomorphic embeddings

gr_n is a proper quotient of w_n in characteristic 2

vs_2 is relatively universal over finite fields of odd order q > 3

Abstract

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.