Generation of symplectic groups by transvections over local rings with at least 3 residue classes (Q1100563): Difference between revisions

Let R be a commutative local ring with identity such that \(| R/A| >2\), where A is the maximal ideal of R. Let V be a free module of rank n over R, f an alternating bilinear form on V, and Sp(V) the symplectic group. Assume \(a\in R\) and \(v\in V\), then \(T_{a,v}z=z+f(z,v)av\) for \(z\in V\) is a transvection. For \(S\subset V\), let \(T_{R,S}=\{T_{a,s}|\) \(a\in R\), \(s\in S\}\) and let \(T_ R(S)\) denote the subgroup of Sp(V) generated by \(T_{R,S}\). Finally let \(M=\{x\in V|\) \(f(x,V)=R\}\). The author shows that for any \(S\subset M\) the following three statements are equivalent: (a) \(T_ R(S)\) acts transitively on M; (b) \(T_ R(S)=T_ R(M)\); (c) S is a connected spanning set of V. A set S is connected if for each x,y\(\in S\) there are \(s_ 1,...,s_ r\in S\) such that \(s_ 1=x\), \(s_ r=y\), and \(f(s_ i,s_{i+1})\) is a unit. As a consequence the author proves a number of theorems for generators of certain subgroups of Sp(V).