Embeddings of Grassmann spaces (Q1347016)

Every embedding of a Grassmann space in a projective space can be obtained - up to collineations -- by projecting the associated Grassmannian. This is a special case of a more general result on homomorphic images of Grassmann spaces [the reviewer, ibid. 16, 152-167 (1981; Zbl 0463.51003); ibid. 16, 168-180 (1981; Zbl 0463.51004)] and it has been proved independently by \textit{A. L. Wells jun.} [Q. J. Math., Oxf. II. Ser. 34, 375-386 (1983; Zbl 0537.51008)]. Whenever this projection is different from identity, the image of the embedding will be called a ``projected Grassmannian''. In the present paper a result by Wells (loc.cit.) on the existence of projected Grassmannians is substantially improved as follows: Every Grassmannian representing the \(h\)-flats in \(\text{PG}(n,F)\) (over a commutative field \(F\)) with \(n > 2\) and \(0 < h < n-1\) can be projected if and only if \(n > 5\). Thus exactly the Grassmannians representing the lines in \(\text{PG} (n,F)\), \(n = 3,4 \) cannot be projected. The tools to obtain this result are the quadratic relations among the Grassmann coordinates of subspaces and a recursive construction of Grassmannians. Moreover, the author mentions without proof that the Grassmann space representing the lines \(\text{PG} (5,F)\) is embeddable into \(\text{PG}(12,F)\) when \(F = \text{GF} (2)\), but fails to have this property when \(F\) is the real or complex number field.