Vectors, cyclic submodules, and projective spaces linked with ternions (Q1021359)

Given a ring of ternions \(R\), i.e., a ring isomorphic to that of upper triangular \(2 \times 2\) matrices with entries from an arbitrary commutative field \(F\), a complete classification is performed of the vectors from the free left \(R\)-module \(R^{n+1}\), \(n \geq 1\), and of the cyclic submodules generated by these vectors. The vectors fall into \(5 + |F|\) and the submodules into 6 distinct orbits under the action of the general linear group \(GL_{n+1}(R)\). Particular attention is paid to \(free\) cyclic submodules generated by non-unimodular vectors, as these are linked with the lines of \(PG(n,F)\), the \(n\)-dimensional projective space over \(F\). In the finite case, \(F = GF(q)\), explicit formulas are derived for both the total number of non-unimodular free cyclic submodules and the number of such submodules passing through a given vector. These formulas yield a combinatorial approach to the lines and points of \(PG(n, q)\), \(n \geq 2\), in terms of vectors and non-unimodular free cyclic submodules of \(R^{n+1}\).