Isotropic subspaces for skewforms and maximal abelian subgroups of \(p\)-groups (Q1087984)

The subject of the first part of this paper is the following question: What is the maximum number \(d(F,n,k)\) such that for every \(k\)-tuple of skew forms of a vector space of dimension \(n\) over a field \(F\) there is a \(d\)-dimensional subspace which is isotropic with respect to all \(k\) skew forms? Here the field \(F\) is always assumed to be of characteristic different from two. The authors show that \(d(F,n,k)\leq [(2n+1)/(k+2)]\) with equality for algebraically closed fields \(F\), if \(k>1\). Earlier results by the reviewer had shown \(d(F,n,k)\geq [(n+k)/(k+1)]\). As a consequence, there are \(p\)-groups of order \(p^ n\) all of whose abelian subgroups have order \(p^ d\) at most, where \(d=[\sqrt{8n+9}]-3\). The counterexample given in the last section on real vector spaces is incorrect, but the statement itself is correct as shown by the counterexample of the reviewer [Arch. Math. 18, 449--455 (1967; Zbl 0155.35801)].