Groups generated by symplectic transvections over local rings (Q1305025)

Let \(R\) be a commutative local ring with unique maximal ideal \(A\), and let \(V\) be a free module of rank \(n\) over \(R\). Then \(\text{Sp}_n(V)\) denotes the symplectic group on \(V\) with an alternating bilinear form \(f\colon V\times V\to R\). The author studies the generation of a subgroup \(T_R(M)\) of \(\text{Sp}_n(V)\), where \(M=\{x\in V\mid f(x,V)=R\}\) and \(T_R(M)\) is the subgroup generated by all symplectic transformations with axis \(x^\perp\) for \(x\in M\). Given a set \(\emptyset\neq N\subseteq M\), the author tackles the following problems: 1. Under what conditions is \(T_R(N)=T_R(M)\)? 2. If \(T_R(N)=T_R(M)\), find a small subset \(N'\subseteq N\) such that \(T_R(N')=T_R(M)\). 3. Let \(N\) be a regular spanning set for \(V\). What is the \(T_R(N)\) orbit for each vector \(x\in M\)? For the cases \(|R/A|>2\) or \(w(V)=1\), where \(w(V)\) is the Witt index of \(V\), the author has already solved these problems in his paper [in J. Algebra 112, No. 1, 151-158 (1988; Zbl 0641.20035)]. Therefore in this paper always \(|R/A|=2\) and \(w(V)>1\) are assumed, but \(V\) is not necessarily non-singular. Solving problem 1 the author obtains nice necessary and sufficient conditions for any subset \(N\subseteq M\) with \(T_R(N)=T_R(M)\) (Theorem 3.2). If \(f\) is non-singular, then \(T_R(M)=\text{Sp}(V)\) and the necessary and sufficient conditions yield a criterion for an arbitrary \(N\subseteq M\) satisfying \(T_R(N)=\text{Sp}(V)\). Moreover, it is shown that \(N\) contains \(n+1\) elements \(N'=\{s_1,\dots,s_{n+1}\}\) such that \(T_R(M)\) is generated by the symplectic transformations \(T_{R,s_1},T_{1,s_2},\dots,T_{1,s_{n+1}}\) (Theorem 3.4). As a consequence, if \(R\) is generated by \(r\) elements as an additive group, then \(T_R(M)\) is generated by \(n+r\) elements (Theorem 3.5). Thus also problem 2 is solved. The author is also able to answer problem 3: If \(N\) is a regular spanning set for \(T_R(M)\), then either \(M\) has exactly two \(T_R(N)\) orbits or \(T_R(N)\) acts transitively on \(M\) (Theorem 3.3).