Additive preservers of rank-additivity on the spaces of symmetric and alternate matrices. (Q1428620)

Let \(S_n(F)\) denotes the set of all symmetric matrices of size \(n\) and \(K_n(F)\) the set of skew-symmetric (alternate) matrices over the field \(F\). A pair of matrices is called rank-additive if \(rk(A+B)=rk(A)+rk(B)\) and rank-subtractive if \(rk(A-B)=rk(A)-rk(B)\). The authors generalize the result of the reviewer [see, Linear Algebra Appl. 331, No. 1--3, 75--87 (2001; Zbl 0985.15018)] concerning bijective linear transformations that preserve rank additivity and subtractivity on the full matrix algebra \(M_n(F)\) to the bijective additive transformations in case that \(M_n(F)\) is replaced by \(S_n(F)\), \(n\geq 2\), or \(K_n(F)\), \(n\geq 4\). By applying the developed technique the authors characterize all algebra automorphisms of \(S_n(F)\) or \(K_n(F)\) which are considered as non-associative algebras with multiplication defined by the rule \(A\cdot B=ABA\).