Linear maps preserving rank 2 on the space of alternate matrices and their applications (Q1777861)

Let us denote by \(F\) any field and by \(F^*\) its multiplicative group; denote also by \(A^t\) the transpose of any matrix \(A\) with entries in \(F\). A square matrix A is said to be \(alternate\) if \(A^t=-A\) and all diagonal elements are zeros. Several properties of such matrices are known, e.g. they form a linear space (denoted by \(K_n (F)\)) . These matrices play a considerable role in the theory of quadratic forms and classical groups, and therefore the endomorphisms preserving their properties take on great interest. The authors investigate firstly linear maps preserving rank 2 matrices with entries in any field \(F\) (the rank of any alternate matrix is even). With the single exclusion of the field \(\mathbb{Z}_2\), the authors also study linear maps preserving matrices with maximum rank and, next, endomorphisms preserving either the determinant or the adjoint matrix of an alternate matrix.