Bireflectionality of orthogonal and symplectic groups of characteristic \(2\) (Q1969086)

Let \(K\) be a field of characteristic \(2\) and let \(V\) be a finite dimensional vector space over \(K\). Let \(Q\) be a nondegenerate quadratic form defined on \(V\) and let \(O(V)\) denote the orthogonal group associated to \(Q\) (thus \(O(V)\) is the group of all isometries of \(Q\)). Various authors, including the author of the paper under review, have proved that each element \(\pi\) of \(O(V)\) may be written in the form \(\pi=\sigma\tau\), where \(\sigma^2=\tau^2=1\). In the case that \(\pi\) is not an involution or the identity, \(\sigma\) and \(\tau\) are of course orthogonal involutions. If \(\pi\) is an involution, it has been observed that it is not always possible to choose both \(\sigma\) and \(\tau\) to be involutions (in other words, \(\sigma\), say, must be the identity, and \(\tau=\pi\)). The present paper is concerned with deciding when an orthogonal involution is the product of two (proper) involutions. The author's main result is the following. Let \(R\) be the radical of the associated alternating bilinear form of \(Q\). (It is then known that \(\dim V-\dim R\) is even.) If \(\dim V-\dim R=2\), no orthogonal involution is expressible as the product of two orthogonal involutions. If \(\dim V-\dim R\geq 4\), every element of \(O(V)\) is the product of two orthogonal involutions. The author also shows that in the case when \(V\) carries a nondegenerate alternating form, each element of the corresponding symplectic group is a product of two symplectic involutions unless \(\dim V=|K|=2\). (Also submitted to MR).