Odd order products of conjugate involutions in linear groups over \(\mathrm{GF}(2^a)\) (Q2037533)

If \(t\) is an involution in a group \(G\), then it is easy to see that the set of elements of odd order which are conjugated by \(t\) to their inverses is in bijective correspondence with the set of those conjugates of \(t\) whose product with \(t\) has odd order. In this paper, the authors are interested in the question -- for finite simple groups of Lie type over fields of characteristic \(2\) -- of analyzing the number of conjugates of \(t\) whose product with \(t\) have odd order. \textit{M. W. Liebeck} [J. Algebra 421, 431--437 (2015; Zbl 1316.20011)] obtained some lower bounds for the number of such conjugates in these groups. This has applications to the theory of recognition algorithms for these groups. Here, the authors show for the groups \(\mathrm{GL}_n\), \(\mathrm{SL}_n\), \(\mathrm{PGL}_n\) and \(\mathrm{PSL}_n\) over the fields \(\mathbb{F}_{2^a}\) that, as \(a\) goes to infinity, the proportion of the asserted elements tends to \(1\). Moreover, they determine the precise cardinalities for \(n=2,3,4\). They essentially use results on the representation theory of linear groups.