Bounds on real finite linear groups that preserve a symmetric or skew symmetric bilinear form (Q2311743)

An 1878 result of Jordan states that a finite complex linear group \(G\) of degree \(n\) has an abelian normal subgroup whose index is bounded in terms of \(n\). This was made into an explicit, sharp bound in previous work of the present author [J. Group Theory 18, No. 4, 511--534 (2015; Zbl 1326.20049)]. For \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\) and \(\mathrm{O}(n,\mathbb{C})\), call the respective bounds \(f(n)\) and \(g(n)\). The paper under review derives analogous bounds for subgroups of real classical groups. Namely, let \(G\) be a finite group acting on a real vector space with bilinear form \(\mathrm{B}\). Write \(k\) for the dimension of the radical of \(\mathrm{B}\). If \(\mathrm{B}\) is skew symmetric, its non-degenerate part has even dimension \(2m\), and if \(\mathrm{B}\) is symmetric, let \(p + q\) be its rank and \(p - q\) be its signature. Then Theorem A states that \(G\) has an abelian normal subgroup \(A\), whose index is bounded by \(g(k)\cdot f(m)\) if \(\mathrm{B}\) is skew symmetric, or by \(g(k) \cdot g(p) \cdot g(q)\) if \(\mathrm{B}\) is symmetric. In particular, a finite subgroup \(G\) of \(\mathrm{ GL}(n,\mathbb{R})\) has an abelian normal subgroup of index at most \(g(n)\). Along the way, several other interesting results are derived. Theorem B states that a compact group can be embedded in \(\mathrm{Sp}(2n,\mathbb{R})\) if and only if it can be embedded in \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\); while the `if' direction is essentially classical, the `only if' direction is new. Finally, Theorem C states that a compact group acting on finite-dimensional vector space \(V\) with bilinear form \(\mathrm{B}\) preserves a direct-sum decomposition of \(V = \mathrm{Rad}(\mathrm{B}) \oplus V_{0}\), where \(V_{0}\) is non-degenerate. This decomposition is unique precisely when \(\mathrm{Rad}(\mathrm{B})\) and \(V_{0}\) have no irreducible constituents in common. In the case that \(\mathrm{B}\) is symmetric, \(G\) also stabilises an orthogonal decomposition \(V_{0} = V_{p} \oplus V_{q}\), where \(V_p\) is positive definite and \(V_q\) is negative definite. Assuming the bounds from the author's previous work, the proofs of the above results are all straightforward and short, using mainly classical results on real bilinear forms.