Maps preserving idempotence on matrix spaces (Q2337067)

Summary: Suppose \(F\) is an arbitrary field. Let \(| F |\) be the number of the elements of \(F\). Let \(M_n(F)\) be the space of all \(n \times n\) matrices over \(F\), let \(S_n(F)\) be the subset of \(M_n(F)\) consisting of all symmetric matrices, and let \(T_n(F)\) be the subset of \(M_n(F)\) consisting of all upper-triangular matrices. Let \(V \in \{S_n(F), M_n(F), T_n(F) \}\); a map \(\Phi : V \rightarrow V\) is said to preserve idempotence if \(A - \lambda B\) is idempotent if and only if \(\Phi(A) - \lambda \Phi(B)\) is idempotent for any \(A\), \(B \in V\) and \(\lambda \in F\). In this paper, the maps preserving idempotence on \(S_n(F)\), \(M_n(F)\), and \(T_n(F)\) were characterized in case \(| F | = 3\).