Isometric embeddings of polar Grassmannians and metric characterizations of their apartments (Q2397711)

With every polar space \(\Pi\) of rank \(n\) and for every \(1\leq k< n\) there is an associated polar Grassmannian \(\mathcal{G}_k(\Pi)\) and a Grassmann graph \(\Gamma_k(\Pi)\). In the latter, the \(k\)-dimensional singular subspaces of \(\Pi\) between two incident subspaces \(S\in \mathcal{G}_{k-1}(\Pi)\) and \(U\in \mathcal{G}_{n-1}(\Pi)\) form a maximal clique, called a star. A key technical result of the paper deals with an isometric embedding \(f\) of \(\Gamma_k(\Pi)\) in \(\Gamma_{k'}(\Pi')\) where \(1\leq k\leq n-3\) and \(\Pi'\) is a polar space of rank \(n'\) that transfers stars to subsets of stars. Under this assumption, it is shown in Proposition 2 that \(n - k \leq n' - k'\) and that there exists a \((k' -k -1)\)-dimensional singular subspace \(S\) of \(\Pi'\) such that the image of \(f\) is contained in \([S\rangle_{k'}\), the set of all \(k'\)-dimensional singular subspaces containing \(S\), and \(f\) is induced by a collinearity-preserving injection of \(\Pi\) to \(\Pi'_S\), the polar space on \([S\rangle_{k'}\) of rank \(n'-k'\). The authors continue to show that if \(f\) is an isometric embedding of \(\Gamma_k(\Pi)\) in \(\Gamma_{k'}(\Pi')\) and \(1 \leq k \leq n - 4\), then \(k \leq k'\) and the conclusions of Proposition 2 hold. They further obtain similar results in case \(k=n-3\geq1\) with \(\Pi\) being of type \(C_n\) or \(D_n\), and when \(n = n'\), \(k = k' = n - 2\). As a consequence, the image of every isometric embedding of \(\Gamma_k(n)\), the Grassmann graph of a thin polar space of rank \(n\), in \(\Gamma_{k}(\Pi)\) is an apartment of the polar Grassmannian \(\mathcal{G}_k(\Pi)\). These results extend characterizations of isometric embeddings of various polar Grassmann graphs and of apartments in polar Grassmannians by the second author [J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 118, 1313--1321 (2011; Zbl 1226.51006); Electron. J. Comb. 21, No. 4, Research Paper P4.4, 22 p. (2014; Zbl 1301.51007)].