On the matrices of given rank in a large subspace (Q2431177)

Let \(V\) be a linear subspace of the \(n\times p\) matrices with \(n\geq p\) over an arbitrary field, with \(\text{codim}(V)< n\). In an earlier paper the author proved that \(V\) is spanned by its rank \(p\) matrices unless \(n= p= 2\) and the field has characteristic 2. In this paper the author derives a condition on \(\text{codim}(V)\) which is sufficient for \(V\) to be spanned by its rank \(r\) matrices for a given integer \(r\in[1, p- 1]\). The proof involves extending a theorem of Flanders to affine subspaces and slightly extending the famous Gerstenhaber theorem.