Base subsets of polar Grassmannians (Q2459495)

The author continues his investigations from [\textit{M. Pankov}, J. Algebr. Comb. 26, No.~2, 143--159 (2007; Zbl 1134.51002)], concerning the question of whether bijective mappings of Grassmannians which preserve the shadows of apartments must be collineations of the corresponding shadow geometry. In this respect the author considers thick buildings of type \(C_n\) or \(D_n\), \({\mathcal G}_k\) the set of \(k\)-dimensional singular subspaces of the associated polar space \(\Pi\) of rank \(n\). \({\mathcal G}_k\) becomes a partial linear space, when it is equipped with a set of lines as follows. (i) \(k=0\): Lines are just the elements of \({\mathcal G}_1\) (ii) \(1\leq k\leq n-2\): Any line \(L\) has the form \(L=\{T\in {\mathcal G}_k \mid S\subset T \subset U\}\) with some fixed \(S\in{\mathcal G}_{k-1}\), \(T\in{\mathcal G}_{k+1}\). (ii) \(k=n-1\): Lines are the sets of all maximal singular subspaces containing some fixed \(S\in{\mathcal G}_{n-2}\). Among others the author proves: (1) A bijective mapping \({\mathcal G}_k \longrightarrow {\mathcal G}_k\) \((0 \leq k \leq n-1)\) which preserves base subsets (i.e. the intersections of the apartments of the associated buildings) is a collineation of the partial linear space \({\mathcal G}_k\), Further assumptions on \(\Pi\) are: Any \((n-2)\)-dimensional singular singular subspace is contained (C) in at least \(3\) (D) exactly \(2\) maximal singular subspaces. (2) Let \(k\geq 1\). The collineation of \({\mathcal G}_k\) is induced by a collineation of the polar space \(\Pi\), if either \(\Pi\) fulfils (C) or \(\Pi\) fulfils (D) and \(k\neq 1\) or \(n\neq 4\).