The probability of spanning a classical space by two non-degenerate subspaces of complementary dimensions (Q2672343)

Let \(n,n^{\prime}\) be positive integers and let \(V\) be an (\(n + n^{\prime})\)-dimensional vector space over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}\) equipped with a nondegenerate alternating, hermitian or quadratic form. The authors estimate the proportion of pairs \((U, U^{\prime} )\), where \(U\) is a nondegenerate \(n\)-subspace and \(U^{\prime}\) is a nondegenerate \(n^{\prime}\)-subspace of \(V\), such that \(U +U^{\prime} = V\). The proportion is shown to be at least \(1 - c/|\mathbb{F}|\) for some constant \(c < 2\) in the symplectic or unitary cases, and \(c < 3\) in the orthogonal case. The authors point out that the problem they are dealing with has connections to computations in finite classical groups.