Grassmannians of arbitrary rank (Q330181)

A Grassmannian over a projective space is a point-line space whose point set consists of all subspaces of fixed \textit{finite} rank. This paper proposes an extension of Grassmannians to subspaces of infinite rank. For a given non-trivial subspace \(U\), the points are projective subspaces \(V\) such that \(U \cap V\) has the same (finite) corank in \(U\) and in \(V\). Pairs of Grassmannians coming from complementary subspaces are called \textit{twin Grassmannians}. Omitting subspaces such that certain key properties are preserved, the concept of twin Grassmannians is generalized to \textit{partial twin Grassmannians}. These are partial linear spaces and with an opposition relation.NEWLINENEWLINEA partial twin Grassmannian gives rise to the construction of a connected chamber system. The chambers are certain maximal chains of projective subspaces and, in fact, are even buildings. The connected chamber system forms a twin building. Proofs of these statements are quite intricate and, at times, the subtleties of infinite rank Grassmannians show.