Coproducts in categories of \(q\)-matroids (Q6171505)

We call with the name of \(q\)-matroids the \(q\)-analogue of matroids [\textit{H. Crapo}, On the theory of combinatorial independence. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD thesis) (1964); \textit{R. Jurrius} and \textit{R. Pellikaan}, Electron. J. Comb. 25, No. 3, Research Paper P3.2, 32 p. (2018; Zbl 1393.05071)], a generalization in which `finite sets' are replaced by `finite-dimensional vector spaces'. Recently \(q\)-matroids gained importance due to their link to rank-metric codes, which are employed, for example, in network coding. The paper deals with maps between \(q\)-matroids, and the relation with categories. These maps are defined as maps among the ground spaces (that is, the finite-dimensional vector spaces over which the \(q\)-matroids are defined) and they have to satisfy properties that make them compatible with the structure of \(q\)-matroid. The \(\mathcal{L}\)-maps are maps between the ground spaces of two \(q\)-matroids which are non-necessarily linear, but they send each subspace in a subspace, thus inducing a map on the subspace lattices associated to the \(q\)-matroids. The paper characterizes the maps according to the properties making them compatible with the structure of \(q\)-matroid: \begin{itemize} \item \textit{weak}: the rank of each subspace is bigger than or equal to that of its image; \item \textit{rank-preserving}: in case of equality for each subspace; \item \textit{strong}: the preimage of a flat is a flat as well. \end{itemize} Then, a connection with the direct sum of \(q\)-matroids is established. While in the classical case of matroids, the direct sum is a coproduct in the categories having as morphisms both strong and weak maps, this is not the case in the \(q\)-analogue. Indeed the category with strong maps, the one with linear strong maps and the one with weak maps do not have a coproduct. The direct sum is instead a coproduct if we take the category with linear weak maps and this turns out to match with the concept of direct sum defined in [\textit{M. Ceria} and \textit{R. Jurrius}, ``The direct sum of $q$-matroids'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2109.13637}]. Finally, the paper studies also categories of $q$-matroids such that the morphisms are given by the maps between subspace lattices induced by \(\mathcal{L}\)-maps.