The embedding \(O(2m,2^ k)\leq Sp(2m,2^ k)\) (Q749668)

The permutation rank of \(G=Sp(2m,2^ k)\) on each of the subgroups \(O^{\epsilon}(2m,2^ k)\) for \(\epsilon =\pm\) is shown to be \(2^{k- 1}+1\). There is one suborbit of size 1 and one of size \((2^{mk}- \epsilon)(2^{k(m-1)}+\epsilon)\); the other \(2^{k-1}-1\) orbits are of size \(2^{k(m-1)}(2^{km}-\epsilon)\). Moreover, each orbital is selfpaired. The proof exploits a G-invariant symmetric \(GF(2^ k)\)- valued function \(\alpha\) on the set of all pairs Q, R of quadratic forms on the standard representation space for G whose bilinear forms coincide with the symplectic form (\(\cdot,\cdot)\) defining G. To be precise, \(\alpha (Q,R)=Q(y)\) where y is a vector with \((y,x)^ 2=Q(x)+R(x)\) for all vectors x.