On the geometry of symmetric and alternating forms (Q791566)

Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space over a field k of characteristic different from 2 equipped with a nondegenerate symmetric or alternating form f. Let N(f) denote the set of all maximal isotropic subspaces of f. Given another such pair (V',f') it is natural to ask under which conditions a map \(\phi\) : N(f)\(\to N(f')\) comes from a linear mapping between V and V' (twisted by an automorphism of k). In the case \(V=V'\) and \(\phi\) is bijective, the only condition is the preserving of the distance between subspaces in N(f), defined by \(d(S,T)=\dim V-\dim S\cap T.\) The author generalizes this previously known result to the case of any maps \(\phi\) : N(f)\(\to N(f')\) satisfying \(d(\phi(S),\phi(T))\leq d(S,T).\) Essentially, necessary and sufficient conditions on \(\phi\) are determined so that \(\phi\) induces a place \(f: k\to k'\cup \{\infty \}\) with valuation ring \(A=f^{-1}(k')\) such that \(\phi(S)=k'\beta(M\cap S)\) for a free A-modular lattice M on V and an f-semilinear mapping \(\beta\) : \(N\to V'\).