Normal forms for orthogonal similarity classes of skew-symmetric matrices (Q876402)

Let \(F\) be an algebrically closed field of characteristic different from 2. Define the orthogonal group, \(O_n(F)\), as the group of \(n\times n\) matrices \(X\) over \(F\) such that \(XX'= I_n\). This paper is a sequel to the work of \textit{D. Z. Djokovic} and \textit{K. Zhao} [Linear Algebra Appl. 384, 77--84 (2004; Zbl 1063.15008)], where tridiagonal normal forms for symmetric matrices under the action of \(O_n(F)\) were constructed. The present authors continue this work and study the similarity action of \(O_n(F)\) on the space of all \(n\times n\) skew-symmetric matrices over \(F\). Their new normal forms are simpler and may be better suited for some applications. At the end of Section 3 they pose three open problems. The proof of Lemma 3.1 is given separately in Section 4. In the last section they study the variety of nilpotent \(n\times n\) bidiagonal matrices with 1's along the lower diagonal. The results in the last section may be compared with the normalized diagonal and tridiagonal symmetric cases. The vaiety of symmetric nilpotent \(m\times m\) matrices is also equidimensional.