Orbits of free cyclic submodules over rings of lower triangular matrices

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Abstract: Given a ring Tn,ngeqslant2, of lower triangular nimesn matrices with entries from an arbitrary field F, a complete description is performed of the orbits of free cyclic submodules of 2Tn, under the action of the general linear group GL2(Tn). It is given its total number, which is equal to the Bell number Bn, and there are shown their representatives.


Let \(T_n\) denote the ring of lower triangular \(n\times n\) matrices, \(n\geq 2\), with entries in an arbitrary (commutative) field \(F\). Furthermore, write \(^{2} T_{n}\) for the free left \(T_n\)-module comprising all pairs \((A,B)\in T_n\times T_n\). The set of all free cyclic submodules of \(^{2} T_{n}\) splits into orbits under the (right) action of the general linear group \(\mathrm{GL}_2(T_n)\). \par The \(\mathrm{GL}_2(T_n)\)-orbit of the free cyclic submodule \(T_{n}(I_n,0)\), with \(I_n\in T_{n}\) being the \(n\times n\) unit matrix, coincides with the (widely investigated) point set of the \emph{projective line} over the ring \(T_n\); see, for example [\textit{A. Blunck} and \textit{A. Herzer}, Kettengeometrien. Eine Einführung. Aachen: Shaker Verlag (2005; Zbl 1095.51001)] or [\textit{A. Herzer}, in: Handbook of incidence geometry: buildings and foundations. Amsterdam: North-Holland. 781--842 (1995; Zbl 0829.51003)]. However, little appears to be known about the remaining \(\mathrm{GL}_2(T_n)\)-orbits. The author succeeds in closing this gap. In Theorem 1, she provides a distinguished subset of \(^{2} T_{n}\) such that distinct elements generate free cyclic submodules of \(^{2} T_{n}\) belonging to distinct \(\mathrm{GL}_2(T_n)\)-orbits. Next, in Theorem 2, it is shown that all \(\mathrm{GL}_2(T_n)\)-orbits of free cyclic submodules arise from this distinguished set. Finally, the number of all such \(\mathrm{GL}_2(T_n)\)-orbits is obtained in Theorem 3: it coincides with the \emph{Bell number} \(B_n\), that is, the number of partitions of the set \(\{1,2,\ldots,n\}\). This interesting article is rounded off by a series of explicit examples.











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