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en kuo
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Conjectures about the automorphism group of integer lattice by enlarging the matrix

Notation: $GL(n, \mathbb{Z})$ to be the set of $n \times n$ invertible matrix, and $M_{m \times n}(\mathbb{Z})$ be the set of $m \times n$ matrix with integer entries.

I have the following conjecture: Given $n \geq 1$ and two matrices $W_4$ and $S_2$ satisfy \begin{equation} W_4 \in GL(n, \mathbb{Z}), S_2 \in GL(n, \mathbb{Q}) \end{equation} Moreover $S_2^{-1} \in GL(n, \mathbb{Z}).$

then there is $S_1 \in PSL(m, \mathbb{Z})$ and $W_1 \in GL(m,\mathbb{Z}), W_2 \in M_{m \times n}(\mathbb{Z}), W_3 \in M_{n \times m}(\mathbb{Z}) $ such that \begin{equation} \left( \begin{array}{cc} W_1 & W_2 \\ W_3 & W_4 \end{array} \right)^{T}.\left( \begin{array}{cc} S_1 & 0 \\ 0 & S_2 \end{array} \right).\left( \begin{array}{cc} W_1 & W_2 \\ W_3 & W_4 \end{array} \right)=\left( \begin{array}{cc} S_1 & 0 \\ 0 & S_2. \end{array} \right) \end{equation} I also use $W=\left( \begin{array}{cc} W_1 & W_2 \\ W_3 & W_4 \end{array} \right).$ below to shorten the notations

One nontrivial example Maybe it is a little abstract, let us see an example, given $S_2=\left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 & \frac{1}{8} \\ \frac{1}{8} & 0 \end{array} \right)$ and $W_4=\left( \begin{array}{cc} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & 3 \end{array} \right).$ One can choose the following $W$ and $S_1=\left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{array} \right)$ \begin{equation} W=\left( \begin{array}{cccc} 3 & 0 & 0 & 8 \\ 0 & 3 & -8 & 0 \\ 0 & -1 & 3 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 3 \\ \end{array} \right) \end{equation} One can check the following is True. \begin{equation} W^{T}.\left( \begin{array}{cccc} 0 &1 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 8 \\ 0 & 0 & 8 & 0 \\ \end{array} \right).W=\left( \begin{array}{cccc} 0 &1 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 8 \\ 0 & 0 & 8 & 0 \\ \end{array} \right) \end{equation}

My conjecture is that always works for any $W_4$ and $ S_2.$ In other words, even though sometimes, we can not have $W_4^{T}S_2W_4=S_2,$ but we can provide extra space for our $W_4$ to embed it into larger integer matrix $W \in PSL(n+m.\mathbb{Z})$ so that if we focus on the subspace part $S_2$. We still get some kinds of preservation. I also require $det(S_1)=1.$ One can ask the same question by adding constraints that $W_4$ and $S_2$ are symmetric. But I believe the conjectures are always true if we allow $m$ to be arbitrarily large. I have searched the literature. However, except for using computers, I do not have any systematic way to tackle this conjecture.

In terms of integer lattice language, we can define an integer lattice $S_2^{-1}$ and I want to claim that there is another unimodular $det(S_1)=1.$ lattice $S_1$ such that one can direct sum two lattice $S_1+S_2$. Then that combined lattice has an automorphism group such that its corner (or focus on $S_2$ part) can realize that $W_4$.

Special case if $W_4 \in Aut(S_2)=\{x|x \in GL(n, \mathbb{Z}), x^{T}S_2x=S_2. \}$ see related. Then the conjecture is true by choosing $S_1$ and all $W_1,W_2. W_3$ to be empty. The original equation already holds. This is the simplest case. One can further require $S_2$ to be positive definite.

One Suspicion I suspect that when the difference of $W_4^{T}S_2W_4-S_2=x \in GL(n, \mathbb{Z}).$ The conjecture should be easily proved.

Simplest nontrivial case: However, for the following example, $S_2=\frac{1}{8}, W_4=3.$ I can not find any solutions. Simplest nontrivial case: Even I required $W_4, S_2$ are just integers. In this case, $S_2=\frac{1}{p}, p \geq 2.$ ansd suppose $W_4^2=1(mod p).$ I can not prove it.

Any suggestions or ideas are really welcome. Feel free to stronger the condition and prove any case except for the trivial one are really welcome.

en kuo
  • 145
  • 5