A linear complex of
is by definition the system of
all lines of
whose plückerian coordinates satisfy a given
homogeneous linear equation
.
A linear complex consisting of all the lines through a given
line (the axis of
) is called special.
Given a symplectic form on , it is readily seen that the isotropic
lines of the associated projective space
(corresponding to the maximal
totally isotropic subspaces of
) form a non-special linear complex, and
conversely any non-special linear complex in
can be thought of as the
set of isotropic lines with respect to a symplectic form. (It thus follows that
the full stabilizer in
of a given non-special linear complex is
isomorphic to the projective general symplectic group
).
A linear congruence of is the set
of all lines that are common
to two given linear complexes
,
.
Let
(where
and
are the
equations of
and
respectively) be the pencil of complexes generated
by
and
. If all complexes in
are special, then
``degenerates" into
a plane and the lines through the intersection of the axes of
and
.
If no complex in
is special,
is said to be elliptic. In this
case, there are
exactly two complexes in
which are special when viewed in
,
being a quadratic extension of
, and their axes are skew lines
over
, called the ``imaginary" axes of
.
Otherwise, either
contains exactly two special complexes, w.l.o.g. say
,
, or
contains a unique special complex
. In the former
case
is called hyperbolic, and consists of the lines leaning on
the axes of
and
. In the latter case
is called parabolic and
consists of lines through the axis of
.