Maximal-dimension conjecture for constant-rank affine spaces of nilpotent matrices

From papers

Let nN{0}n\in\mathbb{N}-\{0\} and let KK be a field. Let SS be an affine subspace of M(n×n,K)M(n\times n,K) such that every element of SS is nilpotent, and assume that each element of SS has rank equal to r1r\geq 1. Constant-rank nilpotent dimension conjecture. If K|K| is sufficiently large, then the maximal dimension SS can attain is

i=1r(n1i)=r2(2nr3).\sum_{i=1}^r(n-1-i)=\frac{r}{2}(2n-r-3).

This predicts the sharp dimension bound for affine spaces consisting of nilpotent matrices of fixed rank, extending the dimension question beyond the rank-one case and subject to a sufficiently large-field hypothesis.

Progress summary

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Simone Calamai and Elena Rubei, “On the dimension of affine subspaces of nilpotent matrices”, arXiv:2508.06653 (2025).

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.