In projective geometry, a collineation is a one-to-one and onto map (a bijection) from one projective space to another, or from a projective space to itself, such that the images of collinear points are themselves collinear. A collineation is thus an isomorphism between projective spaces, or an automorphism from a projective space to itself. Some authors restrict the definition of collineation to the case where it is an automorphism. The set of all collineations of a space to itself form a group, called the collineation group.
Definition
Simply, a collineation is a one-to-one map from one projective space to another, or from a projective space to itself, such that the images of collinear points are themselves collinear. One may formalize this using various ways of presenting a projective space. Also, the case of the projective line is special, and hence generally treated differently.
Linear algebra
For a projective space defined in terms of linear algebra (as the projectivization of a vector space), a collineation is a map between the projective spaces that is order-preserving with respect to inclusion of subspaces.
Formally, let V be a vector space over a field K and W a vector space over a field L. Consider the projective spaces PG(V) and PG(W), consisting of the vector lines of V and W. Call D(V) and D(W) the set of subspaces of V and W respectively. A collineation from PG(V) to PG(W) is a map α : D(V) → D(W), such that: α is a bijection. A ⊆ B ⇔ α(A) ⊆ α(B) for all A, B in D(V).
Axiomatically
Given a projective space defined axiomatically in terms of an incidence structure (a set of points P, lines L, and an incidence relation I specifying which points lie on which lines, satisfying certain axioms), a collineation between projective spaces thus defined then being a bijective function f between the sets of points and a bijective function g between the set of lines, preserving the incidence relation.
Every projective space of dimension greater than or equal to three is isomorphic to the projectivization of a linear space over a division ring, so in these dimensions this definition is no more general than the linear-algebraic one above, but in dimension two there are other projective planes, namely the non-Desarguesian planes, and this definition allows one to define collineations in such projective planes.
For dimension one, the set of points lying on a single projective line defines a projective space, and the resulting notion of collineation is just any bijection of the set.
Collineations of the projective line
For a projective space of dimension one (a projective line; the projectivization of a vector space of dimension two), all points are collinear, so the collineation group is exactly the symmetric group of the points of the projective line. This is different from the behavior in higher dimensions, and thus one gives a more restrictive definition, specified so that the fundamental theorem of projective geometry holds.
In this definition, when V has dimension two, a collineation from PG(V) to PG(W) is a map , such that: The zero subspace of V is mapped to the zero subspace of W. V is mapped to W. There is a nonsingular semilinear map β from V to W such that, for all v in V, This last requirement ensures that collineations are all semilinear maps.
Types
The main examples of collineations are projective linear transformations (also known as homographies) and automorphic collineations. For projective spaces coming from a linear space, the fundamental theorem of projective geometry states that all collineations are a combination of these, as described below.
Projective linear transformations
Projective linear transformations (homographies) are collineations (planes in a vector space correspond to lines in the associated projective space, and linear transformations map planes to planes, so projective linear transformations map lines to lines), but in general not all collineations are projective linear transformations. The group of projective linear transformations (PGL) is in general a proper subgroup of the collineation group.
Automorphic collineations
An is a map that, in coordinates, is a field automorphism applied to the coordinates.
Fundamental theorem of projective geometry
If the geometric dimension of a pappian projective space is at least 2, then every collineation is the product of a homography (a projective linear transformation) and an automorphic collineation. More precisely, the collineation group is the projective semilinear group, which is the semidirect product of homographies by automorphic collineations.