Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-4/4/iv/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 4 4 iv Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Grassmann graph is connected, and its distance can be determined directly. Put , , and . Choose vectors so thatThe vectors of a basis of , followed by all the and , are independent: a relation would identify a vector in the two chosen complements modulo , contradicting . For defineEach successive pair has an intersection of dimension . Thus and are joined by a path of length .
For the lower bound, if two vertices are adjacent, their common vector subspace has codimension one in each. Both and lie between and . Thus one edge can change the dimension of the intersection with by at most one. It must change from to along a path from to , requiring at least edges. Therefore
If two ordered pairs have equal distance, their intersections have equal dimension. Construct adapted bases for each pair as above and extend both to bases of the ambient vector space. The invertible linear map between them sends the first ordered pair to the second. It preserves intersection dimensions, so it is a graph automorphism. This proves that the Grassmann graph is distance-transitive, with the required simultaneous images. Its diameter is , because permits two disjoint -dimensional vector subspaces.
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