On direct sums and quotient spaces of near-vector spaces

Abstract

In this paper we study the direct sums of subspaces and some constructions of quotient spaces of near-vector spaces, as defined by André. In particular, for near-vector spaces constructed by taking copies of finite fields, we characterise the quasi-kernels of their quotient spaces, find their cardinality and determine when they are regular. In the case of non-regular quotient spaces, we show how they decompose into maximal regular subspaces. We show how the theory of finite-dimensional near-vector spaces constructed from finite fields allows us to reconstruct near-vector spaces with certain quotient spaces.