Enumerating partial linear transformations in a similarity class

Abstract

Let $V$ be a finite-dimensional vector space over the finite field ${\mathbb F}_q$ and suppose $W$ and $\widetilde{W}$ are subspaces of $V$. Two linear transformations $T:W\to V$ and $\widetilde{T}:\widetilde{W}\to V$ are said to be similar if there exists a linear isomorphism $S:V\to V$ with $SW=\widetilde{W}$ such that $S\circ T=\widetilde{T}\circ S $. Given a linear map $T$ defined on a subspace $W$ of $V$, we give an explicit formula for the number of linear maps that are similar to $T$. Our results extend a theorem of Philip Hall that settles the case $W=V$ where the above problem is equivalent to counting the number of square matrices over ${\mathbb F}_q$ in a conjugacy class.