Existence of correlations[edit]

Correlations can exist only if the space is self-dual. For dimensions 3 and higher, self-duality is easy to test: A coordinatizing skewfield exists and self-duality fails if and only if the skewfield is not isomorphic to its opposite.

Special types of correlations[edit]

Polarity[edit]

If a correlation φ is an involution (that is, two applications of the correlation equals the identity: φ2(P) = P for all points P) then it is called a polarity. Polarities of projective spaces lead to polar spaces, which are defined by taking the collection of all subspace which are contained in their image under the polarity.

Natural correlation[edit]

There is a natural correlation induced between a projective space P(V) and its dual P(V) by the natural pairing ⟨⋅,⋅⟩ between the underlying vector spaces V and its dual V, where every subspace W of V is mapped to its orthogonal complement W in V, defined as W = {vV | ⟨w, v⟩ = 0, ∀wW}.[4]


Composing this natural correlation with an isomorphism of projective spaces induced by a semilinear map produces a correlation of P(V) to itself. In this way, every nondegenerate semilinear map VV induces a correlation of a projective space to itself.

Robert J. Bumcroft (1969), Modern Projective Geometry, , Chapter 4.5 Correlations p. 90

Holt, Rinehart, and Winston

Robert A. Rosenbaum (1963), Introduction to Projective Geometry and Modern Algebra, , p. 198

Addison-Wesley