Flat Circle Planes as Integrals of Flat Affine Planes

In a previous article (Arch. Math. {64} (1995), 75–85) we showed that flat Laguerre planes can be constructed by'integrating' flat affine planes. It turns out that'most' of the known flat Laguerre planes arise in this manner. In this paper we show that similar constructions are also possible in the case of the other two kinds of flat circle planes, that is, the flat Möbius planes and the flat Minkowski planes. In particular, we show that many of the known flat Möbius planes can be constructed by integrating a closed strip taken from a flat affine plane. We also show how flat Minkowski planes arise as integrals of two flat affine planes. All known flat Minkowski planes can be constructed in this manner.     

4-Dimensional Elation Laguerre Planes Admitting Non-Solvable Automorphism Groups

 This paper concerns 4-dimensional (topological locally compact connected) elation Laguerre planes that admit non-solvable automorphism groups. It is shown that such a plane is either semi-classical or a single plane admitting the group SL(2, ). Various characterizations of this single Laguerre plane are obtained. Received October 17 2000; in revised form April 23 2001 Published online August 5, 2002     

A Classification of 2-Dimensional Laguerre Planes Admitting 3-Dimensional Groups of Automorphisms in the Kernel

We determine, up to isomorphisms, all 2-dimensional Laguerre planes that admit 3-dimensional groups of automorphisms in the kernel of the action on parallel classes.     

A Family Of 2-Dimensional Minkowski Planes with Small Automorphism Groups

This paper concerns 2-dimensional (topological locally compact connected) Minkowski planes. It uses a construction of J. Jakóbowski [4] of Minkowski planes over half-ordered fields and applies it to the field of reals. This generalizes a construction by A. Schenkel [7] of 2-dimensional Minkowski planes admitting a 3-dimensional kernel. It is shown that most planes in this family of Minkowski planes have 0-dimensional and even trivial automorphism groups.     

Flat laguerre planes admitting 4-dimensional groups of automorphisms that fix at least two parallel classes

We take a further step toward the classification of all flat (2-dimensional) Laguerre planes of group dimension 4 by determining, up to isomorphism, all such Laguerre planes that admit 4-dimensional groups of automorphisms that fix at least two parallel classes. It is shown that these planes occur among those flat Laguerre planes of generalised shear type that admit a 3-dimesional kernel.     

Semiclassical Topological Flat Laguerre Planes Obtained by Pasting Along A Circle

A new rather large family of locally compact 2-dimensional topological Laguerre planes is introduced here. This family consists exactly of those Laguerre planes which can be obtained by pasting together two halves of the classical real Laguerre plane along a circle suitably. Isomorphism classes and automorphism groups of these planes are determined. Together with [9] this gives a complete classification of all semicalssical topological flat Lguerre planes.     

16-Dimensional Smooth Projective Planes with Large Collineation Groups

Smooth projective planes are projective planes defined on smooth manifolds (i.e. the set of points and the set of lines are smooth manifolds) such that the geometric operations of join and intersection are smooth. A systematic study of such planes and of their collineation groups can be found in previous works of the author. We prove in this paper that a 16-dimensional smooth projective plane which admits a collineation group of dimension d 39 is isomorphic to the octonion projective plane P₂ O. For topological compact projective planes this is true if d 41. Note that there are nonclassical topological planes with a collineation group of dimension 40.     

4-Dimensional point-transitive groups of automorphisms of 2-dimensional laguerre planes

It is shown that a 2-dimensional Laguerre plane that admits a closed connected 4-dimensional point-transitive group of automorphisms must be classical. Further, up to conjugacy in the automorphism group of the classical real Laguerre plane, all closed connected 4-dimensional point-transitive subgroups are determined.     

A Characterization of Certain Elation Laguerre Planes in Terms of Kleinewillinghöfer Types

We characterize the non-classical 4-dimensional elation Laguerre planes as precisely those 4-dimensional Laguerre planes of Kleinewillinghöfer type I.D.1. Furthermore, in the class of 2- or 4-dimensional Laguerre planes or finite Laguerre planes of odd order, the non-miquelian elation Laguerre planes are precisely the Laguerre planes of Kleinewillinghöfer type D.     

Smooth Projective Planes

Using symplectic topology and the Radon transform, we prove that smooth 4-dimensional projective planes are diffeomorphic to . We define the notion of a plane curve in a smooth projective plane, show that plane curves in high dimensional regular planes are lines, prove that homeomorphisms preserving plane curves are smooth collineations, and prove a variety of results analogous to the theory of classical projective planes. *Thanks to Robert Bryant and John Franks.     

On 2-dimensional Laguerre planes of shift type

We construct 2-dimensional Laguerre planes of shift type and determine the automorphism groups and isomorphism classes of these planes. Laguerre planes of shift type occur in the classification of 2-dimensional Laguerre planes with 4-dimensional automorphism groups that fix precisely one parallel class.     

Semi Laguerre Planes

A Dembowski semi-plane is a semi-plane obtained from a projective plane by Dembowski's method [1]. A semi Laguerre plane is an incidence structure J = (P, B₁ ∪ B₂, I) for which: (a) every element of P is incident with one element of B₁, (b) an element of B₁ and an element of B₂ are incident with at most one common element of P, (c) each residual space of J (with respect to B₁) is a Dembowski semi-plane, (d) B₂ ≠ ? and each element of B₂ is incident with at least 4 elements of P. We prove that all semi Laguerre planes are substructures of Laguerre planes or special Laguerre planes (in the sense of Thas, Willems [3], [4]). Therefore, these incidence structures are related to optimal codes ([5], [6]).     

Large Almost Simple Groups Acting on 16-Dimensional Compact Projective Planes

 This paper deals with the so-called Salzmann program aiming to classify special geometries according to their automorphism groups. Here, topological connected compact projective planes are considered. If finite-dimensional, such planes are of dimension 2, 4, 8, or 16. The classical example of a 16-dimensional, compact projective plane is the projective plane over the octonions with 78-dimensional automorphism group E₆(−26). A 16-dimensional, compact projective plane ? admitting an automorphism group of dimension 41 or more is clasical, [23] 87.5 and 87.7. For the special case of a semisimple group Δ acting on ? the same result can be obtained if dim , see [22]. Our aim is to lower this bound. We show: if Δ is semisimple and dim , then ? is either classical or a Moufang-Hughes plane or Δ is isomorphic to Spin₉ (ℝ, r), r∈{0, 1}. The proof consists of two parts. In [16] it has been shown that Δ is in fact almost simple or isomorphic to SL₃?ċSpin₃ℝ. In the underlying paper we can therefore restrict our considerations to the case that Δ is almost simple, and the corresponding planes are classified.     

Large Almost Simple Groups Acting on 16-Dimensional Compact Projective Planes

 This paper deals with the so-called Salzmann program aiming to classify special geometries according to their automorphism groups. Here, topological connected compact projective planes are considered. If finite-dimensional, such planes are of dimension 2, 4, 8, or 16. The classical example of a 16-dimensional, compact projective plane is the projective plane over the octonions with 78-dimensional automorphism group E₆(−26). A 16-dimensional, compact projective plane ? admitting an automorphism group of dimension 41 or more is clasical, [23] 87.5 and 87.7. For the special case of a semisimple group Δ acting on ? the same result can be obtained if dim , see [22]. Our aim is to lower this bound. We show: if Δ is semisimple and dim , then ? is either classical or a Moufang-Hughes plane or Δ is isomorphic to Spin₉ (ℝ, r), r∈{0, 1}. The proof consists of two parts. In [16] it has been shown that Δ is in fact almost simple or isomorphic to SL₃?ċSpin₃ℝ. In the underlying paper we can therefore restrict our considerations to the case that Δ is almost simple, and the corresponding planes are classified. Received 10 February 1997; in final form 19 December 1997     

4-Dimensional compact projective planes with a 5-dimensional nilradical

The article is a contribution to the classification of all 4-dimensional flexible compact projective planes. We assume that the collineation group is a 6-dimensional solvable Lie group which fixes some flag. If, moreover, the nilradical of the collineation group is 5-dimensional, then we get 4 families of new planes which are neither translation planes nor shift planes.Meinem Lehrer H. Salzmann zum 65. Geburtstag am 3.11.1995 in Dankbarkeit gewidmet     

The Fermat–Torricelli Problem in Normed Planes and Spaces

We investigate the Fermat–Torricelli problem in d-dimensional real normed spaces or Minkowski spaces, mainly for d=2. Our approach is to study the Fermat–Torricelli locus in a geometric way. We present many new results, as well as give an exposition of known results that are scattered in various sources, with proofs for some of them. Together, these results can be considered to be a minitheory of the Fermat–Torricelli problem in Minkowski spaces and especially in Minkowski planes. This demonstrates that substantial results about locational problems valid for all norms can be found using a geometric approach.     

Semiclassical topological flat Laguerre planes obtained by pasting along two parallel classes

A new rather large family of locally compact 2-dimensional topological Laguerre planes is introduced here. This family consists exactly of those Laguerre planes which can be obtained by pasting together two halves of the classical real Laguerre plane along two parallel classes suitably. Isomorphism classes and automorphisms of these planes are determined.     

More on Kleinewillinghöfer Types of Flat Laguerre Planes

Polster and Steinke [Result. Math., 46 (2004), 103–122] determined the possible Kleinewillingh?fer types of flat Laguerre planes. These types reflect transitivity properties of groups of certain central automorphisms. We exclude three more types from the list given there with respect to Laguerre homotheties. This yields a complete determination of all possible single types with respect to Laguerre homotheties that can occur in flat Laguerre planes. Building on results by M?urer and Hartmann to characterize ovoidal or miquelian Laguerre planes we further characterize certain flat Laguerre planes in terms of their Kleinewillingh?fer types. Received: January 16, 2007. Revised: July 26, 2007.     

Sixteen-Dimensional Locally Compact Translation Planes with Large Automorphism Groups having no Fixed Points

The 16-dimensional compact projective planes whose automorphism group contains a closed connected subgroup fixing a line, but no point and having dimension at least 35 are determined. It is shown that these planes all belong to three families of planes determined by H. Löwe and the author, and hence are explicitly known. A major stepping stone to this goal is a result by H. Salzmann according to which every such plane is a translation plane.