Buekenhout-Tits Unitals

A Buekenhout-Tits unital is defined to be a unital in PG(2, q²) obtained by coning the Tits ovoid using Buekenhout's parabolic method. The full linear collineation group stabilizing this unital is computed, and related design questions are also addressed. While the answers to the design questions are very similar to those obtained for Buekenhout-Metz unitals, the group theoretic results are quite different     

Characterizations of Buekenhout-Metz unitals

We give a characterization of the Buekenhout-Metz unitals in PG(2, q ²), in the cases that q is even or q=3, in terms of the secant lines through a single point of the unital. With the addition of extra conditions, we obtain further characterizations of Buekenhout-Metz unitals in PG(2, q ²), for all q. As an application, we show that the dual of a Buekenhout-Metz unital in PG(2, q ²) is a Buekenhout-Metz unital.     

Collineation groups of translation planes admitting hyperbolic Buekenhout or parabolic Buekenhout-Metz unitals

It is shown that for every semifield spread in PG(3,q) and for every parabolic Buekenhout-Metz unital, there is a collineation group of the associated translation plane that acts transitively and regularly on the affine points of the parabolic unital. Conversely, any spread admitting such a group is shown to be a semifield spread. For hyperbolic Buekenhout unitals, various collineation groups of translation planes admitting such unitals and the associated planes are determined.     

Unitals in Finite Desarguesian Planes

We show that a suitable 2-dimensional linear system of Hermitian curves of PG(2,q ²) defines a model for the Desarguesian plane PG(2,q). Using this model we give the following group-theoretic characterization of the classical unitals. A unital in PG(2,q ²) is classical if and only if it is fixed by a linear collineation group of order 6(q + 1)² that fixes no point or line in PG(2,q ²).     

Unitals in the Hall plane

The unitals in the Hall plane are studied by deriving PG(2,q ²)and observing the effect on the unitals of PG(2,q ²).The number of Buekenhout and Buekenhout-Metz unitals in the Hall plane is determined. As a corollary we show that the classical unital is not embeddble in the Hall plane as a Buekenhout unital and that the Buekenhout unitals of H(q ²)are not embeddable as Buekenhout unitals in the Desarguesian plane. Finally, we generalize this technique to other translation planes.     

Unitals which meet Baer subplanes in 1 moduloq points

We prove that a parabolic unitalU in a translation plane of orderq ² with kernel containing GF(q) is a Buekenhout-Metz unital if and only if certain Baer subplanes containing the translation line of meetU in 1 moduloq points. As a corollary we show that a unital 16-03 in PG(2,q ²) is classical if and only if it meets each Baer subplane of PG(2,q ²) in 1 moduloq points.     

Unitals and inversive planes

We show that if U is a Buekenhout-Metz unital (with respect to a point P) in any translation plane of order q ² with kernel containing GF(q), then U has an associated 2-(q²,q+1,q) design which is the point-residual of an inversive plane, generalizing results of Wilbrink, Baker and Ebert. Further, our proof gives a natural, geometric isomorphism between the resulting inversive plane and the (egglike) inversive plane arising from the ovoid involved in the construction of the Buekenhout-Metz unital. We apply our results to investigate some parallel classes and partitions of the set of blocks of any Buekenhout-Metz unital.     

A class of unitals of order q which can be embedded in two different planes of order q2

By deriving the desarguesian plane of order q² for every prime power q a unital of order q is constructed which can be embedded in both the Hall plane and the dual of the Hall plane of order q² which are non-isomorphic projective planes. The representation of translation planes in the fourdimensional projective space of J. André and F. Buekenhouts construction of unitals in these planes are used. It is shown that the full automorphism groups of these unitals are just the collineation groups inherited from the classical unitals.     

Unitals in the regular nearfield planes

Classes of parabolic unitals in the regular nearfield planes of odd square order are enumerated and classified. These unitals correspond to certain Buekenhout-Metz unitals in the classical plane. Their collineation groups are determined and the unitals are sorted by projective equivalence.      

A characterization of Buekenhout-Metz unitals in PG(2, q 2), q even

The known examples of embedded unitals (i.e. Hermitian arcs) in PG(2, q ²) are B-unitals, i.e. they can be obtained from ovoids of PG(3, q) by a method due to Buekenhout. B-unitals arising from elliptic quadrics are called BM-unitals. Recently, BM-unitals have been classified and their collineation groups have been investigated. A new characterization is given in this paper. We also compute the linear collineation group fixing the B-unital arising from the Segre-Tits ovoid of PG(3, 2 ^r ), r3 odd. It turns out that this group is an Abelian group of order q ².Research supported by MURST.     

Two-transitive groups on a hyperbolic unital

A classification given previously of all projective translation planes of order q² that admit a collineation group G admitting a two-transitive orbit of q+1 points is applied to show that the only projective translation planes of order q² admitting a hyperbolic unital acting two-transitively on a secant are the Desarguesian planes and the unital is a Buekenhout hyperbolic unital.     

Concerning a characterisation of Buekenhout-Metz unitals

In [7], for the casesq even andq=3, a characterisation of the Buekenhout-Metz unitals inPG(2,q ²) was given. We complete this characterisation by proving the result forq>3.     

A structure theory for two-dimensional translation planes of order q 2 that admit collineation groups of order q 2

This paper is devoted to the study of translation planes of order q ² and kernel GF(q) that admit a collineation group of order q ² in the linear translation complement. We give a representation of this group by a suitable set of matrices depending on some functions over GF(q). Using this representation we obtain several results concerning the existence and the collineation group of the plane.     

A Combinatorial Characterization of Hermitian Curves

A unital U with parameter q is a 2 – (q ³ + 1, q + 1, 1) design. If a point set U in PG(2, q ²) together with its (q + 1)-secants forms a unital, then U is called a Hermitian arc. Through each point p of a Hermitian arc H there is exactly one line L having with H only the point p in common; this line L is called the tangent of H at p. For any prime power q, the absolute points and nonabsolute lines of a unitary polarity of PG(2, q ²) form a unital that is called the classical unital. The points of a classical unital are the points of a Hermitian curve in PG(2, q ²).Let H be a Hermitian arc in the projective plane PG(2, q ²). If tangents of H at collinear points of H are concurrent, then H is a Hermitian curve. This result proves a well known conjecture on Hermitian arcs.     

On the dimensions of the binary codes of a class of unitals

Let U_β be the special Buekenhout-Metz unital in PG(2,q²), formed by a union of q conics, where q=p^e is an odd prime power. It can be shown that the dimension of the binary code of the corresponding unital design U_β is less than or equal to q³+1−q. Baker and Wantz conjectured that equality holds. We prove that the aforementioned dimension is greater than or equal to .     

On translation planes of orderq 3 that admit a collineation group of orderq 3

Let II be a translation plane of orderq ³, with kernel GF(q) forq a prime power, that admits a collineation groupG of orderq ³ in the linear translation complement. Moreover, assume thatG fixes a point at infinity, acts transitively on the remaining points at infinity andG/E is an abelian group of orderq ², whereE is the elation group ofG.In this article, we determined all such translation planes. They are (i) elusive planes of type I or II or (ii) desirable planes.Furthermore, we completely determined the translation planes of orderp ³, forp a prime, admitting a collineation groupG of orderp ³ in the translation complement such thatG fixes a point at infinity and acts transitively on the remaining points at infinity. They are (i) semifield planes of orderp ³ or (ii) the Sherk plane of order 27.     

Unitals and Unitary Polarities in Symmetric Designs

We extend the notion of unital as well as unitary polarity from finite projective planes to arbitrary symmetric designs. The existence of unitals in several families of symmetric designs has been proved. It is shown that if a unital in a point-hyperplane design PG _d-1(d,q) exists, then d = 2 or 3; in particular, unitals and ovoids are equivalent in case d = 3. Moreover, unitals have been found in two designs having the same parameters as the PG ₄(5,2), although the latter does not have a unital. It had been not known whether or not a nonclassical design exists, which has a unitary polarity. Fortunately, we have discovered a unitary polarity in a symmetric 2-(45,12,3) design. To a certain extent this example seems to be exceptional for designs with these parameters.     

A group theoretic characterization of finite derivable nets

In this article, it is shown that a finite net of orderq ² and degreeq + 1 is a derivable net if and only if the net admits a collineation group isomorphic toPSL(4,q)_N (whereN is a line of the associated 3-dimensional projective space upon which the abstract group acts).     

On Unitals ith Many Baer Sublines

We identify the points of PG(2, q) ith the directions of lines in GF(q ³), viewed as a 3-dimensional affine space over GF(q). Within this frameork we associate to a unital in PG(2, q) a certain polynomial in to variables, and show that the combinatorial properties of the unital force certain restrictions on the coefficients of this polynomial. In particular, if q = p ² where p is prime then e show that a unital is classical if and only if at least (q - 2) secant lines meet it in the points of a Baer subline.     

Collineation groups preserving a unital in a projective plane of even order

We investigate the structure of a collineation group G leaving invariant a unital U in a finite projective plane of even order n=m ². When G is transitive on the points of U and the socle of G has even order, then must be a Desarguesian plane, U a classical unital and PSU(3,m ²)GPU(3,m ²) — for m>2. The primitive case follows as an easy corollary.This research was supported by a grant from the M.P.I.