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     

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.     

A Semifield Plane of Odd Order Admitting an Autotopism Subgroup Isomorphic to <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis><Subscript>5</Subscript>

We develop an approach to constructing and classifying semifield projective planes with the use of a spread set. The famous conjecture is discussed on the solvability of the full collineation group of a finite semifield nondesarguesian plane. We construct a matrix representation of a spread set of a semifield plane of odd order admitting an autotopism subgroup isomorphic to the alternating group A₅ and find a series of semifield planes of odd order not admitting A₅.     

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 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.     

Transitive parabolic unitals in semifield planes

Every semifield plane with spread in PG(3,K), where K is a field admitting a quadratic extension K⁺, is shown to admit a transitive parabolic unital. The author gratefully acknowledges helpful comments of the referee in the writing of this article.     

A group theoretic characterization of Buekenhout-Metz unitals

It is shown that a unital U embedded in PG(2,q²) is a Buekenhout-Metz unital if and only if U admits a linear collineation group that is a semidirect product of a Sylow p-subgroup of order q³ by a subgroup of order q − 1. This is the full linear collineation group of U except for two equivalence classes of unitals: (i) the classical unitals, and (ii) the Buekenhout-Metz unitals which can be expressed as a union of a partial pencil of conics. The unitals in class (ii) only occur when q is odd, and any two of them are projectively equivalent. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A New Class of Unitals in the Hughes Plane

A new class of unitals in the Hughes planes is enumerated and classified. The unital obtained by L. A. Rosati is shown to be a member of this class. Their collineation groups are determined and the unitals are sorted by projective equivalence. The dual designs are described and certain members are shown to be self-dual.     

Polarity and transitive parabolic unitals in translation planes of odd order

A parabolic unital of a translation plane is called transitive, if the collineation group G fixing fixes the point at infinity of and acts transitively on the affine points of . It has been conjectured that if a transitive parabolic unital consists of the absolute points of a unitary polarity in a commutative semi-field plane, then the sharply transitive normal subgroupK of G is not commutative. So far, this has been proved for commutative twisted field planes of odd square order, see [1],[5]. Here we prove this conjecture for commutative Dickson planes. Received 14 May 2001.     

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.      

Translation planes of large dimension admitting nonsolvable groups

In this article, the question is considered whether there exist finite translation planes with arbitrarily small kernels admitting nonsolvable collineation groups. For any integerN, it is shown that there exist translation planes of dimension >N and orderq ³ admittingGL(2,q) as a collineation group.     

Translation planes of order q 2 admitting a two-transitive orbit of length q + 1 on the line at infinity

A classification is given of all translation planes of order q ² that admit a collineation group G admitting a two-transitive orbit of q + 1 points on the line at infinity.     

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.     

Absolute Points of Continuous and Smooth Polarities

This paper deals with sets of absolute points of continuous or smooth polarities in compact, connected or smooth projective planes, called topological polar unitals or smooth polar unitals, respectively. We will show that topological polar unitals are Z₂-homology spheres. In the four-dimensional case, a topological polar unital U is either a topological oval, or any line which intersects U in more than one point intersects in a set homeomorphic to S₁. Smooth polar unitals turn out to be smoothly embedded submanifolds of the point space. Moreover, secants intersect such unitals transversally. For these unitals, we will obtain full information on the existence of secants, tangents and exterior lines through given points according to their position with respect to the unital. The main result of this paper states that the possible dimensions of smooth polar unitals coincide with those of sets of absolute points of continuous polarities in the classical projective planes P₂F, F?{R,C,H,O}. Finally, we will prove that smooth polar unitals in four-dimensional smooth projective planes are topological ovals or are homeomorphic to S₃.     

Semifield planes of odd order that admit a subgroup of autotopisms isomorphic to <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis> <Subscript>4</Subscript>

We develop an approach to constructing and classification of semifield projective planes with the use of a linear space and a spread set. We construct a matrix representation of the spread set of a semifield plane of odd order that admits a Baer involution in the translation complement or a subgroup of autotopisms isomorphic to the alternating group A₄. We give examples of semifield planes of order 81 satisfying the above indicated condition.     

Some design-theoretic properties of buekenhout unitals

The purpose of this article is to discuss some questions about parabolic Buekenhout unitals, considered as designs. In this article, we define a parabolic Buekenhout unital to be a unital in any two-dimensional translation plane obtained from the cone over any ovoid. In particular, we discuss resolutions of these designs, inversive plane residuals obtainable from these designs, and also some issues about disjoint Steiner systems. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On central collineations of derived semifield planes

LetG denote the collineation group generated by the set of all affine central collineations in a derived semifield plane. We present a characterization of the Hall planes in terms of the order ofG. This essentially allows the extension of the theorems of Kirkpatrick and Rahilly on generalized Hall planes to arbitrary derived semifield planes. That is, a derived semifield plane of order q² is a Hall plane precisely when it admits q+1 involutory central collineations.     

Unitals in Topological Affine Translation Planes Need Not Be Strictly Convex

We study the relationship of two incidence geometric convexity notions, namely, ovoids in real affine spaces and compact unitals of codimension 1 in topological affine translation planes. In [3] we showed that every ovoid in a translation plane is a unital, and we asked if the converse is true. Here we introduce the notion of a shell, which is distinctly weaker than that of an ovoid and still implies the unital property if the translation plane is properly chosen (and the shell is not too degenerate). We give an explicit example of a shell that is not an ovoid. The question remains whether or not conversely, every compact unital of codimension 1 in a translation plane is a shell.