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     

Four-dimensional compact projective planes with doubly transitive action on the fixed pencil

We consider a four-dimensional compact projective plane =( , ) whose collineation group is six-dimensional and solvable with a nilradical N isomorphic to Nil × R, where Nil denotes the three-dimensional, simply connected, non-Abelian, nilpotent Lie group. We assume that fixes a flag pW, acts transitively on _p \{W}, and fixes no point in the set W{p}. We study the actions of and N on and on the pencil _p \{W}, in the case that does not contain a three-dimensional elation group. In the special situation that acts doubly transitively on _p {W}, we will determine all possible planes . There are exactly two series of such planes.     

Compact groups on compact projective planes

LetP=(P, L) be a compact projective plane with 0P< and let be a compact connected subgroup of Aut(P). If dim dimE – dimP, whereE is the elliptic motion group of the corresponding classical plane, then E or is isomorphic to a point stabilizerE ₀ inE, cf. [31]. Here we consider the case E ₀. It is shown that the action of on the point spaceP is equivalent to the classical action ofE ₀. For dimP {8, 16} the planeP is uniquely determined by a 2-dimensional subplane with SO₂ Aut().Für H. Reiner Salzmann zum 65. Geburtstag     

16-dimensional compact projective planes with a large group fixing two points and two lines

We determine all planes having the properties of the title with a group of dimension at least 33.Received: 25 September 2003     

Elementary constructions of locally compact affine planes

In this paper we describe several elementary constructions of 4-, 8- and 16-dimensional locally compact affine planes. The new planes share many properties with the classical ones and are very easy to handle. Among the new planes we find translation planes, planes that are constructed by gluing together two halves of different translation planes, 4-dimensional shift planes, etc. We discuss various applications of our constructions, e.g. the construction of 8- and 16-dimensional affine planes with a point-transitive collineation group which are neither translation planes nor dual translation planes, the proof that a 2-dimensional affine plane that can be coordinatized by a linear ternary field with continuous ternary operation can be embedded in 4-, 8- and 16-dimensional planes, the construction of 4-dimensional non-classical planes that admit at the same time orthogonal and non-orthogonal polarities. We also consider which of our planes have tangent translation planes in all their points. In a final section we generalize the Knarr-Weigand criterion for topological ternary fields.This research was supported by a Feodor Lynen fellowship.     

Actions of almost simple groups on compact eight-dimensional projective planes are classical,almost

We show that the existence of an almost simple group of automorphisms of dimension greater than 10 characterizes the Hughes planes (including the quarternion plane) among the 8-dimensional compact projective planes.Dedicated to Prof. Helmut R. Salzmann on his 65th birthday     

The homeomorphism type of unital-like submanifolds in smooth projective planes

We prove that a compact, connected submanifold of the point space of a smooth projective plane is homeomorphic to a sphere provided that certain intersection properties with lines are satisfied. As an application, we show that the set of absolute points of a smooth polarity in a smooth projective plane of dimension 2l is empty or homeomorphic to a sphere of dimension 2l - 1 or .Received: 13 September 2002     

4-Dimensional compact projective planes with small nilradical

We consider 4-dimensional compact projective planes with a solvable 6-dimensional collineation group and with orbit type (2, 1), i.e. fixes a flagv W, acts transitively onL \{W} and fixes no point in the setW\{v}. We We prove a series of lemmas concerning the action of invariant subgroups of . These lemmas are applied to prove that the maximal connected nilpotent invariant subgroup of has dimension at least 4.Dedicated to Prof. H. Salzmann on the occasion of his 65th birthday     

Polar unitals in compact eight-dimensional planes

We determine centralizers and unitals for the polarities of eight-dimensional compact planes with at least 17-dimensional group of automorphisms, and discuss transitivity properties.Received: 7 August 2003     

Flag-homogeneous compact connected polygons

The flag-homogeneous compact connected polygons with equal topological parametersp = q are classified explicitly. These polygons turn out to be Moufang polygons.     

Topological projective planes and uniform valuations

The valuation topology of any uniformly valued ternary field (K, T, v) can be extended to the projective plane II over (K, T) making it a topological projective plane in the sense of Salzmann. Appealing to Prieß-Crampe's celebrated fixed point theorem for ultrametric spaces, our result allows us to present a wide variety of new, totally disconnected, compact and non-compact topological projective planes.Dedicated to Professor S. Prieß-Crampe on the occasion of her 60th birthday     

Blowing up points and embedding flat stable planes in the nonorientable compact surface of genus one

We show that the point set of every flat stable plane embeds in the point set of the real projective plane. Connectedness of lines or of the point space is not assumed. We give two largely independent proofs; the first one is more conceptual, while the second one is more direct, and shorter. The first proof uses a new construction called blowing up a point, i.e., replacing it with its line pencil; this amounts to adding a cross cap. This construction seems to be of interest in its own right.     

Laminated decompositions involving a given submanifold

Let M denote a connected (n+1)-manifold (without boundary). We study laminated decompositions of M, by which we mean upper semicontinous decompositions G of M into closed, connected n-manifolds. In particular, given M with a lamination G and N, a locally flat, closed, n-dimensional submanifold, we determine conditions under which M admits another lamination G_N with N?G_N. For n ≠ 3 a sufficient condition is that i: N → M be a homotopy equivalence. For n > 3 we give examples to show that i: N → M being a homology equivalence is not sufficient. We also show how to replace the assumption of local flatness of N with a weaker cellularity criterion (n ? 4) known as the inessential loops condition. We then give examples illustrating the abundance of pathology if M is not assumed to have a preexisting lamination.     

Semi-classical projective planes over half-ordered fields

This paper concerns a generalization of Moulton planes constructed by J. Jakóbowski. We consider those planes over ordered fields and solve the isomorphism and collineation problem posed inGeom. Dedicata 42 (1992), 243–253.Dedicated to Prof. H. Salzmann on the occasion of his 65th birthday     

On the structure of finite coverings of compact connected groups

Finite-sheeted covering mappings onto compact connected groups are studied. We show that for a covering mapping from a connected Hausdorff topological space onto a compact (in general, non-abelian) group there exists a topological group structure on the covering space such that the mapping becomes a homomorphism of groups. To prove this fact we construct an inverse system of covering mappings onto Lie groups which approximates the given covering mapping. As an application, it is shown that a covering mapping onto a compact connected abelian group G must be a homeomorphism provided that the character group of G admits division by degree of the mapping. We also get a criterion for triviality of coverings in terms of means and prove that each finite covering of G is equivalent to a polynomial covering.     

There are uncountably many universal topological planes

We prove the existence of uncountably many nonisomorphic topological projective planes, each universal in the sense that it contains an isomorphic copy of every pseudoline arrangement.     

Linear spaces with many projective planes

We assume that in a linear space there is a non-empty set M of points with the property that every plane containing a point of M is a projective plane. In section 3 an example is given that in general is not a projective space. But if M can be completed by two points to a generating set of P, then is a projective space.     

Symmetric planes with non-classical tangent translation planes

We construct symmetric planes associated with an arbitrary locally compact connected nearfield . If is a proper nearfield, i.e. {;;}, then the tangent translation plane of this symmetric plane is not classical. All previously known examples of symmetric planes have classical tangent translation planes.Herrn Professor Dr. H. Salzmann zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet