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.     

Two-dimensional flag-transitive planes revisited

This paper shows that the odd order two-dimensional flag-transitive planes constructed by Kantor-Suetake constitute the same family of planes as those constructed by Baker-Ebert. Moreover, for orders satisfying a modest number theoretical assumption this family consists of all possible such planes of that order. In particular, it is shown that the number of isomorphism classes of (non-Desarguesian) two-dimensional flag-transitive affine planes of order q ² is precisely (q–1)/2 when q is an odd prime and precisely (q–1)/2e when q=p ^e is an odd prime power with exponent e that is a power of 2. An enumeration is given in other cases that uses the Möbius inversion formula.This work was partially supported by NSA grant MDA 904-95-H-1013.This work was partially supported by NSA grant MDA 904-94-H-2033.     

Subplane covered affine planes

Projective or affine planes that are covered by subplanes in a prescribed manner are studied and classified. This provides a generalization of the concept of regular spread.This research begun while the second author was a C.N.R. visiting professor in Italy during May–June 1994.     

The coordinatization of affine planes by rings

With every unitary free module of rank 2 there is naturally associated a generalized affine plane (e.g. the lines are just the cosets of all nonzero 1-generated submodules). Here we solve the converse problem by coordinatizing a given generalized affine plane which satisfies certain versions of Desargues' postulate.     

The translation planes of order 81 that admit SL(2,5), generated by affine elations

The translation planes of order 81 admitting SL(2, 5), generated by affine elations, are completely determined. There are seven mutually non-isomorphic translation planes, of which five are new. Each of these planes may be derived producing another set of seven mutually non-isomorphic translation planes admitting SL(2, 5), where the 3-elements are Baer. Of this latter set, five planes are new.     

Two families of flag-transitive affine planes

Two families of flag-transitive nondesarguesian affine planes of odd order are defined, and isomorphisms among the various planes are studied.Dedicated to Otto Wagner on the occasion of his 60th birthdayResearch supported in part by NSF grant DMS 87-01794 and NSA grant MDA 904-88-H-2040.     

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

Let II be a translation plane of orderq ³ with kernel GF(q) that admits a collineation groupG of orderq ³ in the linear translation complement such thatG fixes a point at infinity and acts transitively on the remaining points at infinity.In this paper, we show that any such translation plane II is one of the following types of planes:     

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.     

Die affine Projektivitätengruppe der Hallebenen

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Herrn Professor Dr. Dr.h.c.mult. Otto Haupt mit den besten Wünschen zum 100. Geburtstag gewidmet     

Maximal Baer groups in translation planes and compatibility with homology groups

The translation planes with spreads in PG(3, q) that admit at least two Baer groups of order q–1 are classified.     

On the generalized twisted field planes of characteristic 2

Let be a non-Desarguesian semifield plane of order 2 ⁿ 2⁶, and letG be the autotopism group relative to an autotopism triangle . We prove that ifG acts transitively on the non-vertex points on a side of , then is a generalized twisted field plane. A characterization of the generalized twisted field planes of characteristic 2 is also given.Research supported in part by NSF Grants RII-9014056, component IV of the EPSCoR of Puerto Rico grant and ARO grant for Cornell MSI.Research supported in part by NSF Grant No. DMS-9107372.     

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     

Laguerre planes of even order and translation ovals

Translation Laguerre planes of even order are represented in high dimensional projective space over GF(2) by a collection of subspaces that satisfies a very simple condition.This research was supported for the respective authors by a grant from the University of Canterbury and by a Feodor Lynen Fellowship.     

The Schwan/Artin coordinatization for nearfield planes

Given any translation planeU, one can define the nucleusN as the subset of trace-preserving mappings of the point set satisfying a special linearity condition.N is always a nearfield isomorphic to the right-nucleus of a coordinatizing (left-)quasifield. If the transitivity axiom (NT) is valid,N is planar and the plane is isomorphic to the nearfield plane overN. Finally it is shown that (NT) is equivalent to the usual (P, OQ)-transitivity condition for nearfield planes.     

The six semifield planes associated with a semifield flock

In 1965 Knuth (J. Algebra 2 (1965) 182) noticed that a finite semifield was determined by a 3-cube array (a_ijk) and that any permutation of the indices would give another semifield. In this article we explain the geometrical significance of these permutations. It is known that a pair of functions (f,g) where f and g are functions from GF(q) to GF(q) with the property that f and g are linear over some subfield and g(x)²+4xf(x) is a non-square for all x∈GF(q)∗, q odd, give rise to certain semifields, one of which is commutative of rank 2 over its middle nucleus, one of which arises from a semifield flock of the quadratic cone, and another that comes from a translation ovoid of Q(4,q). We show that there are in fact six non-isotopic semifields that can be constructed from such a pair of functions, which will give rise to six non-isomorphic semifield planes, unless (f,g) are of linear type or of Dickson-Kantor-Knuth type. These six semifields fall into two sets of three semifields related by Knuth operations.     

A complete classification of the flag-transitive affine planes of order 125

The flag-transitive affine planes of order 125 are completely classified. There are five such planes. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Semifield planes of order p 4 and kernel GF(p 2)

In this article we determine the number of non-isomorphic semifield planes of order p⁴ and kernel GF(p²) for p prime, 3 ≤ p ≤ 11. We show that for each of these values of p, the plane is either desarguesian, p-primitive, or a generalized twisted field plane. We also show that the class of p-primitive planes is the largest. We also discuss the autotopism group of the semifields under study.     

A completion problem for finite affine planes

A partial affine plane (PAP) of ordern is ann ²-setS of points together with a collection ofn-subsets ofS called lines such that any two lines meet in at most one point. We obtain conditions under which a PAP with nearlyn ²+n lines can be completed to an affine plane by adding lines. In particular, we make use of Bruck’s completion condition for nets to show that certain PAP’s with at leastn ²+n−√n can be completed and that forn≠3 any PAP withn ²+n−2 lines can be completed.