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.     

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     

Homologies and elations in compact,connected projective planes

In a compact, connected topological projective plane, let Ω be a closed Lie subgroup of the group of all axial collineations with a fixed axis A. We compare the set З\A consisting of the centres of all non-identical homologies in Ω to orbits of the group $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{[A]}}$ of all elations contained in Ω and of its connected component $\text{θ = (Ω}{}_{\mathrm{[A]}}\text{)}{}^1$. It is shown that З\A is the union of at most countably many θ-orbits; moreover, З\A turns out to be a single θ-orbit whenever the connected component of Ω contains non-identical homologies. This result is analogous to a well-known theorem of André for finite planes. It has numerous consequences for the structure of collineation groups of compact, connected projective planes.     

Generalized polygons with highly transitive collineation groups

It will be proved that the compact connected topological generalized quadrangles which admit a collineation group that acts transitively on ordered pentagons are precisely the real or complex orthogonal quadrangles, up to duality.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     

On homomorphisms between generalized polygons

We consider homomorphisms between abstract, topological, and smooth generalized polygons. It is shown that a continuous homomorphism is either injective or locally constant. A continuous homomorphism between smooth generalized polygons is always a smooth embedding. We apply this result to isoparametric submanifolds.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. H. R. Salzmann on the occasion of his 65th anniversary     

Sharp homogeneity in some generalized polygons

We show that, if a collineation group G of a generalized (2n + 1)-gon $\Gamma$ has the property that every symmetry of any apartment extends uniquely to a collineation in G, then $\Gamma$ is the unique projective plane with 3 points per line (the Fano plane) and G is its full collineation group. A similar result holds if one substitutes apartment with path of length 2k 2n + 2.Received: 19 June 2002     

Modular curves and Poncelet polygons

Parts of the results and the essential techniques of this note are taken from the Erlangen thesis (1991) of the second author. They were circulated as Nr. 122 of Schriftenreihe Komplexe Mannigfaltigkeiten. Our research was supported by DFG grant Ba 423/3-3 and the European Science Project Geometry of Algebraic Varieties SCI-0398-C(A)     

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.     

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.     

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     

Bifurcation points of Hammerstein equations

We apply global bifurcation theorems to systems of nonlinear integral equations of Hammerstein type involving a scalar parameter. To this end, we give sufficient conditions for the continuous dependence, compactness, Fréchet differentiability, and asymptotic linearity of the corresponding operators, which are more general than in the classical setting. These properties are ensured only after passing to some equivalent operator equation which typically contains fractional powers of the linear part. Finally, we show that the abstract hypotheses on the operators correspond to natural hypotheses on the kernel function and the nonlinearity in the Hammerstein equation under consideration.     

Approximation by complex genuine Durrmeyer type polynomials in compact disks

In this paper, the order of simultaneous approximation and Voronovskaja kind results with quantitative estimate for the complex genuine Durrmeyer polynomials attached to analytic functions on compact disks are obtained. In this way, we put in evidence the overconvergence phenomenon for the genuine Durrmeyer polynomials, namely the extensions of the approximation properties (with quantitative estimates) from real intervals to compact disks in the complex plane.     

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     

On the weights of the fixed points of an automorphism of a compact Riemann surface

In this work we study automorphisms of compact Riemann surfaces with more than four fixed points. We obtain a lower bound for the weight of each of these fixed points. The discussion depends on the parities of the order of the automorphism and the number of fixed points. Moreover, we discuss the sharpness of our bounds. Received: 15 February 2005     

Unions of orthogonally convex or orthogonally starshaped polygons

LetT be a simply connected orthogonal polygon having the property that for every three points ofT, at least two of these points see each other via staircases inT. ThenT is a union of three orthogonally convex polygons. The number three is best possible.ForT a simply connected orthogonal polygon,T is a union of two orthogonally convex polygons if and only if for every sequencev ₁,...,v _n,v _n+1 =v ₁ inT, n odd, at least one consecutive pairv _i ,v _i+1 sees each other via staircase paths inT, 1 i n. An analogous result says thatT is a union of two orthogonal polygons which are starshaped via staircase paths if and only if for every odd sequence inT, at least one consecutive pair sees a common point via staircases inT.Supported in part by NSF grants DMS-8908717 and DMS-9207019.     

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     

Wrapping polygons in polygons

This paper is developed toI ₂(2g).c-geometries, namely, point-line-plane structures where planes are generalized 2g-gons with exactly two lines on every point and any two intersecting lines belong to a unique plane.I ₂(2g).c-geometries appear in several contexts, sometimes in connection with sporadic simple groups. Many of them are homomorphic images of truncations of geometries belonging to Coxeter diagrams. TheI ₂(2g).c-geometries obtained in this way may be regarded as the standard ones. We characterize them in this paper. For everyI ₂(2g).c-geometry , we define a numberw(), which counts the number of times we need to walk around a 2g-gon contained in a plane of , building up a wall of planes around it, before closing the wall. We prove thatw()=1 if and only if is standard and we apply that result to a number of special cases.     

Finite distance-transitive generalized polygons

Using the classification of the finite simple groups, we classify all finite generalized polygons having an automorphism group acting distance-transitively on the set of points. This proves an old conjecture of J. Tits saying that every group with an irreducible rank 2 BN-pair arises from a group of Lie type.Research Associate of the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium).