Polarities and unitals in the Coulter-Matthews planes (Q2380396): Difference between revisions

Coulter-Matthews planes (shortly: CM-planes) are constructed via planar functions, see for instance the Zbl-Review of [\textit{D. Betten} and \textit{D. G. Glynn}, Result. Math. 42, No. 1--2, 32--36 (2002; Zbl 1038.51006)] by \textit{Harald Löwe}. The CM-planes are the only known examples of finite shift planes that are not translation planes. For the CM-planes the authors give a set of representatives for the isomorphism types, determine all automorphisms and describe all polarities explicitly. The authors use the results of \textit{N. Knarr} and \textit{M. Stroppel} [Adv. Geom. 9, No. 4, 577--603 (2009; Zbl 1181.51003)], in order to investigate the polarities of CM-planes. If the order of the CM-plane is not a square, then there exist two conjugacy classes of polarities, both with an oval of absolute points. If the order of the CM-plane is a square, then there exists an additional (third) conjugacy class of polarities whose absolute points form unitals. The authors prove that most of these unitals are not classical. The article ends with three open problems.