The distance-2-sets of the slim dense near hexagons (Q2506273): Difference between revisions

A near polygon is a partial linear space \({\mathcal S}=({\mathcal P},{\mathcal L},I)\) with the property that for each point \(x\in {\mathcal P}\) and each line \(L\in {\mathcal L}\), among the points incident with \(L\) there is a unique one nearest to \(x\). Here distances are measured in the collinearity graph of \({\mathcal S}\); if \(d\) is the diameter of such a graph, then \({\mathcal S}\) is said to be a near \(2d\)-gon. A near \(2d\)-gon in which each line is incident with at least three points and each pair of points at distance \(2\) has at least two common neighbors is called dense. If every line is incident with precisely three points, then \({\mathcal S}\) is said to be slim. In an earlier paper [Glasg. Math. J. 47, 347--361 (2005; Zbl 1085.51009)] the authors introduced the idea of a valuation as a tool to classify near \(2n\)-gons. A valuation on \({\mathcal S}\) is a function \(f\) from \({\mathcal P}\) to the set of natural numbers such that: (i) there exists at least one point with value \(0\); (ii) every line \(L\) contains a unique point \(x_L\) with smallest value, and \(f(x)=f(x_L)+1\) for every point \(x\in L\), \(x\neq x_L\); (iii) every point \(x\) is contained in a geodetically closed sub near polygon \({\mathcal S}_x\) such that (a) \(f(y) \leq f(x)\) for every \(y\in {\mathcal S}_x\), (b) every point \(z\) of \({\mathcal S}\) collinear with a point \(y \in {\mathcal S}_x\) and satisfying \(f(z)=f(y)-1\) also belongs to \({\mathcal S}_x\). A distance-\(2\)-set in a near polygon \({\mathcal S}\) is a non-empty set \(X\) of points such that for every distinct points \(x,y \in X\) the distance \(d(x,y)\) is equal to \(2\), and the set \(C(x,y)\cap X\) is a set of points meeting every line of \(C(x,y)\) precisely once (here \(C(x,y)\) denotes the minimal geodetically closed sub near polygon containing both \(x\) and \(y\)). In this paper, all distance-\(2\)-sets and all valuations of the slim dense near hexagons are determined. This seems to be an important step toward the classification of slim dense near octagons. By previous work by \textit{A. E. Brouwer, A. M. Cohen, J. I. Hall} and \textit{H. A. Wilbrink} [Geom. Dedicata 49, 349--368 (1994; Zbl 0801.51012)] there are precisely \(11\) dense near hexagons with precisely three points on every line. All distance-\(2\)-sets and all valuations of such near hexagons are determined by means of a case by case investigation.