On the number of planes in Neumaier's \(A_8\)-geometry (Q5929845): Difference between revisions

In this two page note, the author counts in a standard way the number of planes of Neumaier's \(A_8\)-geometry (which is a circular extension of Neumaier's more famous \(A_7\)-geometry of rank 3). The answer is 70, while apparently, \textit{A. Neumaier} wrote in his original paper [Arch. Math. 42, 89-96 (1984; Zbl 0509.05026)] that there were only 35 planes (probably mixing up the number of objects of this type in the \(A_8\)-geometry with the number of objects of the same type in the \(A_7\)-geometry (which is 35)). In fact, while the author counts the number of chambers in two ways, one can do it much shorter with flags of type \{point, plane\}. Indeed, one knows that there are 8 points in total and 35 planes through a point. Also, there are 4 points per plane, as is given by the diagram. Hence there are 35.8/4 planes. I think \textit{A. Pasini} [Rend. Semin. Mat. Fis. Milano 65, 179-247 (1997; Zbl 0878.51003)], who mentions this result, considered its proof as too elementary to write down. And frankly, I agree with Pasini.