A family of flat Laguerre planes of Kleinewillinghöfer type IV.A (Q1759590): Difference between revisions

In the spirit of the Lenz-Barlotti classification of projective planes, Kleinewillinghöfer gave a classification of Laguerre planes. She found that there do exist only 46 different types of planes. Of these, only 25 types are possible if the Laguerre planes are flat, cf. \textit{B. Polster} and the author [Result. Math. 46, No. 1--2, 103--122 (2004; Zbl 1065.51012)], the author [Innov. Incidence Geom. 2, 93--100 (2006; Zbl 1096.51003); Result. Math. 51, No. 1--2, 111--126 (2007; Zbl 1147.51009)], \textit{R. Löwen} and the author [J. Lie Theory 17, No. 4, 685--708 (2007; Zbl 1155.51008)], \textit{J. Schillewaert} and the author [Adv. Geom. 11, No. 4, 637--652 (2011; Zbl 1248.51002); J. Aust. Math. Soc. 91, No. 2, 257--274 (2011; Zbl 1254.51001)]. These papers provide examples for 21 of these types, leaving open only I.A.2, II.A.2, IV.A.1, IV.A.2. In Sections 1--3, the Kleinewillinghöfer classification is sketched. In Section 4, the author proves that the automorphism group of a flat Laguerre plane \({\mathcal L}\) of Kleinewillinghöfer type IV must have group dimension 2 or 3 (Proposition 4.1). In the latter case, the author describes the circles of \({\mathcal L}\) by skew parabola functions \(f_{k,q}: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} \), \((k>1, q>0)\) where \(f_{k,q}(x):= x^k\) if \(x\geq 0\) and \(f_{k,q}(x):= q|x|^k\) if \(x<0\) (Proposition 4.2). In Section 5, the functions \(f_{k,q}\) are used to construct a family of flat Laguerre planes \({\mathcal L}(k,q)\) \((k>1, q>0)\) of group dimension 3, the members of which are of type IV.A.1 for \(q\neq 1\) and of type IV.A.2 for \(q=1\) (Theorem 5.7). The existence of such examples is already mentioned in [J. Schillewaert and the author, loc. cit.]. Finally (Theorem 5.8), isomorphisms among the planes \({\mathcal L}(k,q)\) are described. Now, only the existence of flat Laguerre planes of type I.A.2 or II.A.2 remains open.