Using conics to construct geometric 3-configurations. I: Symmetrically generalizing the Pappus configuration (Q2410141)

In the paper under review, the author presents an interesting construction which allows to obtain a family of Pappus-like configurations of lines having \(m\)-fold rotational symmetry. Let us recall that a Pappus-like configuration \(\mathcal{P}(m;a,b,c,d)\) is a geometric polycyclic configuration embedded with \(\mathbb{Z}_{m}\) rotational symmetry whose reduced Levi graph is a labelled directed \(K_{3,3}\) with (potentially) non-zero labels for some choices of \(a,b,c,d\). The main result of the paper, which is based on Construction \(1\) therein, can be formulated as follows. Main result: Given valid choices for the discrete parameters \(a,b,c,d\), the configuration described by the algorithm in Construction 1 provides a geometric \((3m_{3})\) configuration \(\mathcal{P}(m;a,b,c,d;\lambda)\), where \(\lambda\) is a parameter reflecting a single continuous degree of freedom, with \(\mathbb{Z}_{m}\) rotational symmetry, in which each line passes through one point of each of the three symmetry classes of points, and each point lies on one line from each of three symmetry classes of lines.