Planar nearrings on the Euclidean plane. (Q2255397)

A \textit{(left) near-ring} is a triple \((N,+,\cdot)\) that satisfies all the axioms of an associative ring, except perhaps the right distributive law, and the commutative law for addition. For general results concerning near-rings, please consult \textit{J. D. P. Meldrum} [Near-rings and their links with groups. London: Pitman Advanced Publishing Program (1985; Zbl 0658.16029)] and/or \textit{G. Pilz} [Near-rings. The theory and its applications. Rev. ed. Oxford: North-Holland Publishing Company (1983; Zbl 0521.16028)]. Define an equivalence relation \(=_m\) on \(N\) by \(a=_mb\) if \(ax = bx\) for all \(x\in N\). The near-ring \(N\) is called \textit{planar} if \(|N/=_m|\geq 3\) and, for any \(a,b,c\in N\) with \(a\neq_mb\), the equation \(ax=bx+c\) has a unique solution in \(N\). The object of this paper is to study planar near-rings for which the additive group \((N,+)\) is \((\mathbb R,+)\) or \((\mathbb R^2,+)\). In particular, following ideas of \textit{K. D. Magill} jun. [see, for example, Monatsh. Math. 119, No. 4, 281-301 (1995; Zbl 0830.16032)], the authors focus on topological planar near-rings with these additive groups. After substantial preliminary work on `Ferrero triples' and `action groups' (see, for example, \textit{J. R. Clay} [Nearrings: geneses and applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1992; Zbl 0790.16034)]), the authors firstly attempt to characterize topological planar near-rings \(N=(\mathbb R,+,*)\). It turns out that \(N\) is either the field of real numbers; or \(N\) is isomorphic to \((\mathbb R,+,\star)\), where \(x\star y=\max\{x,0\}\cdot y\); or \(N\) is isomorphic to \((\mathbb R,+,\star_c)\) (for some \(c\in\mathbb R\), \(c>0\)), where \(x\star_cy=xy\) if \(x\geq 0\) and \(x\star_cy=c|x|y\) if \(x<0\). Secondly, in the two-dimensional case, the aim is to characterize when the planar near-ring \(N=(\mathbb C,+,*)\) is topological. The associated Ferrero pair is \((\mathbb C,\Phi)\), where the action group \(\Phi\) is either \(\widehat{\mathbb R^*}\) (the left multiplications \(\lambda_a\), where \(a\in\mathbb R\), \(a\neq 0\)) or \(\widehat{\mathbb R^+}\) (the left multiplications \(\lambda_a\), where \(a\in\mathbb R\), \(a>0\)). It is shown that if such an \(N\) is topological, then \(N\) can be obtained by a so-called `special Magill construction' with respect to a suitable semi-homogeneous continuous function \(f\). (A function \(f\colon\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb R\) is called \textit{semi-homogeneous} if \(f(f(v)w)=f(v)f(w)\) for all \(v,w\in\mathbb R^n\).) -- Several examples are also discussed.