Forgetful polygons as generalizations of semi-affine planes. (Q1408868)

The authors generalize the notion of semi-affine planes to generalized polygons. For that purpose the authors introduce the notion of a {forgetful \(n\)-gon} as follows: Let \(({\mathcal P}, {\mathcal L}, I)\) be an incidence structure with an equivalence relation on the point set \({\mathcal P}\). Let \({\mathcal C}\) be the set of non-trivial equivalence classes. For two elements \(x\) and \(y\) of \({\mathcal P} \cup {\mathcal L} \cup {\mathcal C}\) a {forgetful path of length} \(j\) from \(x\) to \(y\) is a sequence \(x = z_0, z_1, \ldots, z_j = y\) such that \(z_i\) and \(z_{i+1}\) are incident (a point and an equivalence class are incident, if the point is contained in the equivalence class). The {distance} \(\delta(x, y)\) is the length of a shortest forgetful path from \(x\) to \(y\). An {isolated point} is a point which is only equivalent to itself. The incidence structure \(({\mathcal P}, {\mathcal L}, I)\) is called a {forgetful \(n\)-gon} (\(n \geq 3\)) if the following conditions are fulfilled: (1) If \(x, y \in {\mathcal P} \cup {\mathcal L}\) and \(\delta(x, y) = k < n\), then there is a unique forgetful path of length \(k\) from \(x\) to \(y\). (2) The maximal distance between two points, two lines or a point and a line is \(n\). (3) Every line is incident with at least three points. Every point is incident with at least three elements of \({\mathcal L} \cup {\mathcal C}\). Note that a forgetful 3-gon is exactly a dual semi-affine plane. For finite generalized \(n\)-gons (\(n = 4, 6, 8\)) the authors describe three classes of examples: Class (I) stems from an ordinary finite \(n\)-gon by deleting (forgetting) a set of disjoint lines and by defining two points as equivalent, if they are on the same (deleted) line. Classes (II) and (III) stem from finite generalized quadrangles by deleting specific sets of points and lines and defining an equivalence relation in a similar way. The main results of the authors are as follows: {Theorem 1.} There do not exist finite forgetful \(n\)-gons for \(n\) odd and \(n \geq 5\). {Theorem 2.} A finite forgetful \(n\)-gon, \(n\) even, is either a generalized \(n\)-gon, a forgetful \(n\)-gon of type (I), (II) or (III) or a short forgetful \(n\)-gon, where a {short forgetful \(n\)-gon} is a forgetful \(n\)-gon satisfying the following conditions: (S1) Every isolated point is incident with exactly \(k+1\) lines, every non-isolated point is incident with exactly \(k\) lines (\(k \geq 2).\) (S2) Every class has the same size \(g\), \(g \geq 2\). (S3) Every line is incident with \(g+d\) points with \(d \geq 1\) for \(n \geq 6\) and \(d \geq 2\) for \(n = 4\). In addition the authors classify some classes of short forgetful quadrangles and provide a free construction for infinite forgetful \(n\)-gons.