Sur les immeubles triangulaires et leurs automorphismes (Q2477020)

\textit{J. Tits} [Finite geometries, buildings, and related topics, Pap. Conf., Pingree Park/CO (USA) 1988, 17--28 (1990; Zbl 0744.51013)] showed that the vertices of triangle buildings (that is, affine buildings of type \(\widetilde{A}_2\)) are naturally coloured by their balls of radius 2 in case the building has order 2 and the first author [Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse, VI. Sér., Math. 9, No.~4, 575--603 (2000; Zbl 1003.51007)] demonstrated that such a colouring can be freely chosen. In the paper under review the authors extend these results to order \(\geq 3\). They consider for a family \(P\) of projective planes of order \(q\geq 2\) the space \(E_P\) of all isomorphism classes of triangle buildings all whose links are associated with projective planes in \(P\). A triangle building itself is considered an element of \(E_P\) and a ball in \(E_P\) is a ball in one of its constituent triangle buildings. With this notation the authors obtain the following results. (Colouring lemma) If \(B^2\) is a ball in \(E_P\) of radius 2 (which is classic in case \(q=3\) or \(q=4\)) and \(B_0\) is a ball in \(E_P\) of radius \(R\geq 1\) and centre \(O\), then there exists a ball \(B_1\) in \(E_P\) of radius \(R+1\) and the same centre \(O\) such that no ball of radius 2 and centre at a vertex on the sphere of radius \(R-1\) and centre \(O\) is isomorphic to \(B^2\). (Surgery lemma) Let \(B\) be a ball in \(E_P\). Then for each ball \(B'\) in \(E_P\) different from \(B\) there exists a building \(\Delta\) in \(E_P\) that contains both \(B\) and \(B'\). Furthermore, \(B'\) can be positioned in a certain way relative to \(B\) in \(\Delta\). The building \(\Delta\) is constructed from a building containing \(B\) by pasting in a certain cone containing \(B'\). As a consequence it follows that for each projective plane \(P\) the set \(E_P\) has the cardinality of the reals. The authors further consider the set \(\Lambda_P\) of all isomorphism classes of triangle buildings in \(E_P\) with a basepoint. They show that \(\Lambda_P\) is equipped with a locally compact Hausdorff topology and, defining a natural cellular lamination on \(\Lambda_P\), that \(\Lambda_P\) is topologically transitive. Thus there exists a triangle building that contains all isomorphism types of balls of finite radius. Distinguishing the cases \(q=2\) and \(q\geq 3\) the authors show in the last two sections that a generic building in \(E_P\) has trivial automorphism group.