Folding down classical Tits number chamber systems (Q1099410)

Let \(\hat G\) be a classical p-adic group with discrete subgroup G acting chamber transitively on the affine building \(\Delta\) of \(\hat G.\) Such subgroups are rare when the rank of \(\Delta\) is at least three. The exceptional groups can be constructed from a ``diagram automorphism'' which acts on the vertices in a chamber of \(\Delta\). The automorphisms of the resulting groups can be used to fold down the groups giving subgroups acting on buildings of smaller rank ``contained in'' \(\Delta\). The author applies the technique to some rank-3 cases to obtain groups acting on rank-2 buildings of affine type (i.e. trees). The results give small dimensional faithful representations for the amalgamated sum of the maximal parabolics of some rank-2 Chevalley groups and for the two biggest groups in Goldschmidt's list of all primitive amalgams of index (3.3).