Maximality properties of stable partial spreads and of shear planes (Q2581113)

In [Geom. Dedicata 52, 87--104 (1994; Zbl 0813.51010)] the author investigated shear planes, that is, \(2l\)-dimensional stable planes \(l\in\{1,2,4,8\}\), that admit closed quasi-perspective collination groups \(\Gamma \cong {\mathbb R}^{2n}\) that act fixed-point free on the point set. Generalizing the notion of dual translation planes he gave a construction of \(2l\)-dimensional shear planes \(S_2({\mathcal F})\) in terms of stable partial spreads \({\mathcal F}\) in the Grassmannian manifold Gras\(_l({\mathbb R}^{2l})\) of all \(l\)-dimensional subspaces of \({\mathbb R}^{2l}\). In fact, every \(2l\)-dimensional shear plane is of this form. Furthermore, for a shear plane \({\mathcal S}_2({\mathcal F})\) to be projectively embeddable into a compact projective plane of the same dimension it is necessary that the closure \(\overline{\mathcal F}\) of \({\mathcal F}\) in Gras\(_l({\mathbb R}^{2l})\) is again a partial spread. \textit{T. Grundhöfer} and \textit{M. Stroppel} [Arch. Math. 75, 65--74 (2000; Zbl 0966.51007)] showed that every stable plane openly embeds into a maximal one, that is, one that does not itself openly embed in a larger one. In the paper under review the author studies open embeddings of \(2l\)-dimensional shear plane \({\mathcal S}_2({\mathcal F})\) into \(2l\)-dimensional stable planes and asks whether \({\mathcal S}_2({\mathcal F})\) itself is a maximal stable plane. He shows that \({\mathcal S}_2({\mathcal F})\) where \({\mathcal F}\) is a proper partial spread is a maximal stable plane if \(\overline{\mathcal F}\) covers \({\mathbb R}^{2l}\) and locally never is a partial spread, that is for each \(\mathfrak{a}\in\overline{\mathcal F}\setminus{\mathcal F}\) and each neighbourhood \({\mathcal U}\) of \(\mathfrak{a}\) in Gras\(_l(2l)\) the intersection \({\mathcal U}\cap\overline{\mathcal F}\) is not a partial spread. Applying his criterion to the examples of shear planes obtained in his earlier paper (loc. cit.) the author obtains examples of shear planes in dimensions 4, 8 and 16 that are maximal stable planes and that furthermore have relatively large automorphism groups of dimensions at least 6, 15 and 38, respectively. Also, examples of shear planes that are not embeddable in projective planes are given for which the above sufficient conditions are not satisfied so that it is still open whether or not these planes are maximal.