Non-Abelian representations of the slim dense near hexagons on 81 and 243 points (Q617327)

A partial linear space is called a near polygon if for every point \(p\) and every line \(L\), there exists a unique point on \(L\) nearest to \(p\). A representation of a partial linear space is a pair \((R, \psi)\) where \(R\) is a group and \(\psi\) maps the points to the set of involutions of \(R\) such that \(R\) is generated by the image of \(\psi\) and \(\psi\) is one-one on each line \(\{ x,y,x * y \}\) of \(S\) and \(\psi(x)\psi(y) = \psi(x*y).\) The authors prove that the near hexagon \(Q(5,2) \times L_3\) has a non-abelian representation in the extra-special \(2\)-group \(2^{1+12}_+\) and that the near hexagon \(Q(5,2) \otimes Q(5,2)\) has a non-abelian representation in the extra-special group \(2^{1+18}_-.\) The second result uses a new combinatorial construction of this near hexagon.