Incidence geometries with trialities coming from maps with Wilson trialities (Q6060081)

Dualities and trialities have been considered in various geometric structures and groups. \textit{S. E. Wilson} [Pac. J. Math. 81, 559--568 (1979; Zbl 0433.05021)] introduced triality on the space of maps as a certain operator. \textit{G. A. Jones} and \textit{A. Poulton} [Eur. J. Comb. 31, No. 7, 1805--1818 (2010; Zbl 1235.05151)] constructed an infinite family of regular maps on surfaces based on the projective special linear groups \(L_2(2^{3n})\) that admit trialities but no dualities. This family extended an example given by Wilson when \(n=1\). In the paper under review, the authors generalize Jones and Poulton's construction [loc. cit.] to the groups \(L_2(q^3)\) with \(q\) odd. By employing the subgroup structure of \(L_2(q)\) where \(q\) is a prime power it is shown that there exist involutory generators \(\rho_0\), \(\rho_1\) and \(\rho_2\) of \(L_2(q^3)\) such that \(\rho_0\) and \(\rho_2\) commute and the map generated by \(\rho_0\), \(\rho_1\) and \(\rho_2\) is a map of class III, that is, admits trialities but no dualities. Since their proof is not constructive, the authors exhibit a number of equations for the coefficients \(a,b,c,d\) of an element \(x\mapsto \frac{ax+b}{cx+d}\) in \(L_2(q^3)\) that, when satisfied, give a map of class III for \(L_2(q^3)\). Numerical results for \(q\le 23\) show that many solutions to these equations exist. In the last section, the authors construct from any nondegenerate reflexible map \(\mathcal{M}\) an incidence geometry \(\Gamma(\mathcal{M})\). Furthermore, the class of \(\mathcal{M}\) is related to the structure of quotient of the correlation group of \(\Gamma(\mathcal{M})\) modulo its automorphism group. In particular, if \(\mathcal{M}\) is of class III, then \(\Gamma(\mathcal{M})\) has trialities but no dualities. This construction provides plenty of examples of incidence geometries with trialities, with and without dualities, coming from the literature on maps.