Cyclic Ostrom spreads (Q1283218)

A spread on a vector space \(V\) of dimension \(2d\) is a set of \(d\)-dimensional subspaces which induce a partition of the nonzero vectors. (Most authors interpret the spread as being the corresponding structure when \(V\) is interpreted as being a projective space of dimension \(2d-1\).) The spread defines a translation plane whose points are the elements of \(V\) and whose lines are the translates of the components of the spread. The translation complement of the plane is isomorphic to the automorphism group of the spread. A translation plane of order \(q^4\) constructed by what the reviewer calls homology type replacement has the property that the automorphism group of the spread has a cyclic subgroup of order \(q^d-1\). These are what the authors call ``Cyclic Ostrom Spreads''. Let \(G\) be a transitive permutation group acting on a set \(\Omega\) and let \(G_0\) be the stabilizer of a point \(O\) of \(\Omega\). Then \(G\) is said to be 3/2 transitive if the orbits of \(G_0\) (other than \(O\)) all have the same size. The group is stable if, for each such orbit \(B\), the stabilizer (in \(G\)) of \(B\cup O\) includes an element not in \(G_0\). The rank is the number of orbits of \(G_0\) (counting \(O\)). The main result is the following: Theorem. If an affine plane of order \(n>2\) admits a collineation that is stable of rank \(n+2\) then the plane is a cyclic Ostrom plane.