On the number of lines in planar spaces (Q1842572)

A linear space is a pair \(S= (P, L)\) consisting of a set \(P\) of points and a set \(L\) of subsets of \(P\), called lines, such that any two distinct points occur in a unique line, every line has at least two points, and there are at least two lines. A subspace of \(S\) is a set \(T\) of points such that every line that has two points in \(T\) is contained in \(T\). A planar space is a linear space together with a set of subspaces, called planes, such that any three non-collinear points occur in a unique plane, every plane has three non-collinear points, and there are at least two planes. Let \(S\) be a finite planar space with \(v> 4\) points, and let \(q\) be the unique positive real number satisfying \(v= q^ 3+ q^ 2+ q+ 1\). Assuming that every plane has at most \(q^ 3+ q^ 2+ 1\) points, the author shows that \(S\) has at least \((q^ 2+ 1) (q^ 2+ q+ 1)\) lines with equality iff \(q\) is a prime power and \(S\) is the projective space \(\text{PG}(3, q)\).