Semiclassical topological Möbius planes (Q1073339)

According to a result of \textit{T. Buchanan}, \textit{H. Hähl} and the reviewer [Geom. Dedicata 9, 401-424 (1980; Zbl 0453.51007)], a locally compact connected Möbius plane \({\mathcal M}\) with a finite dimensional point space P is 2-dimensional. In fact, P is a 2-sphere and the geometric circles are 1-spheres. The author considers a special class of such planes, which he calls semiclassical, i.e. \({\mathcal M}\) contains a circle which dissects P into two pieces that are separately isomorphic to the corresponding pieces of the classical real Möbius plane. By a well organized attack he achieves what may be called a complete understanding of semiclassical Möbius planes. It is shown that every semiclassical Möbius plane can be described explicitly using two homeomorphisms \(\phi,\psi: {\mathbb{R}}\to {\mathbb{R}}\) with \(\phi (-x)= -\phi (x)\); they contain the information about how to glue together the two halves of the point set and how to recombine the dissected circles. Conversely, every pair \(\phi\),\(\psi\) gives rise to a plane. This plane is ovoidal iff \(\phi (x)= ax\), \(\psi (x)= bx\), and is classical iff moreover, \(a=1\). In the nonclassical case, any isomorphism between two semiclassical planes respects the dissecting circles. The general form of an isomorphism is determined, and explicit conditions for the existence of particular isomorphisms are given in terms of the generating functions \(\phi\),\(\psi\). The proofs make use of the author's earlier work on semiclassical affine planes [Arch. Math. 44, 472-480 (1985; Zbl 0564.51006)]. These appear as derived planes of the semiclassical Möbius planes. For the Lie group \(\Gamma\) of automorphisms of \({\mathcal M}\) and its connected component \(\Gamma^ 1\), there are only four possibilities: \((1)\quad \Gamma^ 1=PSL_ 2{\mathbb{C}},\) \((2)\quad \Gamma^ 1=PSL_ 2{\mathbb{R}},\) \((3)\quad \Gamma^ 1={\mathbb{R}},\) \((4)\quad \Gamma^ 1=0.\) Among them, (1) characterizes the classical plane, and (2) occurs iff \(\phi\) \(\neq id\), \(\psi (x)= bx\). The latter planes are of Hering type IV. 1. They appear in \textit{K. Strambach}'s classification of Möbius planes with a 3-dimensional group [Geom. Dedicata 1, 182-220 (1973; Zbl 0263.50012)]. Possibility (3) is also characterized by the form of \(\psi\). Then the Hering type is I.1 or I.2, and both possibilities occur. Existence of type I.2 for topological Möbius planes has been an open question. Regarding (4), many nonisomorphic examples are given where even \(\Gamma =0\) (no automorphisms at all). The author announces similar papers on semiclassical Laguerre planes of dimension 2 or 4, which will contain the first examples of nonclassical Laguerre planes in dimension 4.