Complete sets of pairwise orthogonal Latin squares and the corresponding projective planes (Q1185902)

The author defines several types of transformations on the class of complete sets of pairwise orthogonal Latin squares (POLS) of order \(n\) and describes their geometrical effects in the corresponding projective planes. A set of necessary and sufficient conditions that a projective plane of order \(n\) should be \((V,l)\)-transitive (in the case where \(V\) lies on \(l)\) in terms of the properties of a corresponding complete set of POLS is established. These ideas are applied to show that the complete set of POLS of order nine due to \textit{L. J. Paige} and \textit{Ch. Wexler} [Portugaliae Math. 12, 105--112 (1953; Zbl 0053.10802)] is the dual of the non-Desarguesian translation plane of order 9, and not the Hughes plane of order 9 as stated in \textit{J. Dénes} and \textit{A. D. Keedwell} [Latin squares and their applications. New York etc.: Academic Press (1974; Zbl 0283.05014)].