Planar groups of automorphisms of stable planes (Q1198231)

A stable plane is a locally compact topological linear space such that the set of pairs of intersecting lines is open. If the point set \(M\) has finite positive (covering) dimension, then \(\dim M\in\{2,4,8,16\}\) by a deep result of \textit{R. Löwen} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 343, 108-122 (1983; Zbl 0524.57011)]. Taken with the compact-open topology, the group \(\Sigma\) of automorphisms (= continuous collineations) of a stable plane is a locally compact separable transformation group of \(M\). Thus, the classification program for connected compact (= projective) planes with a group of sufficiently large dimension can be extended to stable planes. For this end, it is essential to have good control of subgroups \(\Lambda\) of \(\Sigma\) whose fixed elements form a non-discrete subplane \({\mathcal F}_ \Lambda=(F,{\mathfrak F})\). The group \(\Lambda\) is called planar if \(\dim F>0\). In the classical projective planes, \(\Lambda\) is compact. It is an open problem whether or not this is true in general. If \(M\) is compact and \(\Lambda\) is planar, then \(\dim\Lambda\) is never larger than in the corresponding classical situation. The author succeeds in extending this result (as well as nearly all others which are known for projective planes) to arbitrary stable planes. This is very remarkable because several proofs in the projective case used compactness of \(M\) in an essential way. The following theorems will be of particular importance for the classification of stable planes: (1) If \(\dim F=\textstyle{{1\over 2}}\dim M\), then \(\Lambda\) is compact. (2) If \(\dim M=8\), then \(\dim \Lambda+\dim F \leq 5\). If \(\dim M=16\), then \(\dim \Lambda\leq 12\) or the connected component of \(\Lambda\) is the compact exceptional Lie group \(G_ 2\) (the automorphism group of the octonions) or, possibly, the 14-dimensional group \(\mathbb{C}^ 3\cdot SU_ 3\mathbb{C}\). (The latter cannot act as a planar group on a projective plane.) The paper is written in a very concise form and contains a wealth of information.