An infinite family of simply connected flag-transitive tilde geometries (Q1206505)

A tilde-geometry, or \(T\)-geometry, is a geometry belonging to a string diagram which is obtained from a \(C_ n\)-diagram by replacing the doubly stroke by a double stroke with a tilde; i.e. the corresponding rank 2 residue is the triple cover of the generalized quadrangle of order (2,2) with corresponding group \(3 \cdot S_ 6\). Four known flag-transitive examples of such geometries arise from sporadic groups \((M_{24},He\) (provide rank \(2T\)-geometries), \(Co_ 1\) (rank 4) and \(F_ 1=M\) (rank 5)) and two are related to symplectic groups, namely \(3 \cdot SP_ 4(2)\) itself and \(3^ 7 \cdot Sp_ 6(2)\) (providing a rank \(3T\)-geometry). The paper under review extends the construction of the latter two geometries to arbitrary rank. The resulting geometries are also shown to be 2-simply connected. The construction is entirely group-theoretic, in fact one constructs the amalgam of rank 2 parabolic subgroups by embedding it in a suitable semidirect product of an elementary abelian 3-group and \(Sp_{2n} (2)\).