A rank 2 characterization of twinnings (Q1266376)

The author basically shows that the axioms for a twinning of two buildings only must be checked in the rank two residues. More precisely, let \({\mathcal O}\) be a non-empty symmetric relation between the chambers of two buildings. Then \({\mathcal O}\) is the opposition relation with respect to a certain twinning (i.e., the two buildings can be seen as a twin building and the relation \({\mathcal O}\) is the opposition relation) if and only if, restricted to any pair of rank 2 residues, it is either empty or a twinning. The author proves this with beautiful geometric arguments. If one replaces ``rank 2 residues'' by ``rank 1 residues'', then the result is no longer true, as the reviewer and Abramenko constructed counterexamples for generalized polygons and trees in a yet unpublished paper. The result of the paper under review will be important in the classification of 2-spherical twin buildings of rank at least 3, in particular for existence proofs.