Spanning point-line geometries in buildings of spherical type (Q1266475)

Let \(\Delta\) be a split spherical building of type \(A_n,B_n, C_n,D_n\), with the additional assumption that in case of \(B_n\) and \(C_n\), the corresponding field does not have characteristic 2. Choose a node \(i\) of the diagram and consider the point-line geometry \({\mathcal G}_i\) with as point set the elements of \(\Delta\) of type \(i\), and with as set of lines the flags of type \(N\), where \(N\)is the set of nodes connected to \(i\) in the diagram (incidence is natural). A subgeometry \({\mathcal G}_i'\) of \({\mathcal G}_i\) is a subset of points and lines of \({\mathcal G}_i\) such that every point of \({\mathcal G}_i\) incident with a line of \({\mathcal G}_i\) belongs to \({\mathcal G}_i'\), and every line of \({\mathcal G}_i\) incident with at least two points of \({\mathcal G}_i'\) belongs to \({\mathcal G}_i'\). Now consider an apartment \({\mathcal A}\) of \(\Delta\) and consider the set \({\mathcal S}_{{\mathcal A},i}\) of all elements of type \(i\) incident (in \(\Delta\)) with some element of \({\mathcal A}\). The question treated in the paper under review is: when does \({\mathcal S}_{{\mathcal A},i}\) span \({\mathcal G}_i\) (i.e., when is \({\mathcal G}_i\) the smallest subgeometry of \({\mathcal G}_i\) containing \({\mathcal S}_{{\mathcal A},i})\)? The authors prove in a very elegant and unifying way that this happens if and only if (and we use the Bourbaki notation for the nodes of the respective diagrams) either \(\Delta\) is of type \(A_n\) and \(i\) is arbitrary; or \(\Delta\) is of type \(B_n\) and \(i=n\); or \(\Delta\) is of type \(C_n\) and \(i=1\); or \(\Delta\) is of type \(D_n\) and \(i=1\), \(n-1,n\); or \(\Delta\) is of type \(E_n\) and \((n,i)= (6,1) \), (6,6) (7,7). Related to this, the reviewer has determined all Moufang \(n \)-gons spanned by the points in an apartment (for \(n>4\), slightly modifying the definition, given above, of ``spanning'') in the book `Generalized polygons'.