Finite projective planes with abelian transitive collineation groups (Q1273393)

Generalizing slightly the way the term is often used, the author calls a group a Singer group if it is sharply transitive on the points of a projective plane. Singer looked at the additive group of \(K = G F(q^3)\) as a vector space of dimension three over \(GF(g)\) which in turn becomes a Desarguesian projective plane whose points are 1-dimensional subspaces of the three-space. The classical Singer group is then the multiplication group of \(K\) interpreted as a collineation group. The main result is that if a finite projective plane admits more than one abelian Singer group then the plane is Desarguesian. He traces the interest in transitive planes to the so-called Ostrom-Wagner theorem which says that doubly transitive finite projective planes are Desarguesian. A perhaps interesting sidelight: The reviewer became interested in doubly transitive planes after looking at difference sets, which correspond to planes admitting cyclic Singer groups. The only known cases are still those corresponding to the classical Singer groups.