On Buekenhout-Metz unitals (Q1281134)

A \textit{unital} in the Desarguesian plane of order \(q^2, PG(2,q^2),\) is a set \(U\) of \(q^3 + 1\) points of \(PG(2,q^2)\) such that every line of the plane meets \(U\) in 1 or \(q + 1\) points. An example of a unital in \(PG(2,q^2)\) is given by the set of absolute points of a unitary polarity. This is called the classical unital (or hermitian curve). In 1976, \textit{F. Buekenhout} [Geom. Dedicata 5, 189-194 (1976; Zbl 0336.50014)] proved the existence of unitals in all translation planes of dimension 2 over their kernel and provided two constructions. Those arising from Theorem 4 are called Buekenhout unitals and those from \S 4, Remark 4 are now called Buekenhout-Metz unitals. In \(PG(2,q^2)\) these three families and their duals provide the only known examples. Let \(\Sigma' = PG(4,q)\), \(\Sigma\) be a hyperplane of \(\Sigma'\) and \({\mathcal F}\) be a regular spread of \(\Sigma\). Denote by \(\pi(\Sigma', \Sigma, {\mathcal F}) \simeq PG(2, q^2)\) the projective plane constructed by the Bruck-Bose method using \({\mathcal F}\). In this paper the authors provide a new, simple proof of the fact that if \(U\) is a Buekenhout-Metz unital of the plane \(\pi(\Sigma', \Sigma, {\mathcal F})\) defined by an elliptic cone \({\mathcal U}\) of \(\Sigma'\), then there is a regular spread \({\mathcal F}'\) of \(\Sigma\) such that \({\mathcal U}\) defines a hermitian curve of \(\pi(\Sigma', \Sigma, {\mathcal F}') \simeq PG(2, q^2)\).