Wrapping polygons in polygons (Q1293421)

This paper is concerned with the classification of dual extensions of generalized polygons, i.e., connected rank 3 geometries \(\Gamma\) with points, lines and planes, where the residue of a plane is a generalized polygon with two lines through each point, where the residue of a point is a complete graph (vertices are lines of \(\Gamma\), edges are planes), and where the residue of a line is a generalized digon. The authors also assume a finiteness condition, namely, that every line belongs to finitely many planes. The standard examples are the quotients of truncations of almost thin geometries with linear diagram \(I_2(2g).A_n\), where the residue of an element corresponding to the first node is a finite simplex (for \(g>2\), these geometries are buildings). The main result of the paper is that an arbitrary dual extension \(\Gamma\) of a generalized \(2k\)-gon is one of these standard examples if and only if its wrappinp number is equal to 1. The latter amounts to stating that, given a closed \(2k\)-path \((x_0,x_1, \dots,x_{2n-1}, x_{2n}=x_0)\) in the point graph of any plane \(\alpha\) of \(\Gamma\), given a line \(\ell_0\) through \(x_0\) (to obtain a non-trivial statement, \(\ell_0\) must not belong to \(\alpha\) -- so let us assume this for the sake of simplicity), and for each \(i\), \(0\leq i \leq 2k\), given the line \(\ell_i\), inductively defined as the unique line through \(x_i\) different from \(x_ix_{i-1}\) in the (unique) plane containing \(l_{i-1}\) and \(x_ix_{i-1}\), the line \(\ell_{2k}\) coincides with \(\ell_0\). This is a very beautiful geometric characterization. The proof is not deep: it amounts to putting together results of other papers, and noting that the condition on the wrapping number is equivalent with the existence of the natural parallelism. The applications are surprising and rather spectacular. Several concrete (classes of) examples of dual extensions of generalized polygons are proved (or disproved) to be a standard example by explicitly computing the wrapping number.