A characterization of projective spaces by a set of planes (Q1297639)

A linear space \((P, \mathfrak{L})\), consisting of a point-set \(P\) and a line-set \(\mathfrak{L}\), is a structure satisfying the trivial incidence axioms (at least two points on every line, two distinct points are on a unique line). A subset \(U\) of \(P\) is a subspace if it contains all the points of the unique line passing through \(x\) and \(y\) whenever \(x\) and \(y\) are in \(U\). For any \(X\subset P\), its closure \(\overline{X}\) is defined as the intersection of all subspaces that contain it. Dimension being defined in the usual way, a generalized projective plane is a linear space in which every two lines have a non-empty intersection, and a generalized projective space is a linear space in which every plane is a generalized projective one. For \(M\subset P\), the restriction \((M, \mathfrak{L}(M))\), with \(\mathfrak{L}(M) = \{L\cap M \mid L\in \mathfrak{L}, |L\cap M|\geq 2\}\), is called locally complete if for every subspace \(T\) of \((M, \mathfrak{L}(M))\) there exists exactly one subspace \(U\) of \((P, \mathfrak{L})\) with \(T= M\cap U\). The main theorem proved states that if \((M, \mathfrak{L}(M))\) is a locally complete restriction of \((P, \mathfrak{L})\), such that, for every plane \(E\) of \((M, \mathfrak{L}(M))\), \(\overline{E}\) is a generalized projective plane (or any of two other, apparently weaker conditions hold), then \((P, \mathfrak{L})\) is a generalized projective space.