Irreducible subshifts associated with \(\widetilde A_{2}\) buildings (Q1399910)

In 1993, \textit{D. I. Cartwright}, \textit{M. A. Mantero}, \textit{T. Steger} and \textit{A. Zappa} [Geom. Dedicata 47, No. 2, 143-166 (1993; Zbl 0784.51010)] constructed groups that act sharply transitively on the vertex set of a locally finite triangle building (building of type \(\widetilde A_2\), i.e., with a triangle as diagram), say where the rank 2 residues are projective planes of order \(q\). These groups are generated by \(q^2+ q+ 1\) elements -- a generator for each point of the residual projective plane, the inverses of the generators correspond to the lines -- and the associated Cayley graph is exactly the 1-skeleton of the triangle building. One can view this Cayley graph as a directed labelled graph, where the labels come out of the generating set of size \(q^2+ q+ 1\). Obviously, there are \((q+ 1)(q^2+ q+ 1)\) differently labelled triangles (chambers), because this is the number of chambers on a vertex. The problem solved in the paper under review boils down geometrically to the following: prove that, given any two labellings of triangles, there exists a wall \(W\) in the building and two chambers \(C\), \(D\) such that (i) \(C\) and \(D\) have the respective given labelling, (ii) both \(C\), \(D\) have an edge on \(W\) and lie in a common half apartment bounded by the wall \(W\), and (iii) the labels of the edges of \(C\) and \(D\) on \(W\) can be chosen arbitrarily in the set of three labels of \(C\) and \(D\), respectively. In fact, the authors prove that the distance between two such chambers can be chosen not to exceed 12 (measured in the chamber graph). In a way, the proof basically counts all possible labellings of triangles at distance 12 in the right position and one obtains all possibilities. To achieve this, some nontrivial combinatorial question in finite projective planes had to be solved.