Universal covers of geometries of far away type (Q1426828)

In a thick building \(\Delta\) of connected spherical type and rank at least 2 a flag \(X\) is far from a flag \(F\neq \emptyset\) if the distance \(d(X,F)\) (this is the minimal distance from \(F\) to a chamber \(C \supseteq X\)) is maximal, compatibly with the types of \(F\) and \(X\). In the paper under review the author considers the geometry \(\text{Far}_\Delta(F)\) of far away type consisting of all elements of \(\Delta\) far from \(F\); incidence between two elements is inherited from \(\Delta\) subject to the restriction that the flag formed from the two elements is also far from \(F\). The author asks which far away geometries are simply connected (i.e., \((n-1)\)-simply connected) and produces a number of geometries that have this property. More specifically, he proves results of the following form: If \(\Delta\) is a non-degenerate projective geometry of dimension \(n\geq 3\) and \(\Lambda\) is any element of \(\Delta\), then \(\text{Far}_\Delta(\Lambda)\) is simply connected and, in fact, 2-simply connected. He obtains similar results for thick polar spaces, thick buildings of types \(D_n\) and \(E_6\) under various restrictions on the element \(\Lambda\). He also studies some small cases not covered in his general theorems and computes the universal covers in these exceptional cases. Each result requires a separate proof, but generally the collinearity graph \({\mathcal G}_0(\Gamma)\) of the 0-point-line system \({\mathcal L}_0(\Gamma)\) where \(\Gamma=\text{Far}_\Delta(A)\) and 0 is a type of \(\Gamma\) is investigated and the following criterion for simple connectedness is applied: If no two lines of \({\mathcal L}_0(\Gamma)\) meet in more than one point, then \(\Gamma\) is simply connected if and only if every closed path of \({\mathcal G}_0(\Gamma)\) splits into good closed paths where a path is good if it is in \({\mathcal G}_0(F)\) for some nonempty flag \(F\) of \(\Gamma\).