The Grassmann space of a planar space (Q1580670)

Let \((S,{\mathcal L})\) be a finite linear space. A subspace \(H\) of \((S,{\mathcal L})\) is a subset of \(S\) that is closed under the join operation. Proper subspaces are called subplanes. A planar space \((S,{\mathcal L},{\mathcal P})\) is a linear space \((S,{\mathcal L})\) together with a family \({\mathcal P}\) of subplanes of \((S,{\mathcal L})\) such that each triple of non-collinear points is contained in a unique subplane of \({\mathcal P}\) and any subplane of \({\mathcal P}\) contains at least three non-collinear points. A partial line space is a pair \((S_0,{\mathcal R}_0)\), where \({\mathcal R}_0\) (the set of lines) is a family of proper subsets of \(S_0\) (the set of points), \({\mathcal R}_0\) is a covering of \(S_0\), every line has at least two points, and any two distinct points lie on at most one line. The Grassmann space of a planar space \((S,{\mathcal L},{\mathcal P})\) is the partial space G\((S) = (S_0,{\mathcal R}_0)\), whose points are the lines and whose lines are the line pencils of \((S,{\mathcal L},{\mathcal P})\). Using a famous theorem of \textit{G. Tallini} [London Math. Soc. Lect. Notes Ser. 49, 354-358 (1981; Zbl 0469.51006)], \textit{N. Melone} and \textit{D. Olanda} [Eur. J. Comb. 5, 323-330 (1984; Zbl 0563.51019)] proved the following theorem: Let \((S_0,{\mathcal R}_0)\) be a proper partial line space whose lines are not maximal subspaces. If \((S_0,{\mathcal R}_0)\) has a covering \({\mathcal T}\) of maximal subspaces such that for each \(T \in {\mathcal T}\) and each \(p \in S \setminus T\) any element of \({\mathcal T}\) through \(p\) intersects \(T\) uniquely and these points trace out a line formed by all the points of \(G\setminus T\) collinear with \(p\), then \((S_0,{\mathcal R}_0)\) is isomorphic to the Grassmann space of a projective space. The authors generalize this theorem and moreover give a Tallini-free proof of their generalization.