Squaring the triangle (Q1591226)

In [Arch. Math. 64, 75-85 (1995; Zbl 0813.51007)] the author considered a construction of flat (or 2-dimensional) Laguerre planes from an affine plane by a process in which the functions describing non-vertical lines are integrated. The collection of all integrals of these functions can be used as circle describing functions of an incidence structure that looks like a flat Laguerre plane minus one generator. If the lines of the affine plane behave well at infinity then the incidence structure can be extended by a generator to yield a flat Laguerre plane. This construction was extended to other kinds of circle planes by the author in [Geom. Dedicata 67, 149-162 (1997; Zbl 0891.51010)]. The paper under review continues these investigations but uses a more homogeneous representation that no longer requires the insertion of an extra generator at the end of the process. In this way integration results in a natural and powerful construction of flat Laguerre planes and their associated geometries. In fact, many of the known families of flat Laguerre planes can be obtained in this way. The author starts with a flat coaffine plane, that is, a flat projective plane from which one point and all the lines through it have been deleted. Such a plane can be represented on the Möbius strip \([0,\pi]\times{\mathbb{R}}\) where \((0,y)\) and \((\pi,-y)\) have been identified by a system of continuous antiperiodic functions on \([0,\pi]\). Similarly, flat Laguerre planes can be represented on the cylinder \([0,2\pi]\times{\mathbb{R}}\) where \((0,y)\) and \((2\pi,y)\) have been identified by a system of continuous periodic functions on \([0,2\pi]\). Doubling up the antiperiodic functions corresponding to a flat coaffine plane to obtain zero integrable functions on \([0,2\pi]\) and integrating the resulting functions yields a Laguerre plane. The author further determines under what conditions on the coaffine plane Möbius or Minkowski planes can be obtained from the integrated Laguerre planes by the process discovered by \textit{A. E. Schroth} [Topological circle planes and topological quadrangles, Pitman Res. Notes in Math. 337 (1995; Zbl 0839.51013)]. It turns out that each integrated Laguerre plane admits a Möbius involution and thus gives rise to a flat Möbius plane. If \((x,y)\mapsto (\pi-x,y)\) is a collineation of the coaffine plane, then the integrated Laguerre plane admits a Minkowski involution and thus gives rise to a flat Minkowski plane. Finally, it is shown that starting with a continuous function \(f\) on \([0,\pi]\) such that \(f(0)=f(\pi)=0\) and such that the restriction to the open interval \((0,\pi)\) is positive and its composition with the logarithm is strictly concave, the integrated Laguerre plane obtained from the set of antiperiodic functions \(x\mapsto a\overline f(x+b)\) for \(a>0\), \(b\in[0,\pi]\), where \(\overline f\) is the periodic extension of \(f\) onto \([0,2\pi]\), has a point-transitive automorphism group of dimension at least 3. In fact, the automorphism group is 3-dimensional in all but the classical case [see the reviewer, Result. Math. 24, 326-341 (1993; Zbl 0787.51012)].