Flag-transitive extensions of dual polar spaces (Q1594132)

The author announces several results concerning extensions of dual polar spaces. An affine extension \(A\) of a dual polar space is an extension having a flag-transitive group \(G\) of automorphisms with a normal subgroup \(T\) such that the action of \(T\) on the set of elements of the first type in \(A\) is regular. The group \(T\) is then called a group of shifts of \(A\) with respect to \(G\). An example of the results announced by the author is: Theorem: Let \(A\) be an affine extension of a dual polar space of rank \(n\geq 3\), and let \(G\) be a flag-transitive group of automorphisms of \(A\) with \(T\) the group of shifts of \(A\) with respect to \(G\). For an element \(\alpha\) of the first type in \(A\), put \(D=\text{res}_A(\alpha)\), and let \(\Delta\) denote an action that induces the stabilizer of \(\alpha\) in \(G\) on \(D\). The following hold: (i) \(D\) is isomorphic to either \(D(Sp_{2n-2}(2))\) or \(D(U_{2n-2}(2))\); (ii) \(T\) is a \(\Delta\)-admissible divisible representation of \(D\) and \(G\cong A(D,T)\); (iii) There exists a 2-covering \(\Psi\): \(A(D,R(D))\to A\), where \(R(D)\) is the universal representation group of \(D\). [The system \(A(D,T)\) is the incidence system whose elements of type 1 are all elements of \(T\) and elements of type \(i\geq 2\) are all right cosets of subgroups \(T_\sigma\) for all elements \(\sigma\) in \(D\) of type \(i-1\) (with incidence being containment as subsets of \(T\)).] For definitions and other results the reader is encouraged to read the article.