Opposition diagrams for automorphisms of large spherical buildings (Q1633371)

Consider a spherical building \(\Delta\) (say of type \((W,S)\)) and let \(\theta\) be any of its automorphisms. In this paper, the authors initiate a systematic analysis of the structure of the ``opposite geometry Opp(\(\theta)\)'', which consists of all simplices of \(\Delta\) that are mapped by \(\theta\) onto opposite simplices of \(\Delta\). This is a natural thing to investigate, arising for instance in Curtis-Phan theory, and being complementary to the ``fixed element geometry Fix(\(\theta)\)'', which is well known and established and leads to highly interesting substructures (cf. Tits indices). Let Typ(\(\theta\)) be the union of all subsets \(J \subseteq S\) for which there is a type \(J\) simplex in Opp(\(\theta\)). The authors call \(\theta\) capped if it is closed under taking unions, or equivalently, if there is a simplex of type Typ(\(\theta\)) in Opp(\(\theta\)). Their main theorem then states that each automorphism of any thick irreducible spherical building of rank 3 without Fano plane residues is capped. The thick irreducible spherical buildings of rank 3 without Fano plane residues are called ``large buildings''. The condition ``without Fano plane residues'' is a minor and necessary restriction: the authors have shown in earlier work that for these small buildings -- which are (partially) defined over \(\mathbb{F}_2\)-not all automorphisms are capped, as they even possess automorphisms \(\theta\) for which Typ(\(\theta\)) is the full type set, yet no chamber is mapped to an opposite chamber (\(\theta\) is called an exceptional domestic automorphism). The strength of the above theorem is demonstrated by the following applications. -- Let \(\Delta\) be a thick irreducible spherical building. For each of its automorphisms \(\theta\), the opposition diagram of \(\theta\) is the Coxeter diagram of \(\Delta\) in which the nodes corresponding to the types in Typ(\(\theta\)) are encircled. Via a combinatorial approach, the authors obtain a surprisingly short exhaustive list of opposition diagrams of the capped automorphisms of \(\Delta\). -- Let \(\Delta\) be a thick spherical building and \(\theta\) any of its automorphisms. The displacement disp(\(\theta\)) is the maximum gallery distance between a chamber and its image under \(\theta\). If \(\theta\) is capped, then it is shown in this paper that disp(\(\theta\)) can easily be computed given the opposition diagram of \(\theta\), as the difference of the diameters of \(W\) and of the parabolic subgroup generated by \(S\setminus \text{Typ}(\theta)\). The main theorem allows to forget about the word ``capped'' in the above if \(\Delta\) is a large spherical building.