Split buildings of type \(\mathsf {F}_4\) in buildings of type \(\mathsf {E}_6\) (Q1640159)

In [Des. Codes Cryptography 65, No. 1--2, 115--125 (2012; Zbl 1263.51007)], the third author investigated domestic dualities of buildings of type \(\mathsf{E}_6\). It was shown that these dualities are symplectic polarities and that the fixed point structure is a split building of type \(\mathsf{F}_4\). There are four examples of the phenomenon that a split building arises as a fixed point building under a suitable nontrivial automorphism group of an other split building, the case of a symplectic polarity of a building of type \(\mathsf{E}_6\) fixing a building of type \(\mathsf{F}_4\) is the most complex one. In the paper under review, the authors deal with this last case in detail. In the first part, a symplectic metasymplectic parapolar space \(\Gamma\) is considered and a canonical building \(\Delta\) of type \(\mathsf{E}_6\) is geometrically constructed in which \(\Gamma\) is embedded. The bulk of the construction of the elements of \(\Delta\) is to get the quads of \(\Delta\). A detailed analysis yields how these are recognised by their intersections with \(\Gamma\). The authors then show that \(\Gamma\) is the fixed point structure of a symplectic polarity \(\theta\) of \(\Delta\). The sets of absolute points and absolute lines of \(\theta\) are precisely the sets of points and lines of \(\Gamma\); the fixed planes and fixed 5-spaces of \(\theta\) are the planes and symplecta, respectively, of \(\Gamma\). Furthermore, it is proven that, up to conjugacy, \(\Delta\) admits a unique symplectic polarity. In the second part of the paper, the authors start with a symplectic metasymplectic parapolar space \(\Gamma\) which is fully point-line-embedded in the natural point-line geometry \(\Delta\) associated with a building of type \(\mathsf{E}_6\). As a first step, they obtain that every symplecton of \(\Gamma\) is a fully embedded symplectic polar space in a 5-space of \(\Delta\). It is then shown that \(\Gamma\) and \(\Delta\) are defined over the same field and that \(\Gamma\) arises from a symplectic polarity of \(\Delta\). Since a symplectic polarity of \(\Delta\) maps points to quads and vice versa, the analysis of the quads is again crucial for the construction of the corresponding symplectic polarity.