Reconstructing ternary Dowling geometries (Q1775744)

Dowling geometries play an essential role in various areas of matroid theory. E.g., fix a basis \(p_1,\dots, p_n\) of the rank-\(n\) ternary projective geometry \(\text{PG}(n-1,3)\). The rank-\(n\) ternary Dowling geometry \(Q_n\) is, up to isomorphism, the restriction of \(\text{PG}(n-1,3)\) to the set of points on coordinate lines. In the present paper it is proved that the only geometry of rank \(n> 4\) all whose proper contractions are ternary Dowling geometries is the ternary Dowling geometry. Based on this, the authors confirm a strengthened version of a conjecture due to J. Kung and J. Oxley which refers to the embeddability of ternary geometries of rank-\(n\) into rank-\(n\) ternary Dowling geometries.