On a family of planes of a polar space (Q1840838)

A family \(\mathcal S\) of \(d\)-dimensional subspaces in \(PG(m,q)\) is called a dual arc if the following conditions hold: (1) any two distinct members of \(\mathcal S\) intersect in exactly one point and no three members contain a point in common; (2) for every \(X\in {\mathcal S}\), the intersection of \(X\) with the other members of \(\mathcal S\) form a subspace in \(X\); (3) the members of \(\mathcal S\) span \(PG(m,q)\). A \(d\)-dimensional dual arc in \(PG(m,q)\) is said to be of polar type, if there exists a nondegenerate symplectic, unitary or orthogonal form \(f\) on the underlying vector space of \(PG(m,q)\) with respect to which every member of \(\mathcal S\) is totally isotropic. A \(Y\)-family is a two-dimensional dual arc in \(PG(5,2^e)\). Recently Yoshiara proved that the dual affine expansion \(Af({\mathcal S})\) of a \(Y\)-family is an extended generalized quadrangle in which the residue at a point \(p\) is the dual of the Tits GQ \(T_2^*(O_p)\) for some hyperoval \(O_p\) depending on \(p\). There are three known constructions of \(Y\)-families: \({\mathcal Y}(O)\) by Yoshiara, \({\mathcal T}(K)\) by Thas and \({\mathcal Y}^*(O)\) by Ng and Wild. The main results of this paper are the following two propositions. Proposition 1. If a \(Y\)-family \(\mathcal S\) is of symplectic (resp. unitary) polar type, then there exists a \(q\) (resp. \(\sqrt{q}\))-fold cover of \(Af({\mathcal S})\) in which every variety is a totally isotropic subspace of \(PG(7,q)\). Proposition 2. If a \(Y\)-family \(\mathcal S\) is of unitary type, then \(q=4\) and \({\mathcal S}={\mathcal Y}(O_4)\) for a dual hyperoval \(O_4\) in \(PG(2,4)\).