Piecewise regular spreads (Q1885236)

A spread in the projective 3-space \(\Pi\) over the reals is a subset of lines such that each point of \(\Pi\) is incident with a unique line of the spread. Each spread \(S\) determines a projective translation plane. If the only collineation of \(\Pi\) leaving \(S\) invariant is the identity then \(S\) is called a rigid spread. This means that each collineation of the resulting translation plane is a translation. D. Betten in 1972 glued two regular spreads of \(\Pi\) smartly together (similar to the construction of the modified lines in the Moufang plane) and thus obtained a spread. In the present article more than two regular spreads are used to construct `piecewise regular' rigid spreads, hence 4-dimensional topological translation planes where each collineation is a translation. Further, a class of hyperrigid spreads (i.e., the only duality of \(\Pi\) that leaves \(S\) fixed is the identity) is obtained.