Planar sections of the quadric of Lie cycles and their Euclidean interpretations (Q1900033)

In J. Geom. 52, No. 1-2, 74-90 (1995; Zbl 0823.51005) the authors interpreted points of the Euclidean plane, oriented Euclidean lines and oriented Euclidean circles in Minkowski \((2 + 1)\)-space in order to obtain new theorems in Euclidean or Minkowskian geometry. In the paper under review the authors continue in this spirit. They interpret cycles, that is, points of the Euclidean plane and oriented Euclidean lines and circles, as points of a Lie geometry, that is, points of a quadric of signature (3,2) in 4-dimensional projective space. Following \textit{I. M. Yaglom} [The Geometric Vein, The Coxeter Festschrift, 345-353 (1982; Zbl 0521.51006)] certain objects and relations in the Lie geometry, like bunches, chains etc, are introduced and their properties are investigated. In most cases they reflect the geometry of the underlying generalised quadrangle, that is, the Lie geometry, although generalised quadrangles are not mentioned in the paper. Using the correspondence between cycles and points of the Lie geometry the authors prove a configurational theorem and draw a number of applications from it. Remark by the reviewer: The points and oriented Euclidean lines and circles in the Euclidean plane form the spear-cycle model of the real miquelian Laguerre plane. The Lie geometry constructed is the familiar description of the classical 3-dimensional antiregular generalised quadrangle (this is the dual of the symplectic generalised quadrangle over the reals) associated with the real miquelian Laguerre plane; lines of the quadrangle are the isotropic lines on the quadric. More generally, \textit{M. Forst} [Mitt. Math. Semin. Gießen 147, 65-129 (1981; Zbl 0478.51013)] showed that by regarding points and circles of the Laguerre plane as the same kind of objects and by unifying the relations of incidence, tangency and being parallel to a new relation, collinearity, the Lie geometry of every 2-dimensional (locally compact topological) Laguerre plane yields in this way a 3-dimensional (compact topological) antiregular generalised quadrangle. This correspondence was later generalised by \textit{A. E. Schroth} [Geom. Dedicata 46, No. 3, 339-361 (1993; Zbl 0788.51003)] to 4-dimensional Laguerre planes. Using such antiregular generalised quadrangles \textit{A. E. Schroth} [Topological circle planes and topological quadrangles, Pitman, Research Notes in Mathematics, vol. 337 (1995)] solved the Apollonius problem in 2- and 4-dimensional Laguerre planes and the other kinds of circle planes.