Sixteen-dimensional locally compact planes of Lenz-type V on which \(\mathrm{SU}_2\mathbb{H}\) acts as a group of collineations (Q1996186)

The authors consider non-classical 16-dimensional locally compact translation planes \(\mathcal{P}\) and their collineation groups \(\Sigma\). Planes with \(\dim {\Sigma} = 38\) have been classified by [\textit{H. Hähl}, Adv. Geom. 1, 371--380 (2011; Zbl 1218.51009)]. They construct three families of planes \(\mathcal{P}\) of Lenz type V, where \(\Sigma\) contains a subgroup \(\Lambda\) (locally) isomorphic to \(SU_2\mathbb{H}\). The authors describe \(\Sigma\) in detail, in particular \(\Sigma\) is shown to be a connected Lie group with \(\dim{\Sigma}=37\); they remark that by [\textit{H. Löwe}, ``Sixteen-dimensional locally compact translation planes with automorphism groups of dimension at least 36'', Preprint] there exist no other such planes \(\mathcal{P}\). A coordinatizing division algebra \(D\) is used to describe all possible actions of \(\Lambda\) in three cases. First \(\Lambda\) acts on the coordinate axes of \(D\) effectively as \(SU_2\mathbb{H}\) and on the line at infinity as \(SO_5\mathbb{R}\) to give an infinite family of planes \(\mathcal{\mathcal P}_\alpha\), \(\alpha\) a real parameter. Dualization gives a second family \(\mathcal{\mathcal P}^{*}_\alpha\), whose transposition generates a third self-dual family.