Embeddings of Ree unitals in a projective plane over a field (Q2041122)

It has been proved in [\textit{H. Lüneburg}, J. Algebra 3, 256--259 (1966; Zbl 0135.39401)] that the Ree unital \(R(q)\) of order \(q = 3^{2n+1}\) has an automorhism group isomorphic the Ree group \(^2G_2(q)\) and it has no admissible embeddings in projective planes of order \(q^2\) (Desarguesian or not). \textit{A. Mortinaro} [Des. Codes Cryptogr. 46, 199--209 (2008; Zbl 1186.51006)] has proved that for \(q =3\) and \(n \leq q^4\), \(R(q)\) has no embedding in a projective plane of order \(n.\) Moreover, if \(R(3)\) is embedded in a projective plane \(\Pi\) of order \(n \leq 34\) in an admissible way, then either \(\Pi\simeq \mathrm{PG}(2, 8),\) or \(n = 26\). Using the classification of the maximal subgroups of the simple Ree groups, in this paper, the author completely characterizes the embeddings of \(R(3)\) in a projective plane over a field, proving the following theorem. Theorem. Let \(F\) be a field and \(\Phi : R(3) \longrightarrow \mathrm{PG}(2, F)\) an embedding. Then the following holds: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(F_8\) is a subfield of \(F,\) and the image of \(\Phi\) is contained in a subplane of order \(8\). \item[(ii)] The embedding is unique up to \(\mathrm{Aut}(R(3))\) belonging to \(\mathrm{PGL}(3, F)\). \item[(iii)] The embedding is admissible. \end{itemize}