Shult's haircut theorem revised (Q2122685)

Polar spaces are incidence geometries that are naturally associated to the classical simple groups of Lie type. Parapolar spaces are more general incidence geometries of points, lines, and so forth, except that their convex subspaces are polar spaces (``symplecta''), such that every line is contained in a symplecton, and certain pairs of points that are far away from another are contained in a symplecton. So a polar space is a parapolar space having one symplecton. Thus parapolar spaces include interesting geometries such as polar spaces, dual polar spaces, Grassmann spaces, half-spin geometries, and geometries associated with exceptional groups of type \(F_4\), \(E_6\), \(E_7\), and \(E_8\). Some of these geometries have been characterised by instituting simple axioms in terms of just points, lines, hyperplanes, symplecta, and incidence. \textit{E. E. Shult} [Innov. Incidence Geom. 15, 265--286 (2017; Zbl 1384.51004)] introduced a ``haircut axiom'' that characterises a larger class of geometries than in preceding work on this topic. The authors of the paper reviewed find some holes in the original statement of Shult's Theorem, and discusses why and where these holes appear. They give a correct statement of Shult's desired theorem, with some adaptations to the original hypotheses.