A characterization of the Coxeter cap (Q2168067)

A cap \(\mathcal K\) in a projective space is a collection of points whose intersection with each line contains at most two elements. The lines of the projective space which intersect \(\mathcal K\) in \(0,1\) or \(2\) points are called external, tangent, or secant lines, respectively. In 1958, Coxeter found a remarkable embedding of the small Witt design as a cap \(\mathcal K\) in PG\((5,3)\). In this embedding, the blocks of the Witt design correspond to the hyperplanes of PG\((5,3)\) which intersect \(\mathcal K\) in precisely 6 points. The cap \(\mathcal K\) also has the property that it admits at least one tangent line and that each tangent line of \(\mathcal K\) contains precisely two points through which there are secant lines. The authors determine all caps of finite projective spaces of order at least three having this property. Besides the Coxeter cap there are the triangles in projective planes and some point sets in projective spaces of rank three or four related to hyperovals. For the proof, they show that each cap with the aformentioned property can be associated with a certain near hexagon and use some recent deep results on near hexagons.