Sharply transitive sets in \(\operatorname{PGL}_2(K)\) (Q2238267)

In this paper, the author provides a very short, elegant and elementary proof of the fact that any subset of \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,q)\), containing the identity and acting sharply transitively on the points of the projective line \(\mathrm{PG}(1,q)\) must in fact be a subgroup. Represent an element of \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,q)\) by a \(2\times 2\)-matrix \(A\) with entries \(a_{ij}\) (defined up to scalar multiple). Then the main lemma says that for a regular subset of \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,q)\) containing four elements \(A\), \(B\), \(C\), \(D\) with \(a_{11}=b_{12}=c_{21}=d_{22}=0\), necessarily \(a_{12}b_{22}c_{11}d_{21}=a_{21}b_{11}c_{22}d_{12}\). Its proof is a simple consequence of the fact that the product of all non-zero elements in a finite field is \(-1\). The proof of the main theorem is a straightforward (yet clever) application of this lemma.