Cross-ratios over local alternative rings (Q2276752)

[The results of this note are part of author's doctoral dissertation ``Doppelverhältnisse und lokale Alternativringe'', Univ. Hamburg (1990; Zbl 0704.51002).] It is shown that the conjugacy relation is an equivalence relation on the alternative field A and on the local alternative ring \(R=A+A\epsilon\) of dual numbers over A, but on no other alternative ring of a certain class. On the projective lines over A and R the cross-ratio of four points is defined as a conjugacy class. Its elementary properties and applications to chain geometries are investigated.