Dense near octagons with four points on each line. I. (Q2385099)

In the paper under review, which is the first of a series of three [for part II see Adv. Geom. 7, No.~2, 191--206 (2007; Zbl 1126.51006)], the author starts the classification of dense near octagons \(\mathcal S\) of order \((3,t)\). He determines all dense near octagons of order \((3,t)\) having a big hex. The main tool for achieving this is the classification of all spreads of symmetry of dense near hexagons of the same order. About half of the paper is devoted to this classification which in itself is already interesting. The main theorem states that any dense near octagon \(\mathcal S\) of order \((3,t)\) containing a big hex is isomorphic to one of 28 near octagons (if the big hex is either classical or glued) or to \(H \times \mathbb L_{4}\) (if the big hex is of exceptional type).