Collineations of finite 2-affine planes (Q2402973)

A finite \(2\)-affine plane of order \(n\) is a linear space where every line has at most \(n\) points and such that for every point \(P\), not on a line \(L\), there are either 1 or 2 parallel lines through \(P\) to \(L\). A finite \(2\)-affine plane of order \(n\) is one of the following: * an affine plane of order \(n\) * (type I) an affine plane of order \(n\) with one point removed * (type II) an affine plane of order \(n\) with all the points of one line removed * one of the four sporadic \(2\)-affine planes of order at most \(4\). In this paper, the author investigates collineations of finite \(2\)-planes. He first shows that the \(2\)-planes of affine type (these are the affine planes, and \(2\)-affine planes of type I and II) are embeddable into a unique projective plane of the same order. This theorem is then used to deduce that each isomorphism of a finite \(2\)-affine plane of affine type extends to a unique isomorphism of their projective completions. In the second part of the paper, \(2\)-affine planes of type II are studied in more detail. In particular, their elation group is defined and elation \(2\)-affine planes of type II (those planes with an elation group of the maximum possible size) are studied. It is shown that if the kernel of the elation \(2\)-affine plane has maximum possible size, then the plane extends to the Desarguesian projective plane. Finally, the author determines the collineation group of the \(2\)-affine planes of type II with order at most \(4\).