An easy characterization of \(\mathrm{PG}(4,n)\) (Q2410119)

A (finite) linear space is a point-line geometry such that any two points are incident with exactly one line. A (finite) planar space is a triple \((\mathcal{S},\mathcal{L},\mathcal{P})\) where \((\mathcal{S},\mathcal{L})\) is a (finite) linear space and \(\mathcal{P}\) is a family of proper subsets called \textit{planes}, such that {\parindent=0.7cm \begin{itemize}\item[1.] every plane contains at least three non-collinear points, and, \item[2.] ever triple of non-collinear points is contained in a unique plane. \end{itemize}} The authors define a finite planar space to be \textit{\((n,q)\)-regular} (\(n,q\) integers, \(n \geq 2\)) if every pencil of lines has size \(n+1\), and every pencil of planes (through a line) has size \(q+1\). The main result of the nice paper is the following theorem. Theorem. An \((n,q)\)-regular planar space is the projective space \(\mathrm{PG}(4,n)\) if and only if it satisfies the following two properties {\parindent=0.7cm \begin{itemize}\item[1.] \(q > n^2-n-5 \geq n\), \(n \geq 4\), and, \item[2.] the intersection of any two planes is not empty. \end{itemize}} The condition \(n \geq 4\) makes sure that \(n^2-n-5 \geq n\). The authors believe that condition 1 can be weakened to \(q > n\).