On triples of ideal chambers in \(A_2\)-buildings (Q2419881)

The author is interested in actions of punctured surface groups on Euclidean buildings of type \(A_2\), see [the author, ``Invariant subspaces for some surface groups acting on \(A_2\)-Euclidean buildings'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1504.03775}]. The main tool in this study is a geometric interpretation of generalized shear coordinates as used by \textit{V. Fock} and \textit{A. Goncharov} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 103, 1--211 (2006; Zbl 1099.14025)]. With this motivation simple configurations in the boundary \(\partial_\infty X\) at infinity of real Euclidean buildings \(X\) of type \(A_2\) are investigated in the paper under review. In this case, \(\partial_\infty X\) is a projective plane \(\mathbb{P}\). An ideal triple \(T=(F_1, F_2,F_3)\) of chambers \(F_i\) in \(\mathbb{P}\) is called generic if the flags \(F_i=(p_i,D_i)\) are pairwise opposite, the points \(p_i\) are not collinear and the lines \(D_i\) (through \(p_i\)) are not concurrent. This implies that on each \(D_i\) one has a quadruple of pairwise distinct points from this configuration and dually a quadruple of pairwise distinct lines through each \(p_i\). The author introduces the geometric triple ratio of such generic triples of flags. It generalizes the algebraic triple ratio when \(\mathcal{P}\) is a Desarguesian projective plane over a field. There are five flats in \(X\) that can naturally be associated with a generic triple \(T\) of ideal chambers. The three flats \(A_{i j}\) containing the opposite chambers \(F_i\) and \(F_j\) in their boundaries, the flat \(A_p\) containing the triple of ideal singular points \((p_1, p_2, p_3)\) in its boundary, and the similarly defined flat \(A_D\). It is shown that unless the five flats intersect in a point either the three flats \(A_{i j}\) have a nonempty intersection \(I\) (called ``tripod'' type) or the two flats \(A_p\) and \(A_D\) have nonempty intersection \(\Delta\), which is a flat singular triangle (called type ``flat''). The author obtains characterizations of these two types in terms of geometric triple ratios. She further derives various descriptions and properties. For example, in case of ``tripod'' type, \(I\) is a segment \([x,x^*]\) which is the unique shortest segment joining \(A_p\) to \(A_D\). Furthermore, \(x\) coincides with the centers of the projective frames \((p_1, p_2, p_3,D_i \cap D_j)\) and \(x^*\) coincides with the centers of the projective frames \((D_1, D_2, D_3, p_i p_j)\). The proofs of these main results rely on calculations in a model flat \(\mathbb{A}\) of type \(A_2\) and identifications of the above five flats with \(\mathbb{A}\) as marked flats. More generally, the author obtains characterizations of centers of projective frames in associated projective spaces at infinity of Euclidean buildings of type \(A_{N-1}\).