An equivalence relation in finite planar spaces (Q2468005)

A linear space \(S\) is a pair \((P,L)\), where \(P\) is a nonempty set of points and \(L\) is a family of proper subsets of \(P\), called lines, such that any two distinct points \(x\) and \(y\) belong to a unique line \(xy\), every line contains at least two points and there are at least two lines. A subspace \(X\) of \(S\) is a subset of \(P\) such that the line joining any two distinct points of \(X\) is completely contained in \(X\). A planar space \(S\) is a triple \((P,L,P^\ast)\), where \((P,L)\) is a linear space and \(P^\ast\) is a non-empty family of subspaces, called planes, such that: {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(i)] every plane contains at least three noncollinear points; \item[(ii)] any three non-collinear points lie in exactly one plane and it is the smallest subspace containing them; \item[(iii)] there are at least two planes. \end{itemize}} Two subspaces of a planar space \(S=(P,L,P^\ast)\) are called quasi-parallel if \(| X \cap l| =| X' \cap l| \) for all lines \(l \not\subseteq X \cup X'\). In the paper under review the author proves that if no plane in \(S\) is the union of two lines, then quasi-parallelism defines an equivalence relation on the set of planes. Moreover, they characterize finite three-dimensional affine spaces with a point, respectively line, at infinity in terms of planar spaces and quasi-parallelism.