Cones for the Moulton planes (Q2482317)

As is well-known, a really simple construction of non-desarguesian affine planes is due to F. R. Moulton (1902). Its projective extension \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_k\) is a compact projective plane with the largest collineation group among all non-desarguesian compact projective planes. Another (called radial) model \(\mathcal{M}(s)\) of the affine part of \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_k\) was discovered by D. Betten. The radial model allows a convenient description of the collineation groups of the Moulton planes. The lines of \(\mathcal{M}(s)\) are smooth curves, and the collineations are geodesic maps, i. e., diffeomorphisms which send geodesics to geodesics, up to parametrisation. With the help of a suitable family of projective connections on \(\mathbb{R}^2\backslash\left\{0\right\}\), in this paper the author presents a two-parameter family \(\mathcal{M}(a,s)\) of affinely connected planes, which leads to the real affine plane, if \(a=1\), \(s=0\); to the affine Moulton planes in the radial model of Betten, if \(a=1\), \(s\neq 0\); and becomes a family of circular cones, if \(0<a<1\), \(s=0\). Every \(\mathcal{M}(a,s)\) admits the cylinder group \(\mathbb{R}\times S_1\) as a (subgroup of its) collineation group. The geodesics of \(\mathcal{M}(a,s)\) are also described.