Isometries and collineations of the Cayley surface (Q2493217)

Let \(\Pi\) be the projective \(3\)-space over \({\mathbb K}^4\) where \(\mathbb K\) is an arbitrary commutative field. The point set \[ \Phi:=\{{\mathbb K}(x_0,x_1,x_2,x_3)^T\in\Pi\mid x_0x_1x_2-x_{1}^3-x_{0}^2x_3=0\} \] is called ``Cayley's ruled cubic surface'' (collinear images of \(\Phi\) are named likewise). In this elegantly written article the authors determine all automorphic collineations of \(\Phi\), only in the cases with \(|{\mathbb K}|\leq\,3\) they have to add to the known classical results (\({\mathbb K}\in\{{\mathbb R},{\mathbb C}\}\)) certain extra collineations. Denote by \(c\) the number of all non-proportional cubic forms defining the point set \(\Phi\); the authors show: \(c=64\) for \(|{\mathbb K}|=2\), \(c=2\) for \(|{\mathbb K}|=3\), and \(c=1\) otherwise. For \(|{\mathbb K}|\geq\,4\) the authors endow the set \(\Phi_0\) of simple points of \(\Phi\) with a non-symmetric distance function \(\delta:\Phi_0\times\Phi_0\rightarrow\,W:={\mathbb K}\cup\{\infty\}\) such that \((\Phi_0,W,\delta)=:D_{\Phi}\) is a distance space in the sense of \textit{W. Benz} [Geometrische Transformationen (Mannheim: B. I. Wissenschaftsverlag) (1992; Zbl 0754.51005)]; \(\delta\) can be defined via cross ratios. In general a circle of \(D_{\Phi}\) is a cubic. Each isometry of \(D_{\Phi}\) extends in a unique way to a projective collineation of \(\Pi\) fixing \(\Phi\).