The geometry of \(k\)-transvection groups (Q2498854)

The paper under review can be seen as a contribution to the classical theme of synthetic geometry; the author reconstructs a group with a class of transvection subgroups out of axioms of a point line geometry. The following two concepts are central in this paper: Definition: Let \(G\) be a group and \(k\) a field. A conjugacy class \(\Sigma\) of abelian subgroups of \(G\) is called a class of \(k\)-transvection subgroups of \(G\), if (a) \(G = \langle \Sigma \rangle\); (b) for all \(A, B \in \Sigma\) either \([A,B] = 1\) or \(A\) and \(B\) are full unipotent subgroups of the group \(\langle A, B \rangle \cong (P)SL_2(k)\). Definition: A connected and coconnected partial linear space \(\Pi = (P,L)\) satisfying (a) if \(l \in L\) is a line and \(x \in P\) a point of \(\Pi\) collinear to one but not all points of \(L\), then \(x\) and \(L\) generate a subspace of \(\Pi\) isomorphic to a dual affine plane, (b) if \(X\) is a subspace of \(\Pi\) isomorphic to a dual affine plane and \(p\) a point not collinear with two noncollinear points \(q\) and \(r\) of \(X\), then \(p\) is collinear to all points of \(q^\perp \cap X\), (c) if \(x\) and \(y\) are points with \(x^\perp \subseteq y^\perp\), then \(x^\perp = y^\perp\) is called a transvection geometry. The author manages to combine these two concepts in the following result: Theorem: Suppose \(\Pi = (P,L)\) is a transvection geometry with at least \(4\) points per line such that the following hold: (a) If \(l\) is a line and \(x\) a point not on \(l\) collinear with all points of \(l\), then the subspace of \(\Pi\) generated by \(l\) and \(x\) is generated by any three noncollinear points in it. Moreover, there exists a point \(y\) collinear with \(x\) but not collinear to any point of \(l\). (b) There are three pairwise noncollinear points \(x_1\), \(x_2\), \(x_3\) with \(x_i^\perp \cap x_j^\perp \not\subseteq x_k^\perp\) for \(\{ i, j, k \} = \{ 1, 2, 3 \}\). Then there is a field \(k\) and a group \(G\) generated by a class \(\Sigma\) of \(k\)-transvection subgroups such that \(\Pi\) is isomorphic to \(\Pi(\Sigma)\), whose point set if \(\Sigma\) and whose line set is the set of all \(gen{A,B}\) for noncommuting \(A\), \(B\). Besides this result, the author gives a nice overview over several existing results in geometry and group theory, and a good guide to the literature.