Transformations preserving adjacency and base subsets of spine spaces (Q2581042)

Spine spaces have been introduced by the second author [see J. Geom. 72, No. 1--2, 172--187 (2001; Zbl 1003.51001)]. They can be defined as follows: let \(V\) be some vector space and fix some subspace \(W\) of \(V\). Let \(G(V,k)\) be the Grassmann space of all \(k\)-dimensional subspaces of \(V\) and fix some positive integer \(m\). Let \(P\) be defined as those elements of \(G(V,k)\) that intersect \(W\) in a subspace of dimension \(m\). Let \(\mathcal L\) be the set of at least two-element restrictions of lines of \(G(V,k)\) to points in \(P\). The incidence geometry \({\mathcal S} = (P, {\mathcal L})\) is called a spine space. If codim\(_{V}(W) = 1\), then \(\mathcal S\) is the ordinary affine Grassmannian. If \(m=0\) and codim\(_{V}(W) = k\) then \( \mathcal S\) consists of linear complements of \(W\). The author carries over the notion of a base subset as it is defined for Grassmannians to spine spaces. Furthermore, the notion of adjacency is introduced for spine spaces. Transformations of spine spaces are investigated in terms of preserving base subsets and adjacency. It is shown that transformations preserving base subsets also preserve adjacency. In most cases, i.e. projective lines have proper extensions to projective maximal strong subspaces, lines of spine spaces can be defined in terms of adjacency. Thus, adjacency preserving transformations turn out to be collineations.