Three-dimensional quadrangles and flat Laguerre planes (Q2638519)

A generalized quadrangle is an incidence structure (\({\mathcal P},{\mathcal L},I)\) of points and lines satisfying the following axioms: (1) Any two distinct points p,q\(\in {\mathcal P}\) have most one joining lines; (2) For every anti-flag (p,L)\(\in {\mathcal P}\times {\mathcal L}\setminus I\) there exists exactly one flag (q,M)\(\in I\) such that (p,M)\(\in I\) and (q,L)\(\in I\); (3) Every point is incident with a least three lines, and dually. The requirement (2) yields two mappings \(\pi\) : \({\mathcal P}\times {\mathcal L}\setminus I\to {\mathcal P}\) and \(\lambda\) : \({\mathcal P}\times {\mathcal L}\setminus I\to {\mathcal L}\) with \(\pi (p,L)=q\) and \(\Lambda (p,L)=M.\) And a three-dimensional topological quadrangle is a generalized quadrangle where \({\mathcal P}\) and \({\mathcal L}\) carry Hausdorff topologies such that maps \(\pi\) and \(\lambda\) become continuous and \({\mathcal P}\) is a 3-manifold. The main of this paper is the proof of the following theorem: Either the derivation at every point of a three-dimensional topological quadrangle or the derivation at every point of the dual quadrangle yields a flat topological Laguerre plane. This result does not extend smoothly to higher dimension. This paper is related to a paper by \textit{M. Forst} in Mitt. Math. Semin. Gießen 147, 66-129 (1981; Zbl 0478.51013)].