The center conjecture for thick spherical buildings (Q376289)

\textit{B. Leeb} and the present author [Geom. Funct. Anal. 21, No. 3, 525--559 (2011; Zbl 1232.51008)] proved the center conjecture for spherical buildings of types \(F_4\) and \(E_6\). In the paper under review, the author employs the same differential-geometric methods and the same strategy to prove the center conjecture for spherical buildings of types \(E_6\), \(E_7\) and \(E_8\). He first deals with the most complicated \(E_8\) case. The crucial step, and the one requiring the most effort, is to show through a detailed analysis of configurations of various points that all 8-vertices in a counterexample \(K\) of the center conjecture for a spherical building of type \(E_8\) have antipodes in \(K\). It is then verified that all other vertices also have antipodes in \(K\), and \(K\) is a sub-building. The \(E_6\)- and \(E_7\)-cases are then deduced from the \(E_8\)-case. Hence, together with previous results by \textit{B. Mühlherr} and \textit{J. Tits} [J. Algebra 300, No. 2, 687--706 (2006; Zbl 1101.51004)], the center conjecture holds for all spherical buildings without factors of type \(H_4\), and, in particular, for all thick spherical buildings. The author further notes that the arguments used yield a more general and intrinsic version of the center conjecture. If \(B\) is a spherical building without factors of type \(H_4\) and \(K \subseteq B\) is a convex subcomplex, then \(K\) is a sub-building or the action of the possibly larger group of isometries of \(K\) preserving the polyhedral structure of \(K\) induced by the polyhedral structure of \(B\) with the additional restriction that the changes of vertex types of \(K\) correspond to a symmetry of the Dynkin diagram of \(B\) has a fixed point. Such automorphisms can not necessarily be extended to automorphisms of \(B\).