Homogeneous compact geometries (Q404610)

The geometries considered here are thick residually connected geometries in the terminology of \textit{J. Tits} [in: The geometric vein, The Coxeter Festschr., 519--547 (1982; Zbl 0496.51001)]. Such a geometry \(\Delta\) is called compact, if its set of vertices carries a compact Hausdorff topology such that all flag varieties are closed. The main result of the authors classifies all compact geometries \(\Delta\) of irreducible spherical type and of rank at least \(2\) with connected panels such that \(\Delta\) admits a compact chamber-transitive automorphism group: such a geometry \(\Delta\) is either 2-covered by the spherical building associated to a simple non-compact Lie group, or isomorphic to the exceptional geometry of type \(C_3\) discovered by \textit{F. Podestà} and \textit{G. Thorbergsson} [J. Differ. Geom. 53, No. 1, 131--175 (1999; Zbl 1040.53071)]. This exceptional geometry might be an infinite analogue of the finite case in [\textit{A. Neumaier}, Arch. Math. 42, 89--96 (1984; Zbl 0509.05026); \textit{A. Pasini}, Diagram geometries. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1994; Zbl 0813.51002), Chapter 6.4.2]. For the proof the authors construct and study universal compact homogeneous geometries, using some algebraic topology of compact Lie groups. The final section of the paper contains an application to polar actions, which extends results of the second author [Geom. Funct. Anal. 24, 1298--1315 (2014; Zbl 1311.53025)].