No label defined (Q4358765)

Let \(F=GF(q)\), where \(q\) is a power of an odd prime \(p\). Let \(\mathcal P\) be an affine translation plane with point set \(V=F^4\), defined by some spread \(\mathcal S\) of \(V\), i.e. \(\mathcal S\) consists of mutually complementary 2-dimensional subspaces of \(V\) which cover \(V\). The collineation group of \(\mathcal P\) can be written as a semidirect product of the translation group \(v\mapsto v+a:V\to V\), \(a\in V\cong V\) and the stabilizer \(G\) of the origin \(0\). Another (equivalent) way of describing \(\mathcal P\) is to consider the spread \(\mathcal S\) as an ovoid, i.e. a set of \(q^2+1\) points on some hyperbolic quadric (the so-called Klein quadric) in \(PG(5,q)\), no two of which are on a line of the quadric. \textit{T. G. Ostrom} [Math. Z. 156, 59-71 (1977; Zbl 0349.50004)] has shown that \(SL(2,9)\) as well as the central product \(Q\) of the dihedral group of order 8 and the quaternion group of order 8 are the largest prossibilities for the stabilizer \(G\), assuming that \(G\) acts irreducibly on \(V\) and \(p\not|\;|G|\). Examples of such planes have been known only for small prime values of \(q\). The author proves the following quite remarkable result. Theorem: For every odd prime number \(p\) there exist self-polar translation planes of order \(p^2\) with stabilizer \(G\) isomorphic to either \(SL(2,9)\) or \(Q\). Moreover, the author gives constructions for many of these translation planes by considering the collection of all integer solutions of \(x_1^2+\dots+x_6^2=6p, x_i\equiv 1\bmod 4\), if \(p\equiv 1\bmod 4\). For \(p\equiv 1 \bmod 3\), the author considers the root lattice \(L\) of type E\(_6\) and the quadratic form \(Q(x)=\sum x_i^2-{1\over 9}(\sum x_i)^2\) on \((1,1,1,1,1,1)+2L\). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0869.00028].