No label defined (Q4400784)

By a result of \textit{A. Wagner} [Math. Z. 87, 1-11 (1965; Zbl 0131.36804)], every finite flag-transitive affine plane \(\pi\) is a translation plane and thus can be constructed from a homogeneous \((n-1)\)-spread \({\mathcal S}\subseteq \text{PG}(2n-1,q)\), where \(q=p^e\) is some prime power. The paper under review shows that if \(p\) is odd and \(\text{gcd}((p^{en}+1)/2,en)=1\), then one of the following possibilities occurs: (1) \(\pi\) is the Hering plane of order \(27\), or (2) \({\mathcal S}\) is an orbit of \(G =\langle\gamma\rangle\), where \(\gamma\) denotes the \((q^n-1)/(q-1)\)-th power of a Singer cycle of \(\text{PG}(2n-1,q)\), or (3) \({\mathcal S}\) is the union of two orbits of the group \(H = \langle\gamma^2\rangle\). An analogous result for \(p=2\) is stated without proof: If \(\text{gcd}(2^{en}+1,en) = 1\), then \(\pi\) is one of the Lüneburg planes or \({\mathcal S}\) is a \(G\)-orbit. The result may well be true for all values of \(p^{en}\); at least, the author shows that among known planes there is no counterexample. For this purpose, the ``intersection pattern'' of the corresponding spreads with the partition \({\mathcal F}\) of \(\text{PG}(2n-1,q)\) into the orbits of \(G\) is studied; it turns out to be very simple for these examples. In the course of this discussion, several open problems concerning flag-transitive planes are mentioned. Finally, the author uses spreads admitting a transitive \(G\)-action for the construction of concrete examples of nonclassical Baer subgeometry partitions of \(\text{PG}(d,q^2)\). In fact, there are such partitions for all even integers \(d\) and all prime powers \(q\), provided that \(q^{d+1} > 8\). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0892.00030].