Collineation groups with one or two orbits on the set of points not on an oval and its nucleus (Q447745)

Let \(\Pi\) a projective plane of order \(n\). An oval \(\mathcal{O}\) in \(\Pi\) is a set of \(n+1\) points no three of which are collinear. Let \(n\) be even and \(K\) be the nucleus of \(\mathcal{O}\), i.e. the point belonging to all the tangent lines to \(\mathcal{O}\). Let \(\varepsilon\) be the set of points not in \(\mathcal{O} \cup \{K\}\).NEWLINENEWLINE In this paper, the authors investigate the structure of a collineation group \(G\) fixing \(\mathcal{O}\) and having one or two orbits on \(\varepsilon\). The aim is to characterize the structure of the plane, of the oval \(\mathcal{O}\) and of the group \(G\) in these cases. In particular they present a proof of a known characterization in the case of a unique orbit which does not use the classification of finite simple groups. They also prove that there are precisely three possibilities in the case in which \(G\) has two orbits on \(\varepsilon\).