Regular parallelisms from generalized line stars in \(P_{3} \mathbb{R}\): a direct proof (Q506928)

Topological parallelisms of real 3-dimensional projective space \(P_3\mathbb{R}\) were introduced by \textit{D. Betten} and \textit{R. Riesinger} [Result. Math. 47, No. 3--4, 226--241 (2005; Zbl 1088.51005)], and in a series of papers that followed the authors presented various constructions of topological parallelisms. In particular, it was shown [loc. cit.] that topological parallelisms can be obtained from generalized line stars using the Thas-Walker construction which derives spreads from flocks of an elliptic subquadric of the Klein quadric. Later they obtained that regular parallelisms can be described by hyperflock determining line sets (introduced in [\textit{D. Betten} and \textit{R. Riesinger}, Monatsh. Math. 161, No. 1, 43--58 (2010; Zbl 1208.51009)]). Many of their constructions and proofs heavily relied on coordinate methods. In the paper under review, the author gives a simpler, alternative, coordinate-free proof of the construction of a parallelism of the Klein model of \(P_3\mathbb{R}\) from a generalized line star spanning a 3-space, which avoids the Thas-Walker approach. Such a parallelism is Clifford if and only if the generalized line star one starts off with is an ordinary line star. Conversely, every parallelism of dimension at most 3 arises in this way. A second result of the paper shows that a regular parallelism is topological if and only if it is compact in the Grassmann topology. The same holds for a generalized line star and for a hyperflock determining line set. Both a topological regular parallelism and a topological generalized line star are homeomorphic to the real projective plane.