Inversive planes, Minkowski planes and regular sets of points (Q5937428)

In [J. Geom. 70, No. 1-2, 160-163 (2001; Zbl 0988.51013)] the author showed that the Miquelian inversive plane \(M(q)\) of order \(q\) can be embedded into Minkowski planes \({\mathcal M}(q^2,\sigma)\) of order \(q^2\) determined by an automorphism \(\sigma\) of the Galois field GF\((q^2)\). Moreover, the automorphism group \(P\Gamma L(2,q^2)\) of \(M(q)\) can be identified with a subgroup of the automorphism group of \({\mathcal M}(q^2,\sigma)\). In the paper under review the author uses this connection to investigate regular sets in \(M(q)\) and \({\mathcal M}(q^2,\sigma)\), that is, subsets of the respective point sets such that the identity is the only automorphism of the Möbius or Minkowski plane that maps the subset onto itself. The author shows that a subset of \(M(q)\) of at least three points is regular in \(M(q)\) if and only if it is a regular subset of \({\mathcal M}(q^2,\sigma)\) for every automorphism \(\sigma\) of GF\((q^2)\) such that \(\sigma^2\) is not the identity. Furthermore, using the embedding of \(M(q)\) into \({\mathcal M}(q^2,id)\) she shows that \(M(q)\), \(q\geq 7\), contains regular sets of \(t\) points where \(9\leq t\leq q+4\). These regular sets are different from those found by \textit{J. D. Key, J. Siemons} and \textit{A. Wagner} [J. Geom. 27, 188-194 (1986; Zbl 0609.20001)] for the projective group \(P\Gamma L(2,q)\) in its standard action on the projective line.