Simpler foundations for the hyperbolic plane (Q6073705)

\textit{K. Menger} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 207, 458--460 (1938; Zbl 0019.36305); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 24, 486--490 (1938; Zbl 0020.15802); Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 44, 821--824 (1938; Zbl 0020.15801)] pointed out that point-line incidence suffices to define the basic notions of plane hyperbolic geometry and thus it suffices as single primitive notion for plane hyperbolic geometry. This raised the question of a simple, readable axiom system in terms of point-line incidence alone. This task was taken up by Menger's students at the University of Notre Dame, J. C. Abbott, F. P. Jenks, and H. F. De Baggis, who published a series of papers between 1939 and 1948 in the Rep. Math. Colloq., II. Ser, to which a paper by Menger himself must be mentioned. A particularly simple axiom system came to light in that sequence of papers, through a sustained collective effort. There was just one blemish, namely the need for a special case of the Fundamental Law of Projectivities, which didn't quite fit into the first-order framework of the axiom system, and which could not be eliminated even in the survey by \textit{K. Menger} [in: A spectrum of mathematics. Essays presented to H. G. Forder. Auckland: Auckland University Press; Oxford University Press. 86--97 (1971; Zbl 0237.50002)]. The only other significant mention of the results of Menger and of his students during his lifetime, 1902--1985, was in pages 301--311 of \textit{W. Schwabhäuser}, \textit{W. Szmielew}, \textit{A. Tarski} [Metamathematische Methoden in der Geometrie. Teil I: Ein axiomatischer Aufbau der euklidischen Geometrie. Teil II: Metamathematische Betrachtungen. Berlin: Springer-Verlag (1983; Zbl 0564.51001)]. Later on, \textit{H. L. Skala}, a Ph. D. student of Menger, revived the subject in an admirable way, providing the first elementary (i.e., first-order) axiom system for hyperbolic geometry in [Geom. Dedicata 44, No. 3, 255--272 (1992; Zbl 0780.51015)]. It contained the configuration theorems of Desargues, Pappus, and Pascal, for a hexagon with vertices on the boundary, as axioms. In view of \textit{F. Buekenhout}'s result [Arch. Math. 17, 89--93 (1966; Zbl 0136.42401)] and [Rend. Mat. Appl., V. Ser. 25, 333--393 (1966; Zbl 0155.49101)] that projective planes with a Pascalian oval satisfy Pappus (and thus Desargues, by Hessenberg's theorem), and several like-minded ones that appeared in its wake (such as [\textit{J. F. Rigby}, Can. J. Math. 21, 1462--1476 (1969; Zbl 0189.21202)]), one would expect that some of the configuration axioms in Skala's axiom system are redundant, but no one took up the challenge of simplifying that axiom system during the past 30 years. The only considerations in the spirit of Menger after 1992, before the appearance of this paper, were due to the reviewer, who determined the quantifier-complexity of any incidence-based axiom system for plane hyperbolic geometry in [the reviewer, Math. Log. Q. 51, No. 3, 277--281 (2005 Zbl 1066.03027); corrigendum ibid. 54, No. 6, 668 (2008; Zbl 1152.03311)], motivated by [the reviewer, Synthese 133, No. 3, 331--341 (2002; Zbl 1028.03014); correction ibid. 145, No. 3, 497 (2005; Zbl 1082.03009)], and an axiomatization of a Hilbert geometry in which the absolute is not a circle, but a triangle [the reviewer, Beitr. Algebra Geom. 49, No. 1, 165--175 (2008; Zbl 1146.51009)]. The paper under review is the most significant contribution to this programme after Skala's paper. It takes on the challenge of simplifying Skala's axiom system. It does so by replacing Pappus and Desargues with two axioms: one that allows the definition of (unique) midpoints of line segments, and one that ensures that the definition of perpendicularity in terms of incidence is well-defined. It is unknown whether any of these two additions are actually needed. Four different proofs are presented for the validity of the representation theorem, stating that all models of the new axiom system are Beltrami-Cayley-Klein models over some Euclidean ordered field. One of them is based on proving that models of the axiom system are metric planes in the sense of \textit{F. Bachmann} [Aufbau der Geometrie aus dem Spiegelungsbegriff. 2. ergänzte Aufl. 2nd. ext. ed. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1973; Zbl 0254.50001)] together with results by Buekenhout [loc. cit.] and Rigby [loc. cit.], a second one is via Bachmann's \(H\)-groups and a result of Bachmann about \(H\)-groups, a third one uses an important result from [\textit{J. Bamberg} et al., J. Group Theory 21, No. 6, 1051--1064 (2018; Zbl 1437.51003)], and a fourth one uses Skala's representation theorem itself.