Autotopism groups of cyclic semifield planes (Q644699)

Let \(V\) be an \(m\)-dimensional vector space over the finite field \(K\) with \(q^{n}\) elements, \(\sigma\) an automorphism of \(K\) and \(T\) an irreducible \(\sigma\)-linear operator on \(V\). Assume that the fixed field \(K_{0}\) of \(\sigma\) has \(q=p^{f}\) elements, \(p\) prime. The set \(\sum_{i=0}^{m} KT^{i}\) forms an additively closed spread. It therefore defines a cyclic semifield and also a semifield plane \(P\). This plane is desarguesian iff \(n=1\). So we can assume with no loss \(n>1\). Let \(F\) be the centralizer of \(T\) inside the \(K_{0}\)-endomorphisms of \(V\), then \(F\) is a finite field of \(q^m\) elements, say. The author proves: The right and middle nuclei of \(P\) are isomorphic to \(K\), the left nucleus is isomorphic to \(F\). If \(M\) is the group of autotopisms, which are linear with respect to the nuclei, then \[ M \cong (K^{*}\times K^{*}\times F^{*})/K_{0}^{*}. \] For the full group \(G\) of all autotopisms the author finds that \(n\) divides \(g:=| G/M|\). In case gcd\((n,m)<n\) the number \(g\) divides \(fmn\), in case gcd\((n,m)=n\) it divides gcd\((n,m)fmn\). Except for the latter case, when \(n<m\), the group \(G\) is completely determined. In contrast to \(M\), the group structure of \(G\) depends on the special choice of \(T\).