Unitals in the Hall plane (Q678179)

The author investigates unitals in the Hall planes. This is accomplished by considering the known unitals -- both classical and Buekenhout-Metz -- in the desarguesian planes \(\text{PG} (2,q^2)\) and observing what happens to them under derivation. If \(U\) is a classical unital in \(\text{PG} (2,q^2)\), the authors determine under what conditions it becomes necessarily a Buekenhout-Metz unital in the derived Hall plane. The author also proves a similar theorem for the known Buekenhout-Metz unitals in \(\text{PG} (2,q^2)\). One consequence is the discovery of two new classes of (Buekenhout-Metz) unitals in the Hall planes. In the last section the author shows that every point at infinity of a Hall plane lies on \(q^4(q^3-1) (q^2-1)/2\) orthogonal Buekenhout-Metz unitals. This is generalized as follows: If \({\mathcal P}\) is a translation plane of dimension at most 2 over its kernel, then each point at infinity of \({\mathcal P}\) lies on \(q^4(q^3-1) (q^2-1)/2\) Buekenhout-Metz unitals tangent to the line at infinity.