Near polygons with a nice chain of sub-near polygons (Q703692)

A near polygon is a partial linear space \({\mathcal S}=({\mathcal P},{\mathcal L})\) with the property that for every point \(p\in {\mathcal P}\) and for every line \(L\in {\mathcal L}\) there exists a unique point on \(L\) nearest to \(p\). Here distances \(d(\cdot,\cdot)\) are measured in the collinearity graph \(\Gamma\). If \(n=\text{diam}(\Gamma)\), then \({\mathcal S}\) is called a near \(2n\)-gon. A near polygon is called dense, if every line is incident with at least three points and if every two points at distance 2 have at least two common neighbours. If subspace \(X\) of \({\mathcal S}\) is geodetically closed, then \({\mathcal S}_X\) is a sub-near polygon of \({\mathcal S}\). A geodetically closed sub-near polygon \({\mathcal S}_X\) is called big, if every point outside \({\mathcal S}_X\) is collinear with a unique point of \({\mathcal S}_X\). There are the infinite classes of near polygons \(Q^D(2n,2)\), \(H^D(2n-1,4)\), \({\mathbf G}_n\), \({\mathbf H}_n\) and \({\mathbf I}_n\) and three sporadic near hexagons \({\mathbf E}_1\), \({\mathbf E}_2\) and \({\mathbf E}_3\). Put now \(D_2=G_2\), \(D_n=\{{\mathbf G}_n,H^D(2n-1,4)\}\cup (\bigcup_{2\leq i\leq n-1} D_i\otimes D_{n+1-i}) \;\text{ for\;every}\;n\geq 3,\) \({\mathcal D}=D_2\cup D_3\cup \dots\). Define \({\mathcal N}=\{{\mathbf O},{\mathbf L}_3, {\mathbf E}_3\}\cup {\mathcal D}\cup \{Q^D(2n,2)\;| \;n\geq 2\}\cup \{{\mathbf H}_n\;| \;n\geq 3\}\cup \{{\mathbf I}_n\;| \;n\geq 4\}\). Let \({\mathcal N}^\times\) denote the set of all near polygons obtained by taking the direct product of some members of \({\mathcal N}\). Main Theorem. Let \(\mathcal S\) be a dense near \(2n\)-gon, \(n\geq 1\) with three points on each line containing a chain \(F_0\subset F_1\subset\dots \subset F_n={\mathcal S}\) of geodetically closed sub-near polygons satisfying \(\text{diam}(F_i)=2i\) and \(F_i\) is big in \(F_{i+1}\) for \(i\in \{0,1,\dots,n-1\}\). Then \(\mathcal S\) is isomorphic to an element of \({\mathcal N}^\times\).