Polar unitals in compact eight-dimensional planes (Q706363)

The automorphisms of a compact eight--dimensional projective plane \({\mathcal P}\) form a locally compact group \(\Sigma\). Apart from the classical plane over the quaternions (where \(\dim\Sigma=35\)), the dimension of \(\Sigma\) is at most \(18\). Moreover, every plane whose automorphism group has dimension \(17\) or \(18\) is known explicitly [cf. \textit{H. Salzmann, D. Betten, T. Grundhöfer, H. Hähl, R. Löwen} and \textit{M. Stroppel}, Compact projective planes (de Gruyter, Berlin) (1996; Zbl 0851.51003)]. Each of these planes either is a Hughes plane, or belongs to one of three infinite families of translation planes. Recently, the author determined all polarities of these planes [Monatsh. Math. 144, No. 4, 317--328 (2005; Zbl 1073.51006)]. In the paper under review the centralizers and the polar unitals of the polarities mentioned above are determined. It turns out that if \(\pi\) is a polarity of a translation plane with \(\dim \Sigma \in\{17,18\}\), then the polar unital (i.e.\ the set of absolute points) of \(\pi\) is a \(5\)- or a \(7\)-sphere. If \({\mathcal P}\) is a Hughes plane, then there is one conjugation class of polarities. It remains an open problem whether or not the corresponding unitals are spheres.