A non-classical unital of order four with many translations (Q738852)

Let \(\mathbb{U} = (U,\mathcal B)\) be a unital of order \(q\) having \(\Gamma := \mathrm{Aut}(\mathbb U)\) as group of automorphisms. Let \(\Gamma _{[c]}\) be the group of translations with center \(c\in U\), that is the subset of \(\Gamma\) fixing each block through \(c\). A translation center \(c\) of \(\mathbb U\) is an element \(c \in U\) such that \(\Gamma _{[c]}\) is transitive on the set of points different from \(c\) on any block through \(c\). It is already known that if \(\mathbb{U} \) has non-collinear translation centers then \(\mathbb{U}\) is classical. In this paper, the authors describe many examples of unitals with precisely one translation center and one unital of order four where the translation centers fill precisely one block. For this unital \(\mathbb{U}\), they determine \(\mathrm{Aut}(\mathbb U)\) and show that there are no group-preserving embeddings into (dual) translation planes of order \(16\).