Doppelebenen und Loops. (Double planes and loops) (Q809347)

A double plane is defined as a pair \((\pi,\pi ')\) of projective planes with the same point set P such that each line of \(\pi\) is an oval of \(\pi '\) and vice versa. In Discrete Math. 73, No.1/2, 165-179 (1989; Zbl 0667.51002)], the author showed that for each \(0\in P\) there is a loop operation with neutral element 0 and unique inverses and certain requirements involving the lines of \(\pi\) and \(\pi '\). For each line in \(\pi\) through 0, each line of \(\pi\) or \(\pi '\) can then be represented as \(p+D\) or \(-D+p,\) respectively, where \(D\subset P.\) The purpose of the paper under review is finding various conditions for \((P,\{p+D| p\in P\})\) and \((P,\{-D+p| p\in P\})\) to form a double plane if a loop \((P,+)\) with unique inverses and a subset D of P are given. One typical result is the following Theorem 1: If \(\pi =[P,+,D]\) and \(\pi '=[P,+,D]'\) are projective planes such that for all distinct p and \(p'\) in P, \(p+D\neq p'+D\) and \(-D+p\neq -D+p',\) and if for all p and q in P and all a and b in D, \(-a+q=p+b\) implies \(-b+q=p+a,\) then \((\pi,\pi ')\) is a double plane. The motivation for the procedure is the special case in which \((P,+)\) is an abelian group and where D is then a difference set of the group.