The symmetry axioms in Laguerre planes (Q860141)

Miquelian Laguerre planes are characterised among all Laguerre planes by Miquel's configuration or by \textit{R. Artzy}'s symmetry axiom (II) [J. Geom. 5, 109--116 (1974; Zbl 0287.50018)]. In the paper under review the authors characterise miquelian Laguerre planes by two axioms (C) and (S) by showing that these axioms imply (II). The former axiom essentially postulates that in the derived projective plane at a point \(p\) of the Laguerre plane \({\mathbb L}\) each oval induced by a circle not passing through \(p\) has exactly two tangent lines through points on the line at infinity minus the point at infinity of lines induced by generators of \({\mathbb L}\). It is well known that 2- and 4-dimensional (topological) Laguerre planes and finite Laguerre planes of odd order possess this property. The configuraton in axiom (S) can be viewed as a degeneration of Miquel's configuration. If \(K\) and \(L\) are two non-tangent circles, the authors use axiom (C) to introduce a bijection from \(K\) to \(L\) by taking a point \(p\in K\setminus L\) to the point of contact with \(L\) of the unique circle through \(p\) that touches \(K\) and \(L\); furthermore, \(p\) is fixed if \(p\in K\cap L\). They then show geometrically that this bijection uniquely extends to an involutory automorphism \(\varphi\) of the miquelian Laguerre plane that furthermore fixes every circle through \(p\) and \(\varphi(p)\) if the latter is \(\neq p\). These automorphisms yield precisely the Laguerre symmetries in case \(K\) and \(L\) intersect in exactly two points.