Infinite \((Af,Af^*)\)-geometries (Q917903)

The paper gives a proof of the following result: if \(\Gamma\) is a connected rank 3 geometry with affine planes and dual affine point residues then \(\Gamma\) is to be obtained from a 3-dimensional affine space either by deleting a fixed point and all lines and planes through it, or by deleting a fixed direction of lines and all planes parallel to this direction. The proof is effective in the sense that the suitable affine space is elementarily definable in terms of the given geometry \(\Gamma\). The point is to observe that the relation of ``nonjoinability of points by a line'' is an equivalence relation in \(\Gamma\), which equivalence classes give the desired ``deleted'' lines. The paper extends a result on classification of finite rank 3 geometries, obtained by the author and \textit{L. Van Nypelseer} [Discrete Math. 84, No.2, 161-167 (1990)] giving a proof independent of any finiteness assumptions.