Embeddings and ambient automorphisms of the Pappus configuration

DOI10.1007/S00025-019-1115-7MaRDI QIDQ2302193zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Publication date 25 February 2020

Published in Results in Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s00025-019-1115-7

automorphism duality embedding Möbius-Kantor configuration Pappus configuration polarity

Other designs, configurations (05B30) Homomorphism, automorphism and dualities in linear incidence geometry (51A10) Configuration theorems in linear incidence geometry (51A20) Other finite incidence structures (geometric aspects) (51E30)

Review text

In this very detailed and nicely written paper, the authors study embeddings and ambient automorphisms of the Pappus point-line configuration. The Pappus configuration \(\Pi\) is obtained as follows. Points of \(\Pi\) are the elements of the set \(\{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 03, 14, 25\}\) of nine symbols, blocks are the sets \(\{0, 2, 4\}\), \(\{1, 3, 5\}\), \(\{03, 14, 25\}\), and \(\{j, k, uv\}\) with \(j, k \in \{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5\}\) such that \(|k-j| \in \{1, 5\}\) and \(\{j, k \}\cap \{u, v\} = \emptyset\). Each one of the three sets \(\{0, 3, 03 \}\), \(\{1, 4, 14 \}\), and \(\{2, 5, 25\}\), respectively, consists of three points such that no two of them are joined by a line of \(\Pi\). We refer to these sets as the triads of the Pappus configuration. It is worth emphasizing that these triads play an important role in the study of embeddings of \(\Pi\) into projective planes. Dually, we have three parallel classes in \(\Pi\) (i.e., sets of three pairwise disjoint lines of \(\Pi\)). The subject of embeddings of the Pappus configuration is classical, the earliest study of \(\Pi\) as a configuration in its own right dates back to \textit{F. Levi}'s monograph [Geometrische Konfigurationen. Mit einer Einführung in die Kombinatorische Flächentopologie. Leipzig: S. Hirzel (1929; JFM 55.0351.03)]. Coxeter studied embeddings of \(\Pi\) into \(\mathbb{P}^{2}_{\mathbb{F}}\) with \(\mathbb{F} \in \{\mathbb{R},\mathbb{C}\}\), concentrating on the case where at least one of the triads is not collinear under the embedding. In those papers, the embedding into \(\mathbb{P}^{2}_{\mathbb{F}_{3}}\) is employed to understand the full group of automorphisms and dualities of \(\Pi\). In the paper under review, the authors consider embeddings into planes over arbitrary (commutative) fields, without any restrictions regarding collinearity of triads or confluence of parallel classes -- the main result provides a classification of the Pappus configuration over commutative fields up to projective equivalence. Using their extensive studies, the authors also consider (in the last section of the paper) the Möbius-Kantor configuration \(MK\). It turns out that every embedding of \(MK\) into a Pappian plane gives rise to an embedding of the Pappus configuration. Applying the main results of the paper, the authors obtain a complete understanding of the embeddings of \(MK\).

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