On projective spaces PG( r, q ) with r 4

A linear space is a set of points, along with a set of distinguished subsets of these points, called lines, such that each pair of distinct points belongs to exactly one line, and each line contains at least two points. A subset \(U\) of a linear space is said to be a subspace provided that for all points \(P\neq Q\) in \(U\), the line containing \(P\) and \(Q\) is contained in \(U\). A subspace is called a plane if it is the hull of three noncollinear points. A planar space is a linear space with the property that any three noncollinear points belong to at least one plane. A finite planar space is said to be \((q,n)\)-regular if the following conditions are satisfied: (i) Every pencil of lines has size \(q+1\). (ii) Every pencil of planes has size \(q+1\). The main result of the paper is the following: Suppose that a finite \((q,n)\)-regular planar space has the property (iii) If a line \(l\) and a plane \(\pi\) are disjoint, then the number of planes through \(l\) disjoint from \(\pi\) is constant. Then \(n\geq q\), and in the case of \(n=q\) the space is a 3-dimensional projective space. If \(n>q\), then the space is \(\text{PG}(r,q)\), \(r\geq 4\), if and only if it contains a projective line (i.e. a line containing exactly \(q+1\) points). Thus the authors obtain a characterization of projective spaces \(\text{PG}(r,q)\) with \(r\geq 4\) in terms of \((q,n)\)-regular planar spaces.

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