Unitals with many involutory translations

Abstract: If every point of a unital is fixed by a non-trivial translation and at least one translation has order two then the unital is classical (i.e., hermitian).

Review text

A unital \(\mathbb{U}=(U,\mathcal{B})\) of order \(q\) is a 2-\((q^3+1,q+1,1)\) design, i.e. an incidence structure with \(|U|=q^3+1\) such that every block \(B\) in \(\mathcal{B}\) contains exactly \(q+1\) points of \(U\), and any two points of \(U\) belong to one common block of \(\mathcal{B}\). The classical example of a unital of order \(q\) is the set of points of an absolutely irreducible Hermitian curve in the Desarguesian projective plane \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)\) of order \(q^2\). Also many other unitals are known. A translation with center \(c\) of a unital \(\mathbb{U}\) is an automorphism of \(\mathbb{U}\) that fixes the point \(c\) of \(\mathbb{U}\) and that fixes every block through the point \(c\). The group \(\Gamma_{\{c\}}\) denotes the group of all translations with center \(c\). It is a known result that when a unital \(\mathbb{U}\) of order \(q\) has three non-collinear points \(c\) for which \(\Gamma_{\{c\}}\) has order \(q\), then \(\Gamma_{\{c\}}\) is the classical Hermitian curve in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)\). The authors prove that \(\mathbb{U}\) is also the classical Hermitian curve in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)\) if \(\Gamma_{\{c\}}\) has even order for every point \(c\) of \(\mathbb{U}\). In fact, Theorem 4.3 proves that \(\mathbb{U}\) is the classical Hermitian curve in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)\) if every point \(c\) of \(\mathbb{U}\) is the center of at least one non-trivial translation, and at least one of these translations in \(\Gamma_{\{c\}}\) is an involution. At the end of the article, the authors discuss other types of unitals regarding their properties on the centers of involutory translations. They discuss in particular polar unitals in Figueroa planes of even order. These polar unitals in Figueroa planes of even order are unitals where the centers of involutory translations form a proper subset not contained in a block. Namely, they form a Hermitian subunital. In Section 6, the authors explain that there are many examples of unitals where the set of centers is contained in a block. There are also unitals without translations, for instance, the Ree unitals.

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