Generalized quadrangles with a spread of symmetry and near polygons (Q1856420)

The authors investigate a certain class of spreads in finite generalized quadrangles \({\mathcal S}=(P,B,I)\) of order \((s,t^2)\). This class of spreads is characterized by the existence of a group of automorphisms of \(\mathcal S\) which acts trivial on the spread and transitively on each of the \(st+1\) lines that constitute the spread. Such spreads are called spreads of symmetry. The first author has shown in a previous paper [Eur. J. Comb. 20, 759-771 (1999; Zbl 0946.51007)] that every spread of symmetry of a generalized quadrangle can be derived from a so-called \textit{admissible triple} \(T = ({\mathcal D}, H, \Delta)\), which is defined as follows. The set \({\mathcal D}\) is a linear space of order \((s,t-1)\) with \(\mathcal P\) as the set of points, \(H\) is a group of order \(s+1\), and \(\Delta : {\mathcal P} \times {\mathcal P} \to H\) is a map such that \(x,y,z \in {\mathcal P}\) are collinear in \(\mathcal D\) if and only if \(\Delta(x,y)\Delta(y,z) = \Delta(x,z)\). Up to equivalence (defined in terms of the associated spread of symmetry) a list of all known admissible triples for any GQ of order \((s,s^2)\) is given. It is not known whether or not there are non-classical GQs of order \((s,s^2)\) housing a spread of symmetry. Another important notion of the paper under review is that of an ovoid of symmetry. According to \textit{S. E. Payne} and \textit{J. A. Thas} [``Finite Generalized Quadrangles'', Research Notes in Mathematics, vol. 110, Pitman, Boston (1984; Zbl 0551.05027)], for each GQ with some regular point \(p\) the incidence structure given by the point set \(p^\perp\setminus\{p\}\), the line set \(\{q,r\}^{\perp\perp}\) (\(q,r\in p^\perp\setminus\{p\}\) non-collinear), and the induced incidence of the GQ is the dual \({\mathcal N}^*_{p}\) of some net \({\mathcal N}_{p}\). If \(T\) is a spread of \({\mathcal N}^*_{p}\), then \(O_{T}=\{p\}\cup\{x|x\in P\setminus\{p\}^{\perp} \text{\;and\;} \{x,p\}^\perp \in T\}\) is an ovoid, called an ovoid of symmetry. The authors prove the non-existence of ovoids of symmetry in nonclassical Kantor flock quadrangles. The last section of the paper contains many novel characterizations of the classical generalized quadrangle \({\mathcal Q}(5,q)\) all of which are derived from the orthogonal group \(\text{ O}^{-}(6,q)\). In particular, they show that a generalized quadrangle \(\mathcal S\) containing a spread of symmetry is isomorphic to \({\mathcal Q}(5,q)\) if (1) \(\mathcal S\) contains some point incident with at least three axes of symmetry or if (2) \(\mathcal S\) has a center of transitivity and \(t=s^{2}\) with \(s\) even, or if (3) there exists some line \(L\not\in T\) such that \(\mathcal S\) is an elation generalized quadrangle with base line \(L\).