A note on the Kleinewillinghöfer types of 4-dimensional Laguerre planes (Q2087447)

Locally connected topological Laguerre planes of finite dimension must have a point space of dimension 2 or 4 by \textit{Th. Buchanan} et al. [Geom. Dedicata 9, 401--424 (1980; Zbl. 0453.51007)]. For 2-dimensional Laguerre planes only 25 Kleinewillinghöfer classes are possible, each of which represents certain linear transitivity properties of central automorphisms. All these 25 classes have been shown to be non void, cf. [the author, Aequat. Math. 95, 967--983 (2021; Zbl. 1476.51011)]. In the paper under review, the author treats the 4-dimensional case, taking up earlier work from [\textit{G. F. Steinke}, Monatsh. Math. 111, No. 3, 207--231 (1991; Zbl 0746.51008); Arch. Math. 56, No. 1, 100--104 (1991; Zbl 0721.51017); Forum Math. 11, No. 1, 79--103 (1999; Zbl 0927.51025); Monatsh. Math. 159, No. 4, 407--423 (2010; Zbl 1194.51012)]. The author collects some properties of 4-dimensional Laguerre planes. Upper bounds 14 and 8 for the automorphism group and its kernel, containing the automorphisms that fix each parallel class, are given. The maximum 8 of kernel dimension is attained only by the classical complex Laguerre plane, some other characterizations of this plane are added. Among 4-dimensional elation Laguerre planes, i.e. the kernel of the automorphism group acts transitively on the circle set, the classical Laguerre plane over \(\mathbb{C}\) is also characterized by the author in several ways, for instance by transitivity of the automorphism group on the parallel classes. He gives a concise account of the quite involved Kleinewillinghöfer classification of abstract Laguerre planes which refers to transitivity properties of three different kinds of central automorphisms, namely Laguerre homologies, translations and homotheties. The type of behaviour of each kind of these central automorphism is described and given a label. For 4-dimensional Laguerre planes the following restrictions are proved: For the types I--VII of Laguerre homologies (automorphisms that fix the points of one circle), only types I, II, VII are possible. For the types A--K of Laguerre translations, at least F, I, J are impossible, and for the types 1--13 of Laguerre homotheties only 1, 2, 13 are possible. For abstract Laguerre planes, the author's method of labelling (I.A.1\dots VII.K.13) gives 49 possible combined types. His main results are the following: For 4-dimensional Laguerre planes there remain only 12 of these types. One of these 12 is the classical complex Laguerre plane of combined type VII.K.13 with maximal transitivity properties. Furthermore, examples for I.D.1, cf. [the author, Results Math. 57, 43--51 (2010; Zbl. 1193.51016)], I.H.1, and I.A.1 are given: He starts with a non-classical 4-dimensional Laguerre plane \(\mathcal{L}\) and the compact topological generalized quadrangle \(Q(\mathcal{L})\) associated with \(\mathcal{L}\), which is a Lie geometry, cf. [\textit{A. E. Schroth}, Topological circle planes and topological quadrangles. Harlow Essex: Longman (1995; Zbl 0839.51013)], and then takes a derivation \(\mathcal{L}'_p\) of \(Q(\mathcal{L})\) at a point \(p\) and \(\mathcal{L'_C}\) at a circle \(C\) of \(\mathcal{L}\), to generate so-called sisters of \(\mathcal{L}\). He finally proves that the sisters \(\mathcal{L}'_p\) and \(\mathcal{L'_C}\) are planes of type I.H.1, and of type I.A.1, resp.; cf. [the author, Monatsh. Math. 159, 407--423 (2010; 1194.51012)]. The author conjectures that the low dimensionality of the group of central automorphisms for many of the remaining types might prevent a construction of examples.