Dual embeddings of dense near polygons

Let e: S -> Sigma be a full polarized projective embedding of a dense near polygon S, i.e., for every point p of S, the set H(p) of points at non-maximal distance from p is mapped by e into a hyperplane Pi(p) of Sigma. We show that if every line of S is incident with precisely three points or if S satisfies a certain property (P(de)) then the map p bar right arrow Pi p defines a full polarized embedding e* (the so-called dual embedding of e) of S into a subspace of the dual Sigma* of Sigma. This generalizes a result of [6] where it was shown that every embedding of a thick dual polar space has a dual embedding. We determine which known dense near polygons satisfy property (P(de)). This allows us to conclude that every full polarized embedding of a known dense near polygon has a dual embedding

Polarized non-abelian representations of slim near-polar spaces

In (Bull Belg Math Soc Simon Stevin 4:299-316, 1997), Shult introduced a class of parapolar spaces, the so-called near-polar spaces. We introduce here the notion of a polarized non-abelian representation of a slim near-polar space, that is, a near-polar space in which every line is incident with precisely three points. For such a polarized non-abelian representation, we study the structure of the corresponding representation group, enabling us to generalize several of the results obtained in Sahoo and Sastry (J Algebraic Comb 29:195-213, 2009) for non-abelian representations of slim dense near hexagons. We show that with every polarized non-abelian representation of a slim near-polar space, there is an associated polarized projective embedding

The hyperplanes of the U (4)(3) near hexagon

Combining theoretical arguments with calculations in the computer algebra package GAP, we are able to show that there are 27 isomorphism classes of hyperplanes in the near hexagon for the group U (4)(3). We give an explicit construction of a representative of each class and we list several combinatorial properties of such a representative

On hyperovals of polar spaces

We derive lower and upper bounds for the size of a hyperoval of a finite polar space of rank 3. We give a computer-free proof for the uniqueness, up to isomorphism, of the hyperoval of size 126 of H(5, 4) and prove that the near hexagon E-3 has up to isomorphism a unique full embedding into the dual polar space DH(5, 4)

Pseudo-embeddings and pseudo-hyperplanes

We generalize some known results regarding hyperplanes and projective embeddings of point-line geometries with three points per line to geometries with an arbitrary but finite number of points on each line. In order to generalize these results, we need to introduce the new notions of pseudo-hyperplane, (universal) pseudo-embedding, pseudo-embedding rank and pseudo-generating rank. We prove several connections between these notions and address the problem of the existence of (certain) pseudo-embeddings. We apply this to several classes of point-line geometries. We also determine the pseudo-embedding rank and the pseudo-generating rank of the projective space PG (n,4) and the affine space AG (n,4

Non-crossing frameworks with non-crossing reciprocals

We study non-crossing frameworks in the plane for which the classical reciprocal on the dual graph is also non-crossing. We give a complete description of the self-stresses on non-crossing frameworks whose reciprocals are non-crossing, in terms of: the types of faces (only pseudo-triangles and pseudo-quadrangles are allowed); the sign patterns in the self-stress; and a geometric condition on the stress vectors at some of the vertices. As in other recent papers where the interplay of non-crossingness and rigidity of straight-line plane graphs is studied, pseudo-triangulations show up as objects of special interest. For example, it is known that all planar Laman circuits can be embedded as a pseudo-triangulation with one non-pointed vertex. We show that if such an embedding is sufficiently generic, then the reciprocal is non-crossing and again a pseudo-triangulation embedding of a planar Laman circuit. For a singular (i.e., non-generic) pseudo-triangulation embedding of a planar Laman circuit, the reciprocal is still non-crossing and a pseudo-triangulation, but its underlying graph may not be a Laman circuit. Moreover, all the pseudo-triangulations which admit a non-crossing reciprocal arise as the reciprocals of such, possibly singular, stresses on pseudo-triangulation embeddings of Laman circuits. All self-stresses on a planar graph correspond to liftings to piece-wise linear surfaces in 3-space. We prove characteristic geometric properties of the lifts of such non-crossing reciprocal pairs.Comment: 32 pages, 23 figure

Isometric embeddings between the near polygons Hn and Gn

We prove that there exists up to equivalence one and up to isomorphism (n+1)(2n+1) isometric embeddings of the near 2n-gon into the near 2n-gon

The valuations of the near polygon n

We show that every valuation of the near 2n-gon G(n), n >= 2, is induced by a unique classical valuation of the dual polar space DH(2n - 1, 4)into which G(n) is isometrically embeddable

Embeddings and immersions of tropical curves

We construct immersions of trivalent abstract tropical curves in the Euclidean plane and embeddings of all abstract tropical curves in higher dimensional Euclidean space. Since not all curves have an embedding in the plane, we define the tropical crossing number of an abstract tropical curve to be the minimum number of self-intersections, counted with multiplicity, over all its immersions in the plane. We show that the tropical crossing number is at most quadratic in the number of edges and this bound is sharp. For curves of genus up to two, we systematically compute the crossing number. Finally, we use our immersed tropical curves to construct totally faithful nodal algebraic curves via lifting results of Mikhalkin and Shustin.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, final submitted versio