Exceptional Moufang Quadrangles of type F_4

by Bernhard Mühlherr and Hendrik Van Maldeghem

Abstract:
In this paper, we present a geometric construction of the Moufang quadrangles discovered by Richard Weiss. The construction uses fixed point free involutions of certain buildings of type F_4. The fixed flags of each such involution constitute a generalized quadrangle. This way, not only the new exceptional quadrangles can be constructed, but also some special type of mixed quadrangles.

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1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 51E24

To appear in: Canadian Journal of Mathematics

Contact: Bernhard.Muehlherr@Mathematik.Uni-Dortmund.DE