A characterization of the desarguesian and the Figueroa planes of order $$q^{3}$$ q 3

Abstract

Let \(\Pi \) be a plane of order \(q^{3}\), \(q>2\), admitting \(G\cong PGL(3,q)\) as a collineation group. By Dempwolff (Geometriae Dedicata 18:101–112, 1985) the plane \(\Pi \) contains a G-invariant subplane \(\pi _{0}\) isomorphic to PG(2, q) on which G acts 2-transitively. In this paper it is shown that, if the homologies of \(\pi _{0}\) contained in G extend to \(\Pi \) then \(\Pi \) is either the desarguesian or the Figueroa plane.