Cyclic Affine Planes

Abstract

Let Π be an affine plane which admits a collineation τ such that the cyclic group generated by τ leaves one point (say X) fixed, and is transitive on the set of all other points of Π. Such “cyclic affine planes” have been previously studied, especially in India, and the principal result relevant to the present discussion is the following theorem of Bose [2]: every finite Desarguesian affine plane is cyclic. The converse seems quite likely true, but no proof exists. In what follows, we shall prove several properties of cyclic affine planes which will imply that for an infinite number of values of n there is no such plane with n points on a line.