From: Kurt Pelt on
Hello there,

I wonder whether anyone is familiar with the Affine and/or Projective Plane
of Order 3? I am interested in two areas on this subject.

The first is how would one show the Affine Plane of order 3 is unique (up to
the reordering of elements) without relying on theory from other branches of
mathematics (elementary techniques / from first principles / a direct
proof)?

My second question is about the Automorphism Group of the Projective Plane
of Order 3. What is this? I'm not looking for a reply like PG(2,3) or
PGL3(F3) which can be found on the Internet. I am more interested in an
explanation on how this group is formed, which set(s) it acts on (because a
Projective
Plane is composed of a points set and lines set), are there examples of
simple
automorphisms (what is the identity automorphism? what are the order 2
automorphisms?) -- just so I can begin to understand the group and how it
operates.

If anyone has any knowledge on the above or can recommend some good
resources (preferably accessible online) that would be really much
appreciated.

Best Regards,
Kurt Pelt