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Consider a Hilbert plane as in Hartshorne's 'Euclid and beyond' (axiomatic geometry), and its group of isometries f or 'rigid motion' generated by line reflections. Call f 'even' if it is the product of an even number of reflections, 'odd' otherwise.

Can f be even and odd at the same time?

In the standard euclidean or hyperbolic model space over the reals the answer is well known, but there are of course many more less familiar models in the non-complete case.

Let me add some remarks: the only complete (!) Hilbert planes are euclidean two space and the Poincare upper half plane (up to isometry). In both cases an isometry of the plane cannot be even and odd at the same time. Analytically even means oriented, odd means non-oriented. However, there are various rather unfamiliar examples of Hilbert planes in the non-complete case. Like 'semi elliptic planes' in the sense of Hartshorne's book, or archimedean examples but without limiting rays. That the real projective plane ('elliptic geometry') is non-orientable doesn't prove a thing but motivates the question. Another motivation the fact that simplifying products of reflections is a crucial step in Hilbert's theory of ends.

Thanks in advance!

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  • $\begingroup$ Maybe you can hope more answers if you provide some online links with the involved definitions. $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 16:05
  • $\begingroup$ The definitions can be found in Hartshorne's book or in Hilbert's original work. The definitions are too elaborate to be repeated here. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 18:18
  • $\begingroup$ Is it the same as what is defined in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_axioms, assuming that there's a single plane and that everything lies in this plane? $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 18:29
  • $\begingroup$ I am confused: which axioms are you omitting? Are these the completeness axiom and the parallels postulate? Or is it also the Archimedean property? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 23:54
  • $\begingroup$ The Axioms are essentially the same as in wikipedia, right, for details see Hartshorne's book. Geometry on Hilbert planes is neutral (absolut) geometry, so no parallel axiom and not necessarily Archimedean. There are cases like 'semi-elliptic planes' in the sense of Hartshorne. Something like: four reflections can always be reduced to two reflections may fail (?) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11, 2018 at 3:32

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I believe that the answer to your question "Can $f$ be even and odd at the same time?" is no, but the argument that I have seems more complicated than I expected it to be. The idea is synthetically to imitate the notion of a 'local orientation' and show that it has global coherence. Here is an outline:

Let $H$ be a Hilbert plane and let $G$ be its group of isometries. For each point $P$ in $H$ let $G_P\subset G$ be the subgroup consisting of those isometries of $H$ that fix $P$.

Let $R_P$ denote the set of rays in $H$ that emanate from $P$. Then $G_P$ acts transitively on $R_P$, and the stabilizer in $G_P$ of a ray $r \in R_P$ is a $2$-element subgroup consisting of the identity and the reflection in the line that is the union of $r$ and its opposite ray $-r$.

Now, let $C_P \subset G_P$ denote the set of elements that are either the identity or that fix no ray in $R_P$. Then $C_P$ is a abelian subgroup of index $2$ in $G_P$, and its complement in $G_P$ is exactly the set of reflections in lines through $P$. (It's easy to see that every element of $C_P$ is (not uniquely) the product of two reflections in lines through $P$.)

Now, for any two points $P$ and $Q$ in $H$, there is a canonical identification of $R_P$ with $R_Q$. Namely, if $P=Q$, we take the identification to be the identity. If $P\not=Q$, then consider the line $PQ$ and let $r\in R_P$ denote the ray emanating from $P$ that passes through $Q$. This ray $r$ contains a unique ray $r'\in R_Q$ and we let $(-r)'=-r'\in R_Q$ denote the ray that corresponds to the opposite ray $-r\in R_P$. For any other ray $s\in R_P$, we let $s'\in R_Q$ denote the ray that is on the same side of the line PQ as $s$ and for which the angle made by $r'$ and $s'$ is congruent to the angle made by $r$ and $s$. Call this mapping $B_Q^P:R_P\to R_Q$. Then $B_Q^P$ is a bijection and $B_P^Q$ is its inverse.

If $O$, $P$, and $Q$ are any three points, then the composition $B_P^OB_Q^PB_O^Q:R_O\to R_O$ is the action of an element of $C_O$ on $R_O$. (It is the identity if $O$, $P$, and $Q$ are collinear.) Meanwhile, if $\rho:H\to H$ is a reflection in a line, then $\rho$ induces a map on rays $\rho'_P:R_P\to R_{\rho(P)}$, and $B^{\rho(P)}_P\circ\rho'_P:R_P\to R_P$ is induced by an element of $G_P$ that is not in $C_P$.

Finally, one can now divide the elements of $G$ into two classes: The even elements $f$ are the isometries such that $B^{f(P)}_P\circ f'_P:R_P\to R_P$ is induced by an element of $C_P$. (This condition turns out to be independent of $P$.) These form a subgroup $G_0\subset G$. The odd elements, which contain all the reflections in lines, are what is left. Moreover, it now follows that $G_0$ consists of products of an even number of line reflections, while its complement consists of all of the products of an odd number of line reflections.

The proofs of all the claims made in this outline (and they do require proof) are straightforward, though tedious.

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  • $\begingroup$ @Bryant Thank you for your answer. I tried something similar but trying to prove what I think you call 'indepence of p', I ended up with the original problem. I will give it a second thought, though. In the real projective plane with homogeneous coordinates x,y,z, if you think of (x,y,z)->(-x,y,z) as the reflection along x=0, then the product of the three reflections along the three axis is the identity, so 'odd is even'. This is not a Hilbert plane but some axioms still make sense. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 13, 2018 at 4:36
  • $\begingroup$ @MarcGonsevic: Certainly, the argument would not work for the projective plane. One cannot even define $R_P$ or the bijection $B^P_Q$ for the projective plane since lines have no sides, and there is no betweenness relation that satisfies the betweenness axioms, which is essential to the arguments. My argument for the independence of $P$ claimed in the penultimate paragraph needs the result that the composition $B^O_PB^P_QB^Q_O$ belongs to $C_O$. (It is not generally the identity, unless the plane satisfies the parallel postulate.) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 13, 2018 at 9:48
  • $\begingroup$ Ok, thank you again. It was pointed out to me that I'm precisely looking at 'Axiom P' from Bachmann's 'Geometrie aus dem Speigelungsbegriff' from 1959. Bachmann cooks it down to the question of the existence of three reflections giving the identity when multiplied, just as in the P2 example. This is impossible in Hilbert planes leading to the answer you already gave. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 13, 2018 at 11:34
  • $\begingroup$ I do not see how to show that $B_P^O B_Q^P B_O^Q$ is an element of $C_O$? I observe that $B_Q^P$ is actually induced by an isometry: Let $\ell$ be the perpendicular on $PQ$ in $P$ and $m$ the bisector of the segment from $P$ to $Q$; then first reflecting in $\ell$ and then in $m$ gives the map $B_Q^P$ on the rays. So $B_P^O B_Q^P B_O^Q$ is a product of six reflections and fixes $O$; why can't it be a reflection? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 22:06
  • $\begingroup$ @FriederLadisch: You ask a good question, as this is not obvious. I remember that that argument was tedious, but straightforward. One has to prove that, if $B^O_PB^P_QB^Q_O$ fixes a ray, then it must be the identity, so one assumes that it fixes a ray and uses that ray to show that it fixes all the rays. I don't remember the argument now (that was 5 years ago), but I'll try to reconstruct it. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 1:31

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