Associate ProfessorGunter Steinke

My research interests are in topological and finite geometry and their connections to groups. I am the leading expert in the theory of topological circle planes and for Laguerre and Minkowski planes. I pioneered the cut-and-paste method for the construction of topological geometries beginning with the first examples of 2-dimensional projective planes whose collineation groups consist only of the identity. In the area of Laguerre planes I discovered the first non-classical models of 4-dimensional Laguerre planes. This brought to an end a 20-year long search and opened the door for further investigations of such planes and related geometries, such as 6-dimensional generalized quadrangles. I further introduced elation Laguerre planes, a particularly nice and well-behaved class of Laguerre planes that have the potential to play a role in the theory of Lagurre planes that is analogous to the one of translation planes in the theory of projective planes. In the area of Minkowski planes I introduced a standard representation of 4-dimensional Minkowski planes which significantly reduced the verification of the various defining topological properties of 4-dimensional Minkowski planes and I constructed the first examples of 4-dimensional non-classical Minkowski planes thus concluding a 30-year long search for such planes.