Collineation Groups which are Primitive on an Oval of a Projective Plane of Odd Order

Abstract

It is shown that a projective plane of odd order, with a collineation group acting primitively on the points of an invariant oval, must be desarguesian. Moreover, the group is actually doubly transitive, with only one exception. The main tool in the proof is that a collineation group leaving invariant an oval in a projective plane of odd order has 2-rank at most three.