Designs and partial geometries over finite fields

Let be a finite field, and let (, B) be a nontrivial 2-(n, k, 1)-design over . Then each point induces a (k–1)-spread S on /. (, B) is said to be a geometric design if S is a geometric spread on / for each . In this paper, we prove that there are no geometric designs over any finite field .Research partially supported by NSF grant DMS-8703229.     

Twisted derivations and distinct sets of lines that cover the same pairs of points

A partial projective plane of ordern consists of lines andn ² +n + 1 points such that every line hasn+1 points and distinct lines meet in a unique point. Suppose that two essentially different partial projective planes and of ordern, n a perfect square, that are defined on the same set of points cover the same pairs of points. For sufficiently largen we show that this implies that and have at leastn(n+1) lines. This bound is sharp and there exist essentially two different types of examples meeting the bound.As an application, we can show that derived planes provide an example for a pair of projective planes of square order with as much structure as possible in common, that is, as many lines as possible in common. Furthermore, we present a new method (twisted derivations) to obtain planes from one another by replacing the same number of lines as in a derivation.     

Symmetric designs and geometroids

A-setS in a symmetric 2-(v, k, ) design is a subset which every block meets in 0, 1 or points such that for any point ofS there is a unique block meetingS at that point only. Ovoids in three-dimensional projective spaces are examples of-secs. It is shown that if has a-set then is a geometroid withv=u ²+u+1 andk=u+1, whereu–1. The cases whenu is–1, and+1 are investigated and some open problems discussed.     

Circularity of Finite Groups without Fixed Points

Let be a fixed point free group given by the presentation where and are relative prime numbers, t = /s and s = gcd( – 1,), and is the order of modulo . We prove that if (1) = 2, and (2) is embeddable into the multiplicative group of some skew field, then is circular. This means that there is some additive group N on which acts fixed point freely, and |((a)+b)((c)+d)| 2 whenever a,b,c,d N, a0c, are such that (a)+b(c)+d.     

On the two-gap elliptic potentials

The-parametrized family of two-gap elliptic potentials is constructed so that (i) 0<<1, (ii) for rational values of such potentials are elliptic (i.e., double-periodic), (iii) within the limit0 this family degenerates to the soliton potential, (iv) within the limit1 this family degenerates to the one-gap Lamé potential.Dedicated to the memory of J.-L. Verdier     

Local Recognition Of Non-Incident Point-Hyperplane Graphs

Let be a projective space. By H() we denote the graph whose vertices are the non-incident point-hyperplane pairs of , two vertices (p,H) and (q,I) being adjacent if and only if p I and q H. In this paper we give a characterization of the graph H() (as well as of some related graphs) by its local structure. We apply this result by two characterizations of groups G with PSL _n ( )GPGL _n ( ), by properties of centralizers of some (generalized) reflections. Here is the (skew) field of coordinates of .     

Extended generalized octagons and the groupHe

Let be an extended generalized octagon such that the points of a triple {u, v, w} not on a block are pairwise adjacent if and only if the distance betweenv andw in the local generalized octagon _u equals 3 and there is a thick line through any point of _u . Then is one of the two examples related to the groups 2·L ₃(4).2² andHe. It is also shown that does not admit further extensions.     

Compact groups on compact projective planes

LetP=(P, L) be a compact projective plane with 0P< and let be a compact connected subgroup of Aut(P). If dim dimE – dimP, whereE is the elliptic motion group of the corresponding classical plane, then E or is isomorphic to a point stabilizerE ₀ inE, cf. [31]. Here we consider the case E ₀. It is shown that the action of on the point spaceP is equivalent to the classical action ofE ₀. For dimP {8, 16} the planeP is uniquely determined by a 2-dimensional subplane with SO₂ Aut().Für H. Reiner Salzmann zum 65. Geburtstag     

On the definition of isomorphisms of linear spaces

Let (P, ) and (P, ) be linear spaces satisfying the exchange axiom with dim P=dim P . Then a bijection :PP which maps collinear points onto collinear points is an isomorphism. Also a surjection :PP which maps any three non-collinear points to non-collinear points is an isomorphism. This assertion is not true if dim P is not finite.     

On the dimensions of automorphism groups of eight-dimensional ternary fields,II

LetT be an eight-dimensional, connected, locally compact ternary field and let denote a connected closed Lie subgroup of its automorphism group which is taken with the compact-open topology. It is proved that if the ternary fixed fieldF of is connected, then is either isomorphic to one of the compact Lie groupsG ₂ or SU₃, or the (covering) dimension of is at most 7.     

Wrapping polygons in polygons

This paper is developed toI ₂(2g).c-geometries, namely, point-line-plane structures where planes are generalized 2g-gons with exactly two lines on every point and any two intersecting lines belong to a unique plane.I ₂(2g).c-geometries appear in several contexts, sometimes in connection with sporadic simple groups. Many of them are homomorphic images of truncations of geometries belonging to Coxeter diagrams. TheI ₂(2g).c-geometries obtained in this way may be regarded as the standard ones. We characterize them in this paper. For everyI ₂(2g).c-geometry , we define a numberw(), which counts the number of times we need to walk around a 2g-gon contained in a plane of , building up a wall of planes around it, before closing the wall. We prove thatw()=1 if and only if is standard and we apply that result to a number of special cases.     

4-Dimensional compact projective planes with small nilradical

We consider 4-dimensional compact projective planes with a solvable 6-dimensional collineation group and with orbit type (2, 1), i.e. fixes a flagv W, acts transitively onL \{W} and fixes no point in the setW\{v}. We We prove a series of lemmas concerning the action of invariant subgroups of . These lemmas are applied to prove that the maximal connected nilpotent invariant subgroup of has dimension at least 4.Dedicated to Prof. H. Salzmann on the occasion of his 65th birthday     

‘Outside’ as a primitive notion in constructive projective geometry

In intuitionistic (or constructive) geometry there are positive counterparts, apart and outside, of the relations = and incident. In this paper it is shown that the relation outside suffices to define incident, apart and equality. The equivalence of the new system with Heyting's system is shown and as a simple corollary one obtains duality for intuitionistic projective geometry.     

Orthomodular lattices from 3-dimensional quadratic spaces

If E is a vector space over a field K, then any regular symmetric bilinear form on E induces a polarity on the lattice of all subspaces of E. In the particular case where E is 3-dimensional, the set of all subspaces M of E such that both M and are not N-subspaces (which, in most cases, is equivalent to saying that M is nonisotropic), ordered by inclusion and endowed with the restriction of the above polarity, is an orthomodular lattice T(E, ). We show that if K is a proper subfield of K, with K F₂, and E a 3-dimensional K -subspace of E such that the restriction of to E × E is, up to multiplicative constant, a bilinear form on the K -space E , then T(E , ) is isomorphic to an irreducible 3-homogeneous proper subalgebra of T(E, ). Our main result is a structure theorem stating that, when K is not of characteristic 3, the converse is true, i.e., any irreducible 3-homogeneous proper subalgebra of T(E, ) is of this form. As a corollary, we construct infinitely many finite orthomodular lattices which are minimal in the sense that all their proper subalgebras are modular. In fact, this last result was our initial aim in this paper.Received June 4, 2003; accepted in final form May 18, 2004.     

Ultrafilter translations

We develop a method for extending results about ultrafilters into a more general setting. In this paper we shall be mainly concerned with applications to cardinality logics. For example, assumingV=L, Gödel's Axiom of Constructibility, we prove that if > then the logic with the quantifier there exist many is (,)-compact if and only if either is weakly compact or is singular of cofinality<. As a corollary, for every infinite cardinals and , there exists a (,)-compact non-(,)-compact logic if and only if either < orcf<cf or < is weakly compact.Counterexamples are given showing that the above statements may fail, ifV=L is not assumed.However, without special assumptions, analogous results are obtained for the stronger notion of [,]-compactness.     

Skew-symmetric association schemes with two classes and strongly regular graphs of type L 2n−1(4n−1)

A construction of a pair of strongly regular graphs ⁿ and ⁿ of type L _2n–1(4n–1) from a pair of skew-symmetric association schemes W, W of order 4n–1 is presented. Examples of graphs with the same parameters as ⁿ and ⁿ, i.e., of type L _2n–1(4n–1), were known only if 4n–1=p ³, where p is a prime. The first new graph appearing in the series has parameters (v, k, )=(225, 98, 45). A 4-vertex condition for relations of a skew-symmetric association scheme (very similar to one for the strongly regular graphs) is introduced and is proved to hold in any case. This has allowed us to check the 4-vertex condition for ⁿ and ⁿ, thus to prove that ⁿ and ⁿ are not rank three graphs if n>2.     

A sandwich theorem and Hyers—Ulam stability of affine functions

It is shown that two real functionsf andg, defined on a real intervalI, satisfy the inequalitiesf(x + (1 – )y) g(x) + (1 – )g(y) andg(x + (1 – )y) f(x) + (1 – )f(y) for allx, y I and [0, 1], iff there exists an affine functionh: I such thatf h g. As a consequence we obtain a stability result of Hyers—Ulam type for affine functions.     

Four-dimensional compact projective planes with doubly transitive action on the fixed pencil

We consider a four-dimensional compact projective plane =( , ) whose collineation group is six-dimensional and solvable with a nilradical N isomorphic to Nil × R, where Nil denotes the three-dimensional, simply connected, non-Abelian, nilpotent Lie group. We assume that fixes a flag pW, acts transitively on _p \{W}, and fixes no point in the set W{p}. We study the actions of and N on and on the pencil _p \{W}, in the case that does not contain a three-dimensional elation group. In the special situation that acts doubly transitively on _p {W}, we will determine all possible planes . There are exactly two series of such planes.     

A geometric construction of a class of twisted field planes by Ree-Tits unitals

We investigate the intersection pattern of Ree-Tits unitals in the split Cayley HexagonH (q) associated to Dickson's groupG ₂ (q). Using these patterns, we are able to define an incidence geometry which turns out to be a twisted field plane of order 3^2h+1, non-Desarguesian ifh 0. We also show that a general point of the underlying generalized hexagon defines an oval in .Dedicated to H. Reiner Salzmann for his sixtieth birthdayThe second author is Senior Research Associate of the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium)     

The commutant of rationally cyclic subnormal operators and rational approximation

Let denote the set of analytic bounded point evaluations forR ^q (K, ). Assume that . In this paper, we first show that if is a finitely connected domain and if the evaluation map fromR ^q (K, )L () toH () is surjective, then | is absolutely continuous with respect to harmonic measure for . This generalizes Olin and Yang's corresponding result for polynomials and the proof we present here is simpler. We also provide an example that shows this absolute continuity property fails in general when is an infinitely connected domain. In the second part, we then offer a solution to a problem of Conway and Elias.