Imprimitive flag-transitive symmetric designs

A recent paper of O'Reilly Regueiro obtained an explicit upper bound on the number of points of a flag-transitive, point-imprimitive, symmetric design in terms of the number of blocks containing two points. We improve that upper bound and give a complete list of feasible parameter sequences for such designs for which two points lie in at most ten blocks. Classifications are available for some of these parameter sequences.     

交错群与旗传递点本原非对称2-（v，k，3）设计

受旗传递2-(v,k,3)对称设计和非对称2-(v,k,2)设计有关分类结果的启发,本论文继续研究旗传递非对称2-(v,k,3)设计.文章利用置换群的理论和组合设计的数量性质,借助计算机代数软件Gap和Magma,完全分类了自同构群G旗传递点本原,且基柱Soc(G)为交错群An(n≥5)的非对称2-(v,k,3)设计,证明了此类设计只能是唯一的2-(5,3,3)设计,且G=A_5或S_5.     

The flag-transitive symmetric designs with 45 points, blocks of size 12, and 3 blocks on every point pair

We construct two flag-transitive designs with the parameters of the title, and prove that these are the only two examples. One is point-primitive and related to unitary geometry, while the other is point-imprimitive and constructed from a 1-dimensional affine space. This classification may be contrasted with a construction by Mathon and Spence in 1996 of more than 3,700 designs with these parameters, almost a third of which had a trivial automorphism group.     

Two-dimensional flag-transitive planes revisited

This paper shows that the odd order two-dimensional flag-transitive planes constructed by Kantor-Suetake constitute the same family of planes as those constructed by Baker-Ebert. Moreover, for orders satisfying a modest number theoretical assumption this family consists of all possible such planes of that order. In particular, it is shown that the number of isomorphism classes of (non-Desarguesian) two-dimensional flag-transitive affine planes of order q ² is precisely (q–1)/2 when q is an odd prime and precisely (q–1)/2e when q=p ^e is an odd prime power with exponent e that is a power of 2. An enumeration is given in other cases that uses the Möbius inversion formula.This work was partially supported by NSA grant MDA 904-95-H-1013.This work was partially supported by NSA grant MDA 904-94-H-2033.     

Construction of two-dimensional flag-transitive planes

An affine plane is called flag-transitive if it admits a collineation group which acts transitively on the incident point-line pairs. It has been shown that finite flag-transitive planes are necessarily translation planes, and much work has been devoted to this class of translation planes in recent years. All flag-transitive groups of finite affine planes have been determined, and an infinite family of non-Desarguesian flag-transitive planes has been found. In this paper a method is given for constructing all two-dimensional flag-transitive planes of odd order, subsuming the infinite family mentioned above.     

Sporadic groups and flag-transitive triplanes

Let D be a triplane, i.e., a 2-(v,k,3) symmetric design, and G be a subgroup of the full automorphism group of D. In this paper we prove that if G is flag-transitive point-primitive, then the socle of G cannot be a sporadic simple group.     

Constructing heterogeneous hash families by puncturing linear transversal designs

Constructions that use hash families to select columns from small covering arrays in order to construct larger ones can exploit heterogeneity in the numbers of symbols in the rows of the hash family. For specific distributions of numbers of symbols, the efficacy of the construction is improved by accommodating more columns in the hash family. Known constructions of such heterogeneous hash families employ finite geometries and their associated transversal designs. Using thwarts in transversal designs, specific constructions of heterogeneous hash families are developed, and some open questions are posed.     

Affine groups and flag-transitive triplanes

Let D be a nontrivial 2-(v, k, 3) symmetric design (triplane) and let G≤Aut(D) be flag-transitive and point-primitive. In this paper, we prove that if G is an affine group, then G≤AΓL1(q), where q is some power of a prime p and p≥5.     

Alternating groups and flag-transitive triplanes

Let ${\mathcal{D}}$ be a nontrivial triplane, and G be a subgroup of the full automorphism group of ${\mathcal{D}}$ . In this paper we prove that if ${\mathcal{D}}$ is a triplane, ${G\leq Aut(\mathcal{D})}$ is flag-transitive, point-primitive and Soc(G) is an alternating group, then ${\mathcal{D}}$ is the projective space PG ₂(3, 2), and ${G\cong A_7}$ with the point stabiliser ${G_x\cong PSL_3(2)}$ .     

Constructing uniform designs: A heuristic integer programming method

In this paper, the wrap-around _L2$L_2$-discrepancy (WD) of asymmetrical design is represented as a quadratic form, thus the problem of constructing a uniform design becomes a quadratic integer programming problem. By the theory of optimization, some theoretic properties are obtained. Algorithms for constructing uniform designs are then studied. When the number of runs n$n$ is smaller than the number of all level-combinations m$m$, the construction problem can be transferred to a zero–one quadratic integer programming problem, and an efficient algorithm based on the simulated annealing is proposed. When n≥m$n\ge m$, another algorithm is proposed. Empirical study shows that when n$n$ is large, the proposed algorithms can generate designs with lower WD compared to many existing methods. Moreover, these algorithms are suitable for constructing both symmetrical and asymmetrical designs.     

Finite classical groups and flag-transitive triplanes

Let D be a finite nontrivial triplane, i.e. a 2-(v,k,3) symmetric design, with a flag-transitive, point-primitive automorphism group G. If G is almost simple, with the simple socle X of G being a classical group, then D is either the unique (11, 6, 3)-triplane, with G=PSL₂(11) and G_α=A₅, or the unique (45, 12, 3)-triplane, with G=X:2=PSp₄(3):2≅PSU₄(2):2 and , where α is a point of D.