New 3-designs and 2-designs having U(3,3) as an automorphism group

In this paper we classify $2$-designs and $3$-designs with $28$ or $36$ points admitting a transitive action of the unitary group $U(3,3)$ on points and blocks. We also construct $2$-designs and $3$-designs with $56$ or $63$ points and strongly regular graphs on 36, 63 or 126 vertices having $U(3,3)$ as a transitive automorphism group. Further, we show that this completes the classification of $3$-designs admitting a transitive action of the group $U(3,3)$, in terms of parameters. A number of the $3$-designs and $2$-designs obtained in this paper have not been known before up to our best knowledge.     

The t-designs with prescribed automorphism group,new simple 6-designs

We introduce an algorithm for the construction of a complete system of representatives of t-designs with given parameters t ? (v, k, λ) and prescribed full automorphism group A. It is based on the following observation published by Kramer and Mesner in 1976: The t ? (v, k, λ) designs admitting automorphism group A are exactly the 0-1-solutions $ \overrightarrow x $ of the following system of linear equations M are incidence matrices, which we compute by means of double cosets. Representing the set of all solutions of the above system of equations implicitly by a graph gives us the possibility either to extract the solutions explicitly or to compute their precise numbers, which often are very big. We use the lattice of overgroups of A in the full symmetric group S_v for the construction or enumeration of the isomorphism types of the t-designs with full automorphism group A from these solutions. To the best of our knowledge our approach for the first time allows one to compute the precise number of isomorphism types or even these designs themselves for substantial numbers. We determined the (number of) isomorphism types for many known parameter sets and found new simple 6-designs with parameters and full automorphism group PΓL₂(27). We constructed all isomorphism types of these designs; their precise numbers are 3,367,21 743,38 277, respectively. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

New 5-designs with automorphism group PSL(2, 23)

Blocks of the unique Steiner system S(5, 8, 24) are called octads. The group PSL(2, 23) acts as an automorphism group of this Steiner system, permuting octads transitively. Inspired by the discovery of a 5-(24, 10, 36) design by Gulliver and Harada, we enumerate all 4- and 5-designs whose set of blocks are union of PSL(2, 23)-orbits on 10-subsets containing an octad. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 7: 147–155, 1999     

Block-transitive designs in affine spaces

This paper deals with block-transitive t-(v, k, λ) designs in affine spaces for large t, with a focus on the important index λ = 1 case. We prove that there are no non-trivial 5-(v, k, 1) designs admitting a block-transitive group of automorphisms that is of affine type. Moreover, we show that the corresponding non-existence result holds for 4-(v, k, 1) designs, except possibly when the group is 1-D affine. Our approach involves a consideration of the finite 2-homogeneous affine permutation groups.     

The automorphism group of a rigid affine variety

An irreducible algebraic variety X is rigid if it admits no nontrivial action of the additive group of the ground field. We prove that the automorphism group of a rigid affine variety contains a unique maximal torus . If the grading on the algebra of regular functions defined by the action of  is pointed, the group  is a finite extension of . As an application, we describe the automorphism group of a rigid trinomial affine hypersurface and find all isomorphisms between such hypersurfaces.     

Affine modifications and affine hypersurfaces with a very transitive automorphism group

We study the modificationAA of an affine domainA which produces another affine domainA=A[I/f] whereI is a nontrivial ideal ofA andf is a nonzero element ofI. First appeared in passing in the basic paper of O. Zariski [Zar], it was further considered by E. D. Davis [Da]. In [Ka1] its geometric counterpart was applied to construct contractible smooth affine varieties non-isomorphic to Euclidean spaces. Here we provide certain conditions (more general than those in [Ka1]) which guarantee preservation of the topology under a modification.As an application, we show that the group of biregular automorphisms of the affine hypersurfaceXC ^k+2, given by the equationuv=(p(x ₁,...,x_k) wherepC[x ₁,...,x _k ],k2, actsm-transitively on the smooth part regX ofX for anymN. We present examples of such hypersurfaces diffeomorphic to Euclidean spaces.Partially supported by the NSA grant MDA904-96-01-0012.     

On orbits of the automorphism group on an affine toric variety

Let X be an affine toric variety. The total coordinates on X provide a canonical presentation $\bar X \to X$ of X as a quotient of a vector space $\bar X$ by a linear action of a quasitorus. We prove that the orbits of the connected component of the automorphism group Aut(X) on X coincide with the Luna strata defined by the canonical quotient presentation.     

Neighborly combinatorial 3-manifolds with dihedral automorphism group

It is well known that for anyn≧5 the boundary complex of the cyclic 4-polytopeC(n, 4) is a neighborly combinatorial 3-sphere admitting a vertex transitive action of the dihedral groupD _n of order 2n. In this paper we present a similar series of neighborly combinatorial 3-manifolds withn≧9 vertices, each homeomorphic to the “3-dimensional Klein bottle”. Forn=9 andn=10 these examples have been observed. before by A. Altshuler and L. Steinberg. Moreover we give a computer-aided enumeration of all neighborly combinatorial 3-manifolds with such a symmetry and with at most 19 vertices. It turns out that there are only four other types, one with 10, 15, 17, 19 vertices. We also discuss the more general case of manifolds with cyclic automorphism groupC _n.     

Some Minkowski planes with 3-dimensional automorphism group

A new rather large family of 2-dimensional locally compact topological Minkowski planes with an at least 3-dimensional automorphism group is introduced here. Isomorphism classes and automorphisms of these planes are determined.     

Symmetric (41,16,6)-designs with a nontrivial automorphism of odd order

If a symmetric (41,16,6)-design has an automorphism σ of odd prime order q then q = 3 or 5. In the case q = 5 we determine all such designs and find a total of 419 nonisomorphic ones, of which 15 are self-dual. When q = 3 a combinatorial explosion occurs and the complete classification becomes impracticable. However, we give a characterization in the particular case when σ has order 3 and fixes 11 points, and find that there are 3,076 nonisomorphic designs with this property, all of them being non self-dual. The other remaining possibility is that σ, of order 3, fixes 5 points. In this case there are 960 orbit matrices (up to isomorphism and duality) and all but one of them yield designs. Here an incomplete investigation shows that in total there are at least 112,000 nonisomorphic designs. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Graphs with symmetric automorphism group

We investigate the properties of graphs whose automorphism group is the symmetric group. In particular, we characterize graphs on less than 2n points with group S_n, and construct all graphs on n + 3 points with group S_n. Graphs with 2n or more points and group S_n are discussed briefly.     

finite groups with schmidt group as automorphism group

This paper continues the work of D.MacHale,D.Flannery(Proc.R.Ir.Acad.81A,209—215;83A,189—196)and the author(Proc.R.Ir.Acad,90A,57—62;J.Southwest China Normal University 15,No.1,21.—28)on the topic on“Finite groupswith given Automorphism group”.The following result is proved:Let G be a finite group with Aut G a Schmidt group.Then G is isomorphic toS_3 or Klain 4-group.,or D such that Aut D=Inn D.D is aSchmidt group of order 2~(?)p.S_2(∈Syl_2D)is a normal and special group exoept asupersperspecial group without commutative generators.     

Groups with trivial virtual automorphism group

We answer a question of A. Lubotzky and A. Mann by constructing examples of infinite groupsG such that every isomorphismα:H →K between subgroupsH andK having finite index inG coincides with the identity on some subgroup of finite index. The structure of such a group is very restricted;G must be virtually a 2-group with finite central derived subgroup andG/G′ elementary abelian. This work was begun while the second author was a visitor at the University of Padova. He wishes to thank the Mathematics Department for its hospitality and the C.N.R. for its financial support.