Hecke algebras for {{\rm GL}_n} over local fields

We study the local Hecke algebra \({\mathcal{H}_{G}(K)}\) for \({G = {\rm GL}_{n}}\) and K a non-archimedean local field of characteristic zero. We show that for \({G = {\rm GL}_{2}}\) and any two such fields K and L, there is a Morita equivalence \({\mathcal{H}_{G}(K) \sim_{M} \mathcal{H}_{G}(L)}\), by using the Bernstein decomposition of the Hecke algebra and determining the intertwining algebras that yield the Bernstein blocks up to Morita equivalence. By contrast, we prove that for \({G = {\rm GL}_{n}}\), there is an algebra isomorphism \({\mathcal{H}_{G}(K) \cong \mathcal{H}_{G}(L)}\) which is an isometry for the induced \({L^1}\)-norm if and only if there is a field isomorphism \({K \cong L}\).     

An Erdös–Révész type law of the iterated logarithm for reflected fractional Brownian motion

Let \(B_{H}=\{B_{H}(t):t\in \mathbb R\}\) be a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H ∈ (0,1). For the stationary storage process \(Q_{B_{H}}(t)=\sup _{-\infty <s\le t}(B_{H}(t)-B_{H}(s)-(t-s))\), t ≥ 0, we provide a tractable criterion for assessing whether, for any positive, non-decreasing function f, \( {\mathbb P(Q_{B_{H}}(t) > f(t)\, \text { i.o.})}\) equals 0 or 1. Using this criterion we find that, for a family of functions f _p (t), such that \(z_{p}(t)=\mathbb P(\sup _{s\in [0,f_{p}(t)]}Q_{B_{H}}(s)>f_{p}(t))/f_{p}(t)=\mathcal C(t\log ^{1-p} t)^{-1}\), for some \(\mathcal C>0\), \({\mathbb P(Q_{B_{H}}(t) > f_{p}(t)\, \text { i.o.})= 1_{\{p\ge 0\}}}\). Consequently, with \(\xi _{p} (t) = \sup \{s:0\le s\le t, Q_{B_{H}}(s)\ge f_{p}(s)\}\), for p ≥ 0, \(\lim _{t\to \infty }\xi _{p}(t)=\infty \) and \(\limsup _{t\to \infty }(\xi _{p}(t)-t)=0\) a.s. Complementary, we prove an Erdös–Révész type law of the iterated logarithm lower bound on ξ _p (t), i.e., \(\liminf _{t\to \infty }(\xi _{p}(t)-t)/h_{p}(t) = -1\) a.s., p > 1; \(\liminf _{t\to \infty }\log (\xi _{p}(t)/t)/(h_{p}(t)/t) = -1\) a.s., p ∈ (0,1], where h _p (t) = (1/z _p (t))p loglog t.     

Upper Bounds for the Paired-Domination Numbers of Graphs

A set \(S\subseteq V\) is a paired-dominating set if every vertex in \(V{\setminus } S\) has at least one neighbor in S and the subgraph induced by S contains a perfect matching. The paired-domination number of a graph G, denoted by \(\gamma _{pr}(G)\), is the minimum cardinality of a paired-dominating set of G. A conjecture of Goddard and Henning says that if G is not the Petersen graph and is a connected graph of order n with minimum degree \(\delta (G)\ge 3\), then \(\gamma _{pr}(G)\le 4n/7\). In this paper, we confirm this conjecture for k-regular graphs with \(k\ge 4\).     

Relaxed Locally Identifying Coloring of Graphs

A locally identifying coloring (lid-coloring) of a graph is a proper vertex-coloring such that the sets of colors appearing in the closed neighborhoods of any pair of adjacent vertices having distinct neighborhoods are distinct. Our goal is to study a relaxed locally identifying coloring (rlid-coloring) of a graph that is similar to locally identifying coloring for which the coloring is not necessarily proper. We denote by \(\chi _{rlid}(G)\) the minimum number of colors used in a relaxed locally identifying coloring of a graph G. In this paper, we prove that the problem of deciding that \(\chi _{rlid}(G)=3\) for a 2-degenerate planar graph G is NP-complete and for a bipartite graph G is polynomial. We give several bounds of \(\chi _{rlid}(G)\) for different families of graphs and construct new graphs for which these bounds are tight. We also compare this parameter with the minimum number of colors used in a locally identifying coloring of a graph G (\(\chi _{lid}(G)\)), the size of a minimum identifying code of G (\(\gamma _{id}(G)\)) and the chromatic number of G (\(\chi (G)\)).     

Congruences for Andrews’ (<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">i</Emphasis>)-singular overpartitions

Andrews recently defined new combinatorial objects which he called (k, i)-singular overpartitions and proved that they are enumerated by \(\overline{C}_{k,i}(n)\) which is the number of overpartitions of n in which no part is divisible by k and only the parts \(\equiv \pm i \pmod {k}\) may be overlined. Andrews further showed that \(\overline{C}_{3,1}(n)\) satisfies some Ramanujan-type congruences modulo 3. In this paper, we show that for any pair (k, i), \(\overline{C}_{k,i}(n)\) satisfies infinitely many Ramanujan-type congruences modulo any power of prime coprime to 6k. We also show that for an infinite family of k, the value \(\overline{C}_{3k,k}(n)\) is almost always even. Finally, we investigate the parity of \(\overline{C}_{4k,k}\).     

More,or less,trivial matrix functional equations

Various functional equations satisfied by one or two (N × N)-matrices \({\mathbf{F}(z) }\) and \({\mathbf{G}(z) }\) depending on the scalar variable z are investigated, with N an arbitrary positive integer. Some of these functional equations are generalizations to the matrix case (N > 1) of well-known functional equations valid in the scalar (N = 1) case, such as \({\mathbf{F}(x) \, \mathbf{F}(y) = \, \mathbf{F}(x y) \, \rm and \, \mathbf{G}({\it x}) \, \mathbf{G}({\it y}) = \mathbf{G}({\it x+y}) }\); others—such as \({\mathbf{G}(y) \, \mathbf{F}(x) = \mathbf{F}(x) \, \mathbf{G}(xy) }\)—possess nontrivial solutions only in the matrix case (N > 1), namely their scalar (N = 1) counterparts only feature quite trivial solutions. It is also pointed out that if two (N × N)-matrices \({\mathbf{F}(x) \, \rm and \, \mathbf{G}({\it y})}\) satisfy the triplet of functional equations written above—and nontrivial examples of such matrices are exhibited— then they also satisfy an endless hierarchy of matrix functional relations involving an increasing number of scalar independent variables, the first items of which read \({\mathbf{F}(x_{1}) \, \mathbf{G}(y_{1}) \, \mathbf{F} (x_{2}) = \mathbf{F}(x_{1} x_{2}) \, \mathbf{G } (x_{2} y_{1}) \, \rm and \, \mathbf{G}({\it y}_{1}) \, \mathbf{F} ({\it x}_{1}) \, \mathbf{G} ({\it y}_{2}) = \mathbf{F} ({\it x}_{1}) \, \mathbf{G} ({\it x}_{1} {\it y}_{1}+{\it y}_{2}) }\).     

Nilpotent residual of fixed points

Let q be a prime and A a finite q-group of exponent q acting by automorphisms on a finite \(q'\)-group G. Assume that A has order at least \(q^3\). We show that if \(\gamma _{\infty } (C_{G}(a))\) has order at most m for any \(a \in A^{\#}\), then the order of \(\gamma _{\infty } (G)\) is bounded solely in terms of m and q. If \(\gamma _{\infty } (C_{G}(a))\) has rank at most r for any \(a \in A^{\#}\), then the rank of \(\gamma _{\infty } (G)\) is bounded solely in terms of r and q.     

Relationships Between the 2-Metric Dimension and the 2-Adjacency Dimension in the Lexicographic Product of Graphs

Given a connected simple graph \(G=(V(G),E(G))\), a set \(S\subseteq V(G)\) is said to be a 2-metric generator for G if and only if for any pair of different vertices \(u,v\in V(G)\), there exist at least two vertices \(w_1,w_2\in S\) such that \(d_G(u,w_i)\ne d_G(v,w_i)\), for every \(i\in \{1,2\}\), where \(d_G(x,y)\) is the length of a shortest path between x and y. The minimum cardinality of a 2-metric generator is the 2-metric dimension of G, denoted by \(\dim _2(G)\). The metric \(d_{G,2}: V(G)\times V(G)\longmapsto {\mathbb {N}}\cup \{0\}\) is defined as \(d_{G,2}(x,y)=\min \{d_G(x,y),2\}\). Now, a set \(S\subseteq V(G)\) is a 2-adjacency generator for G, if for every two vertices \(x,y\in V(G)\) there exist at least two vertices \(w_1,w_2\in S\), such that \(d_{G,2}(x,w_i)\ne d_{G,2}(y,w_i)\) for every \(i\in \{1,2\}\). The minimum cardinality of a 2-adjacency generator is the 2-adjacency dimension of G, denoted by \({\mathrm {adim}}_2(G)\). In this article, we obtain closed formulae for the 2-metric dimension of the lexicographic product \(G\circ H\) of two graphs G and H. Specifically, we show that \(\dim _2(G\circ H)=n\cdot {\mathrm {adim}}_2(H)+f(G,H),\) where \(f(G,H)\ge 0\), and determine all the possible values of f(G, H).     

The crank moments weighted by the parity of cranks

In this note, we introduce the 2kth crank moment \(\mu _{2k}(-1,n)\) weighted by the parity of cranks and show that \((-1)^n \mu _{2k}(-1,n)>0\) for \(n\ge k \ge 0\). When \(k=0\), the inequality \((-1)^n \mu _{2k}(-1,n)>0\) reduces to Andrews and Lewis’s inequality \((-1)^n(M_e(n)-M_o(n))>0\) for \(n\ge 0\), where \(M_e(n)\) (resp. \(M_o(n)\)) denotes the number of partitions of n with even (resp. odd) crank. Several generating functions of \(\mu _{2k}(-1,n)\) are also studied in order to show the positivity of \((-1)^n\mu _{2k}(-1,n)\).     

Constructive Approximation in de Branges–Rovnyak Spaces

In most classical holomorphic function spaces on the unit disk in which the polynomials are dense, a function f can be approximated in norm by its dilates \(f_r(z):=f(rz)~(r<1)\). We show that this is not the case for the de Branges–Rovnyak spaces \(\mathcal{H}(b)\). More precisely, we exhibit a space \(\mathcal{H}(b)\) in which the polynomials are dense and a function \(f\in \mathcal{H}(b)\) such that \(\lim _{r\rightarrow 1^-}\Vert f_r\Vert _{\mathcal{H}(b)}=\infty \). On the positive side, we prove the following approximation theorem for Toeplitz operators on general de Branges–Rovnyak spaces \(\mathcal{H}(b)\). If \((h_n)\) is a sequence in \(H^\infty \) such that \(\Vert h_n\Vert _{H^\infty }\le 1\) and \(h_n(0)\rightarrow 1\), then \(\Vert T_{\overline{h}_n}f-f\Vert _{\mathcal{H}(b)}\rightarrow 0\) for all \(f\in \mathcal{H}(b)\). Using this result, we give the first constructive proof that, if b is a nonextreme point of the unit ball of \(H^\infty \), then the polynomials are dense in \(\mathcal{H}(b)\).     

Isometric multipliers of a vector valued Beurling algebra on a discrete semigroup

Let (S,ω) be a weighted abelian semigroup, let M _ω (S) be the semigroup of ω-bounded multipliers of S, and let \(\mathcal {A}\) be a strictly convex commutative Banach algebra with identity. It is shown that T is an onto isometric multiplier of \(\ell ^{1}(S,\omega , \mathcal {A})\) if and only if there exists an invertible σ ∈ M _ω (S), a unitary point \(a \in \mathcal {A}\), and a k>0 such that \(T(f)= ka{\sum }_{x \in S} f(x)\delta _{\sigma (x)}\) for each \(f={\sum }_{x \in S}f(x)\delta _{x} \in \ell ^{1}(S,\omega ,\mathcal {A})\). It is also shown that an isomorphism from \(\ell ^{1}(S_{1},\omega _{1},\mathcal {A})\) onto \(\ell ^{1}(S_{2},\omega _{2}, \mathcal {B})\) induces an isomorphism from \(M(\ell ^{1}(S_{1},\omega _{1},\mathcal {A}))\), the set of all multipliers of \(\ell ^{1}(S_{1},\omega _{1},\mathcal {A})\), onto \(M(\ell ^{1}(S_{2},\omega _{2},\mathcal {B}))\).     

Stringy K-theory and the Chern character

We construct two new G-equivariant rings: \(\mathcal{K}(X,G)\), called the stringy K-theory of the G-variety X, and \(\mathcal{H}(X,G)\), called the stringy cohomology of the G-variety X, for any smooth, projective variety X with an action of a finite group G. For a smooth Deligne–Mumford stack \(\mathcal{X}\), we also construct a new ring \(\mathsf{K}_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X})\) called the full orbifold K-theory of \(\mathcal{X}\). We show that for a global quotient \(\mathcal{X} = [X/G]\), the ring of G-invariants \(K_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X})\) of \(\mathcal{K}(X,G)\) is a subalgebra of \(\mathsf{K}_{\mathrm{orb}}([X/G])\) and is linearly isomorphic to the “orbifold K-theory” of Adem-Ruan [AR] (and hence Atiyah-Segal), but carries a different “quantum” product which respects the natural group grading.We prove that there is a ring isomorphism \(\mathcal{C}\mathbf{h}:\mathcal{K}(X,G)\to\mathcal{H}(X,G)\), which we call the stringy Chern character. We also show that there is a ring homomorphism \(\mathfrak{C}\mathfrak{h}_\mathrm{orb}:\mathsf{K}_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X}) \rightarrow H^\bullet_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X})\), which we call the orbifold Chern character, which induces an isomorphism \(Ch_{\mathrm{orb}}:K_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X})\rightarrow H^\bullet_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X})\) when restricted to the sub-algebra \(K_{\mathrm{orb}}(\mathcal{X})\). Here \(H_{\mathrm{orb}}^\bullet(\mathcal{X})\) is the Chen–Ruan orbifold cohomology. We further show that \(\mathcal{C}\mathbf{h}\) and \(\mathfrak{C}\mathfrak{h}_\mathrm{orb}\) preserve many properties of these algebras and satisfy the Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch theorem with respect to étale maps. All of these results hold both in the algebro-geometric category and in the topological category for equivariant almost complex manifolds.We further prove that \(\mathcal{H}(X,G)\) is isomorphic to Fantechi and Göttsche’s construction [FG, JKK]. Since our constructions do not use complex curves, stable maps, admissible covers, or moduli spaces, our results greatly simplify the definitions of the Fantechi–Göttsche ring, Chen–Ruan orbifold cohomology, and the Abramovich–Graber–Vistoli orbifold Chow ring.We conclude by showing that a K-theoretic version of Ruan’s Hyper-Kähler Resolution Conjecture holds for the symmetric product of a complex projective surface with trivial first Chern class.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">g</Emphasis>-functions for countable state subshifts

For a very ample line bundle L on a smooth projective algebraic curve C, we prove that, under some circumstances on positive integers \(\gamma , d\), if one had \(\dim V^{d-1}_{d}(L)=d-1-\gamma \), then the scheme \(V^{\gamma +2}_{\gamma +3}(L)\), if non-empty, would be 2-dimensional. Furthermore, for a 2-very ample line bundle L on C and an integer d, \(4\le d\le h^0(L)-2\), it will be proved that the dimension of the scheme \( V^{d-1}_{d}(L)\) cannot attain its maximum value, i.e. \(d-2\). This will be used to prove irreduciblity of the highest secant loci of L, namely \(V^{h^0(L)-2}_{h^0(L)-1}(L)\). Then we discuss on the existence of very ample line bundles having reducible highest secant loci on k-gonal curves. Extending a well-known result of Montserrat Teixidor to secant loci, our results answer a question proposed and left unanswered recently by Marian Aprodu and Edoardo Sernesi.     

Congruences for $$\ell $$-regular overpartitions and Andrews’ singular overpartitions

Let \(\overline{A}_{\ell }(n)\) be the number of overpartitions of n into parts not divisible by \(\ell \). In a recent paper, Shen calls the overpartitions enumerated by the function \(\overline{A}_{\ell }(n)\) as \(\ell \)-regular overpartitions. In this paper, we find certain congruences for \(\overline{A}_{\ell }(n)\), when \(\ell =4, 8\), and 9. Recently, Andrews introduced the partition function \(\overline{C}_{k, i}(n)\), called singular overpartition, which counts the number of overpartitions of n in which no part is divisible by k and only parts \(\equiv \pm i\pmod {k}\) may be over-lined. He also proved that \(\overline{C}_{3, 1}(9n+3)\) and \(\overline{C}_{3, 1}(9n+6)\) are divisible by 3. In this paper, we prove that \(\overline{C}_{3, 1}(12n+11)\) is divisible by 144 which was conjectured to be true by Naika and Gireesh.     

Fractional Differentiability for Solutions of Nonlinear Elliptic Equations

We study nonlinear elliptic equations in divergence form

$$\text {div }{\mathcal A}(x,Du)=\text {div } G.$$

When \({\mathcal A}\) has linear growth in D u, and assuming that \(x\mapsto {\mathcal A}(x,\xi )\) enjoys \(B^{\alpha }_{\frac {n}\alpha , q}\) smoothness, local well-posedness is found in \(B^{\alpha }_{p,q}\) for certain values of \(p\in [2,\frac {n}{\alpha })\) and \(q\in [1,\infty ]\). In the particular case \({\mathcal A}(x,\xi )=A(x)\xi \), G = 0 and \(A\in B^{\alpha }_{\frac {n}\alpha ,q}\), \(1\leq q\leq \infty \), we obtain \(Du\in B^{\alpha }_{p,q}\) for each \(p<\frac {n}\alpha \). Our main tool in the proof is a more general result, that holds also if \({\mathcal A}\) has growth s?1 in D u, 2 ≤ s ≤ n, and asserts local well-posedness in L ^q for each q > s, provided that \(x\mapsto {\mathcal A}(x,\xi )\) satisfies a locally uniform VMO condition.

     

Depth,Stanley depth,and regularity of ideals associated to graphs

Let \({\mathbb{K}}\) be a field and \({S=\mathbb{K}[x_1,\dots,x_n]}\) be the polynomial ring in n variables over \({\mathbb{K}}\). Let G be a graph with n vertices. Assume that \({I=I(G)}\) is the edge ideal of G and \({J=J(G)}\) is its cover ideal. We prove that \({{\rm sdepth}(J)\geq n-\nu_{o}(G)}\) and \({{\rm sdepth}(S/J)\geq n-\nu_{o}(G)-1}\), where \({\nu_{o}(G)}\) is the ordered matching number of G. We also prove the inequalities \({{\rmsdepth}(J^k)\geq {\rm depth}(J^k)}\) and \({{\rm sdepth}(S/J^k)\geq {\rmdepth}(S/J^k)}\), for every integer \({k\gg 0}\), when G is a bipartite graph. Moreover, we provide an elementary proof for the known inequality reg\({(S/I)\leq \nu_{o}(G)}\).     

Stability of volume comparison for complex convex bodies

We prove the stability of the affirmative part of the solution to the complex Busemann–Petty problem. Namely, if K and L are origin-symmetric convex bodies in \({{\mathbb C}^n}\), n = 2 or n = 3, \({\varepsilon >0 }\) and \({{\rm Vol}_{2n-2}(K\cap H) \le {\rm Vol}_{2n-2}(L \cap H) + \varepsilon}\) for any complex hyperplane H in \({{\mathbb C}^n}\) , then \({({\rm Vol}_{2n}(K))^{\frac{n-1}n}\le({\rm Vol}_{2n}(L))^{\frac{n-1}n} + \varepsilon}\) , where Vol_2n is the volume in \({{\mathbb C}^n}\) , which is identified with \({{\mathbb R}^{2n}}\) in the natural way.     

Tempered representations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-adic groups: special idempotents and topology

Let \(G=G(k)\) be a connected reductive group over a p-adic field k. The smooth (and tempered) complex representations of G can be considered as the nondegenerate modules over the Hecke algebra \({\mathcal {H}}={\mathcal {H}}(G)\) and the Schwartz algebra \({\mathcal {S}}={\mathcal {S}}(G)\) forming abelian categories \({\mathcal {M}}(G)\) and \({\mathcal {M}}^t(G)\), respectively. Idempotents \(e\in {\mathcal {H}}\) or \({\mathcal {S}}\) define full subcategories \({\mathcal {M}}_e(G)= \{V : {\mathcal {H}}eV=V\}\) and \({\mathcal {M}}_e^t(G)= \{V : {\mathcal {S}}eV=V\}\). Such an e is said to be special (in \({\mathcal {H}}\) or \({\mathcal {S}}\)) if the corresponding subcategory is abelian. Parallel to Bernstein’s result for \(e\in {\mathcal {H}}\) we will prove that, for special \(e \in {\mathcal {S}}\), \({\mathcal {M}}_e^t(G) = \prod _{\Theta \in \theta _e} {\mathcal {M}}^t(\Theta )\) is a finite direct product of component categories \({\mathcal {M}}^t(\Theta )\), now referring to connected components of the center of \({\mathcal {S}}\). A special \(e\in {\mathcal {H}}\) will be also special in \({\mathcal {S}}\), but idempotents \(e\in {\mathcal {H}}\) not being special can become special in \({\mathcal {S}}\). To obtain conditions we consider the sets \(\mathrm{Irr}^t(G) \subset \mathrm{Irr}(G)\) of (tempered) smooth irreducible representations of G, and we view \(\mathrm{Irr}(G)\) as a topological space for the Jacobson topology defined by the algebra \({\mathcal {H}}\). We use this topology to introduce a preorder on the connected components of \(\mathrm{Irr}^t(G)\). Then we prove that, for an idempotent \(e \in {\mathcal {H}}\) which becomes special in \({\mathcal {S}}\), its support \(\theta _e\) must be saturated with respect to that preorder. We further analyze the above decomposition of \({\mathcal {M}}_e^t(G)\) in the case where G is k-split with connected center and where \(e = e_J \in {\mathcal {H}}\) is the Iwahori idempotent. Here we can use work of Kazhdan and Lusztig to relate our preorder on the support \(\theta _{e_J}\) to the reverse of the natural partial order on the unipotent classes in G. We finish by explicitly computing the case \(G=GL_n\), where \(\theta _{e_J}\) identifies with the set of partitions of n. Surprisingly our preorder (which is a partial order now) is strictly coarser than the reverse of the dominance order on partitions.     

Group divisible designs with large block sizes

For positive integers n, k with \(3\le k\le n\), let \(X=\mathbb {F}_{2^n}\setminus \{0,1\}\), \({\mathcal {G}}=\{\{x,x+1\}:x\in X\}\), and \({\mathcal {B}}_k=\left\{ \{x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_k\}\!\subset \!X:\sum \limits _{i=1}^kx_i=1,\ \sum \limits _{i\in I}x_i\!\ne \!1\ \mathrm{for\ any}\ \emptyset \!\ne \!I\!\subsetneqq \!\{1,2,\ldots ,k\}\right\} \). Lee et al. used the inclusion–exclusion principle to show that the triple \((X,{\mathcal {G}},{\mathcal {B}}_k)\) is a \((k,\lambda _k)\)-GDD of type \(2^{2^{n-1}-1}\) for \(k\in \{3,4,5,6,7\}\) where \(\lambda _k=\frac{\prod _{i=3}^{k-1}(2^n-2^i)}{(k-2)!}\) (Lee et al. in Des Codes Cryptogr,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10623-017-0395-8, 2017). They conjectured that \((X,{\mathcal {G}},{\mathcal {B}}_k)\) is also a \((k,\lambda _k)\)-GDD of type \(2^{2^{n-1}-1}\) for any integer \(k\ge 8\). In this paper, we use a similar construction and counting principles to show that there is a \((k,\lambda _k)\)-GDD of type \((q^2-q)^{(q^{n-1}-1)/(q-1)}\) for any prime power q and any integers k, n with \(3\le k\le n\) where \(\lambda _k=\frac{\prod _{i=3}^{k-1}(q^n-q^i)}{(k-2)!}\). Consequently, their conjecture holds. Such a method is also generalized to yield a \((k,\lambda _k)\)-GDD of type \((q^{\ell +1}-q^{\ell })^{(q^{n-\ell }-1)/(q-1)}\) where \(\lambda _k=\frac{\prod _{i=3}^{k-1}(q^n-q^{\ell +i-1})}{(k-2)!}\) and \(k+\ell \le n+1\).     

Groups with a ternary equivalence relation

We consider in a group \((G,\cdot )\) the ternary relation

$$\begin{aligned} \kappa := \{(\alpha , \beta , \gamma ) \in G^3 \ | \ \alpha \cdot \beta ^{-1} \cdot \gamma = \gamma \cdot \beta ^{-1} \cdot \alpha \} \end{aligned}$$

and show that \(\kappa \) is a ternary equivalence relation if and only if the set \( \mathfrak Z \) of centralizers of the group G forms a fibration of G (cf. Theorems 2, 3). Therefore G can be provided with an incidence structure

$$\begin{aligned} \mathfrak G:= \{\gamma \cdot Z \ | \ \gamma \in G , Z \in \mathfrak Z(G) \}. \end{aligned}$$

We study the automorphism group of \((G,\kappa )\), i.e. all permutations \(\varphi \) of the set G such that \( (\alpha , \beta , \gamma ) \in \kappa \) implies \((\varphi (\alpha ),\varphi (\beta ),\varphi (\gamma ))\in \kappa \). We show \(\mathrm{Aut}(G,\kappa )=\mathrm{Aut}(G,\mathfrak G)\), \(\mathrm{Aut} (G,\cdot ) \subseteq \mathrm{Aut}(G,\kappa )\) and if \( \varphi \in \mathrm{Aut}(G,\kappa )\) with \(\varphi (1)=1\) and \(\varphi (\xi ^{-1})= (\varphi (\xi ))^{-1}\) for all \(\xi \in G\) then \(\varphi \) is an automorphism of \((G,\cdot )\). This allows us to prove a representation theorem of \(\mathrm{Aut}(G,\kappa )\) (cf. Theorem 6) and that for \(\alpha \in G \) the maps

$$\begin{aligned} \tilde{\alpha }\ : \ G \rightarrow G;~ \xi \mapsto \alpha \cdot \xi ^{-1} \cdot \alpha \end{aligned}$$

of the corresponding reflection structure \((G, \widetilde{G})\) (with \( \tilde{G} := \{\tilde{\gamma }\ | \ \gamma \in G \}\)) are point reflections. If \((G ,\cdot )\) is uniquely 2-divisible and if for \(\alpha \in G\), \(\alpha ^{1\over 2}\) denotes the unique solution of \(\xi ^2=\alpha \) then with \(\alpha \odot \beta := \alpha ^{1\over 2} \cdot \beta \cdot \alpha ^{1\over 2}\), the pair \((G,\odot )\) is a K-loop (cf. Theorem 5).