On the irreducible action of PSL(2,R) on the 3-dimensional Einstein universe

In this paper, we study the irreducible representation of $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ in $\text{PSL}(5,\mathbb{R})$. This action preserves a quadratic form with signature $(2,3)$. Thus, it acts conformally on the 3-dimensional Einstein universe $\mathbb{E}{\mathrm{in}}^{1,2}$. We describe the orbits induced in $\mathbb{E}{\mathrm{in}}^{1,2}$ and its complement in $\mathbb{R}{\mathbb{P}}^4$. This work completes the study in [2], and is one element of the classification of cohomogeneity one actions on $\mathbb{E}{\mathrm{in}}^{1,2}$[5].     

Minimal homogeneous Steiner 2-(v,3) trades

A Steiner 2-$(v,3)$ trade is a pair $(T_1,T_2)$ of disjoint partial Steiner triple systems, each on the same set of $v$ points, such that each pair of points occurs in $T_1$ if and only if it occurs in $T_2$. A Steiner 2-$(v,3)$ trade is called d-homogeneous if each point occurs in exactly d blocks of $T_1$ (or $T_2$). In this paper we construct minimal d-homogeneous Steiner 2-$(v,3)$ trades of foundation $v$ and volume $\mathit{dv}/3$ for sufficiently large values of $v$. (Specifically, $v>3(1.75d^2+3)$ if $v$ is divisible by 3 and $v>d(4^{d/3+1}+1)$ otherwise.)     

A note on two source location problems

We consider Source Location ($\mathsf{SL}$) problems: given a capacitated network $G=(V,E)$, cost $c(v)$ and a demand $d(v)$ for every $v\in V$, choose a min-cost $S\subseteq V$ so that $\lambda (v,S)⩾d(v)$ holds for every $v\in V$, where $\lambda (v,S)$ is the maximum flow value from v to S. In the directed variant, we have demands $d^{\mathit{in}}(v)$ and $d^{\mathit{out}}(v)$ and we require $\lambda (S,v)⩾d^{\mathit{in}}(v)$ and $\lambda (v,S)⩾d^{\mathit{out}}(v)$. Undirected $\mathsf{SL}$ is (weakly) NP-hard on stars with $r(v)=0$ for all v except the center. But, it is known to be polynomially solvable for uniform costs and uniform demands. For general instances, both directed an undirected $\mathsf{SL}$ admit a $(\ln D+1)$-approximation algorithms, where D is the sum of the demands; up to constant this is tight, unless P = NP. We give a pseudopolynomial algorithm for undirected $\mathsf{SL}$ on trees with running time $O(|V|{\Delta }^3)$, where $\Delta ={\max }_{v\in V}d(v)$. This algorithm is used to derive a linear time algorithm for undirected $\mathsf{SL}$ with $\Delta ⩽3$. We also consider the Single Assignment Source Location ($\mathsf{SASL}$) where every $v\in V$ should be assigned to a single node $s(v)\in S$. While the undirected $\mathsf{SASL}$ is in P, we give a $(\ln |V|+1)$-approximation algorithm for the directed case, and show that this is tight, unless P = NP.     

On topological and geometric (194) configurations

An $\left(n_k\right)$ configuration is a set of  $n$ points and  $n$ lines such that each point lies on  $k$ lines while each line contains  $k$ points. The configuration is geometric, topological, or combinatorial depending on whether lines are considered to be straight lines, pseudolines, or just combinatorial lines. The existence and enumeration of $\left(n_k\right)$ configurations for a given  $k$ has been subject to active research. A current front of research concerns geometric $\left(n_4\right)$ configurations: it is now known that geometric $\left(n_4\right)$ configurations exist for all  $n\ge 18$, apart from sporadic exceptional cases. In this paper, we settle by computational techniques the first open case of $\left(19_4\right)$ configurations: we obtain all topological $\left(19_4\right)$ configurations among which none are geometrically realizable.