Translation groups of Steiner loops

If the order of any product of two different translations of a finite Steiner quasigroup of size n>3 is odd, then the group G generated by the translations of the corresponding Steiner loop of order n+1 contains the alternating group of degree n+1.     

Semi-planar Steiner loops of cardinality 2n

It is well known that there is a planar sloop of cardinality n for each n≡2 or 4 (mod 6) (Math. Z. 111 (1969) 289–300). A semi-planar sloop is a simple sloop in which each triangle either generates the whole sloop or the 8-element sloop. In fact, Quackenbush (Canad. J. Math. 28 (1976) 1187–1198) has stated that there should be such semi-planar sloops. In this paper, we construct a semi-planar sloop of cardinality 2n for each n≡2 or 4 (mod 6). Consequently, we may say that there is a semi-planar sloop that is not planar of cardinality m for each m>16 and m≡4 or 8 (mod 12). Moreover, Quackenbush (Canad. J. Math. 28 (1976) 1187–1198) has proved that each finite simple planar sloop generates a variety, which covers the smallest non-trivial subvariety (the variety of all Boolean sloops) of the lattice of the subvarieties of all sloops. Similarly, it is easy to show that each finite semi-planar sloop generates another variety, which also covers the variety of all Boolean sloops. Furthermore, for any finite simple sloop of cardinality n, the author (Beiträge Algebra Geom. 43 (2) (2002) 325–331) has constructed a subdirectly irreducible sloop of cardinality 2n and containing as the only proper normal subsloop. Accordingly, if is a semi-planar sloop, then the variety generated by properly contains the subvariety .     

Nilpotent Steiner skeins with nilpotent derived Steiner loops

Armanious and Guelzow obtained the structure theorem of finite nilpotent Steiner skeins. Guelzow gave a construction of a Steiner skein of nilpotence class n with all its derived Steiner loops of nilpotence class 1. Armanious gave a construction for Steiner skeins of nilpotence class n with all its derived Steiner loops of nilpotence class n. In this article we survey the main results on nilpotent Steiner skeins and give a new and simple construction, in the form of polynomials, for Steiner skeins of nilpotence class n with all its derived Steiner loops of nilpotence class n. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 8: 232–238, 2000     

Some new perfect Steiner triple systems

In a Steiner triple system STS(v) = (V, B), for each pair {a, b} ⊂ V, the cycle graph G_a,b can be defined as follows. The vertices of G_a,b are V \ {a, b, c} where {a, b, c} ∈ B. {x, y} is an edge if either {a, x, y} or {b, x, y} ∈ B. The Steiner triple system is said to be perfect if the cycle graph of every pair is a single (v − 3)-cycle. Perfect STS(v) are known only for v = 7, 9, 25, and 33. We construct perfect STS (v) for v = 79, 139, 367, 811, 1531, 25771, 50923, 61339, and 69991. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 7: 327–330, 1999     

Steiner triple systems with two disjoint subsystems

It is shown that there exists a triangle decomposition of the graph obtained from the complete graph of order v by removing the edges of two vertex disjoint complete subgraphs of orders u and w if and only if u,w, and v are odd, (mod 3), and . Such decompositions are equivalent to group divisible designs with block size 3, one group of size u, one group of size w, and v – u – w groups of size 1. This result settles the existence problem for Steiner triple systems having two disjoint specified subsystems, thereby generalizing the well‐known theorem of Doyen and Wilson on the existence of Steiner triple systems with a single specified subsystem. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs     

On semi-planar Steiner quasigroups

A Steiner triple system (briefly ST) is in 1-1 correspondence with a Steiner quasigroup or squag (briefly SQ) [B. Ganter, H. Werner, Co-ordinatizing Steiner systems, Ann. Discrete Math. 7 (1980) 3-24; C.C. Lindner, A. Rosa, Steiner quadruple systems: A survey, Discrete Math. 21 (1979) 147-181]. It is well known that for each n≡1 or 3 (mod 6) there is a planar squag of cardinality n [J. Doyen, Sur la structure de certains systems triples de Steiner, Math. Z. 111 (1969) 289-300]. Quackenbush expected that there should also be semi-planar squags [R.W. Quackenbush, Varieties of Steiner loops and Steiner quasigroups, Canad. J. Math. 28 (1976) 1187-1198]. A simple squag is semi-planar if every triangle either generates the whole squag or the 9-element squag. The first author has constructed a semi-planar squag of cardinality 3n for all n>3 and n≡1 or 3 (mod 6) [M.H. Armanious, Semi-planar Steiner quasigroups of cardinality 3n, Australas. J. Combin. 27 (2003) 13-27]. In fact, this construction supplies us with semi-planar squags having only nontrivial subsquags of cardinality 9. Our aim in this article is to give a recursive construction as n→3n for semi-planar squags. This construction permits us to construct semi-planar squags having nontrivial subsquags of cardinality >9. Consequently, we may say that there are semi-planar (or semi-planar ) for each positive integer m and each n≡1 or 3 (mod 6) with n>3 having only medial subsquags at most of cardinality 3^ν (sub-) for each ν∈{1,2,…,m+1}.     

On the Binary Codes of Steiner Triple Systems

The binary code spanned by the rows of the point byblock incidence matrix of a Steiner triple system STS(v)is studied. A sufficient condition for such a code to containa unique equivalence class of STS(v)'s of maximalrank within the code is proved. The code of the classical Steinertriple system defined by the lines in PG(n-1,2)(n3), or AG(n,3) (n3) is shown to contain exactly v codewordsof weight r=(v-1)/2, hence the system is characterizedby its code. In addition, the code of the projective STS(2ⁿ-1)is characterized as the unique (up to equivalence) binary linearcode with the given parameters and weight distribution. In general,the number of STS(v)'s contained in the code dependson the geometry of the codewords of weight r. Itis demonstrated that the ovals and hyperovals of the definingSTS(v) play a crucial role in this geometry. Thisrelation is utilized for the construction of some infinite classesof Steiner triple systems without ovals.     

On 6-sparse Steiner triple systems

We give the first known examples of 6-sparse Steiner triple systems by constructing 29 such systems in the residue class 7 modulo 12, with orders ranging from 139 to 4447. We then present a recursive construction which establishes the existence of 6-sparse systems for an infinite set of orders. Observations are also made concerning existing construction methods for perfect Steiner triple systems, and we give a further example of such a system. This has order 135,859 and is only the fourteenth known. Finally, we present a uniform Steiner triple system of order 180,907.     

Steiner triple systems with disjoint or intersecting subsystems

The existence of incomplete Steiner triple systems of order υ having holes of orders w and u meeting in z elements is examined, with emphasis on the disjoint (z = 0) and intersecting (z = 1) cases. When and , the elementary necessary conditions are shown to be sufficient for all values of z. Then for and υ “near” the minimum of , the conditions are again shown to be sufficient. Consequences for larger orders are also discussed, in particular the proof that when one hole is at least three times as large as the other, the conditions are again sufficient. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 8: 58–77, 2000     

Colouring Cubic Graphs by Small Steiner Triple Systems

Given a Steiner triple system , we say that a cubic graph G is -colourable if its edges can be coloured by points of in such way that the colours of any three edges meeting at a vertex form a triple of . We prove that there is Steiner triple system of order 21 which is universal in the sense that every simple cubic graph is -colourable. This improves the result of Grannell et al. [J. Graph Theory 46 (2004), 15–24] who found a similar system of order 381. On the other hand, it is known that any universal Steiner triple system must have order at least 13, and it has been conjectured that this bound is sharp (Holroyd and Škoviera [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 91 (2004), 57–66]). Research partially supported by APVT, project 51-027604. Research partially supported by VEGA, grant 1/3022/06.     

Shortest single axioms for commutative moufang loops of exponent 3

In this note, we attempt to find all shortest single product axioms for commutative Moufang loops of exponent 3. These investigations were aided by the automated theorem-prover Prover9 and the model-generator Mace4.     

Extension of Gravity Centers Configuration to Steiner TripleSystems

The centers of gravity of a simplex in a rational affinespace and its subsimplices form a semilinear space. For thisconfiguration several extensions to Steiner triple systems withthe same point set are constructed by using totally symmetricloops.     

The Automorphism Groups of Steiner Triple Systems Obtained by the Bose Construction

The automorphism group of the Steiner triple system of order v 3 (mod 6), obtained from the Bose construction using any Abelian Group G of order 2s + 1, is determined. The main result is that if G is not isomorphic to Z ₃ ⁿ × Z ₉ ^m , n 0, m 0, the full automorphism group is isomorphic to Hol(G) × Z ₃, where Hol(G) is the Holomorph of G. If G is isomorphic to Z ₃ ⁿ × Z ₉ ^m , further automorphisms occur, and these are described in full.     

The Fine Intersection Problem for Steiner Triple Systems

The intersection of two Steiner triple systems and is the set . The fine intersection problem for Steiner triple systems is to determine for each v, the set I(v), consisting of all possible pairs (m, n) such that there exist two Steiner triple systems of order v whose intersection satisfies and . We show that for v ≡ 1 or 3 (mod 6), |I(v)| = Θ(v ³), where previous results only imply that |I(v)| = Ω(v ²). Received: January 23, 2006. Final Version received: September 2, 2006     

Point Code Minimum Steiner Triple Systems

The point code of a Steiner triple system uniquely determines the system when the number of vectors whose weight equals the replication number agrees with the number of points. The existence of a Steiner triple system with this minimum point code property is established for all v 1,3 (mod 6) with v 15.     

Linearly Derived Steiner Triple Systems

We attach a graph to every Steiner triple system. The chromatic number of this graph is related to the possibility of extending the triple system to a quadruple system. For example, the triple systems with chromatic number one are precisely the classical systems of points and lines of a projective geometry over the two-element field, the Hall triple systems have chromatic number three (and, as is well-known, are extendable) and all Steiner triple systems whose graph has chromatic number two are extendable. We also give a configurational characterization of the Hall triple systems in terms of mitres.     

The Steiner triple systems of order 19

Using an orderly algorithm, the Steiner triple systems of order are classified; there are pairwise nonisomorphic such designs. For each design, the order of its automorphism group and the number of Pasch configurations it contains are recorded; of the designs are anti-Pasch. There are three main parts of the classification: constructing an initial set of blocks, the seeds; completing the seeds to triple systems with an algorithm for exact cover; and carrying out isomorph rejection of the final triple systems. Isomorph rejection is based on the graph canonical labeling software nauty supplemented with a vertex invariant based on Pasch configurations. The possibility of using the (strongly regular) block graphs of these designs in the isomorphism tests is utilized. The aforementioned value is in fact a lower bound on the number of pairwise nonisomorphic strongly regular graphs with parameters .

     

Caps and Colouring Steiner Triple Systems

Hill [6] showed that the largest cap in PG(5,3) has cardinality 56. Using this cap it is easy to construct a cap of cardinality 45 in AG(5,3). Here we show that the size of a cap in AG(5,3) is bounded above by 48. We also give an example of three disjoint 45-caps in AG(5,3). Using these two results we are able to prove that the Steiner triple system AG(5,3) is 6-chromatic, and so we exhibit the first specific example of a 6-chromatic Steiner triple system.