On divisible designs and local algebras

We study the action of the group PGL(m,A) on the projective space PG(m − 1,A) over a finite commutative local algebra A in order to construct a class of divisible designs, denoted by D_m(d,A), which is the classical one of 2-designs (of points and of flats of fixed projective dimension) in the case where A is a field. We also study the constructed divisible designs with particular care for the case where d = m − 1. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.