Partitions of finite vector spaces into subspaces

Let V_n(q) denote a vector space of dimension n over the field with q elements. A set of subspaces of V_n(q) is a partition of V_n(q) if every nonzero element of V_n(q) is contained in exactly one element of . Suppose there exists a partition of V_n(q) into x_i subspaces of dimension n_i, 1 ≤ i ≤ k. Then x₁, …, x_k satisfy the Diophantine equation . However, not every solution of the Diophantine equation corresponds to a partition of V_n(q). In this article, we show that there exists a partition of V_n(2) into x subspaces of dimension 3 and y subspaces of dimension 2 if and only if 7x + 3y = 2ⁿ ? 1 and y ≠ 1. In doing so, we introduce techniques useful in constructing further partitions. We also show that partitions of V_n(q) induce uniformly resolvable designs on qⁿ points. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 329–341, 2008