Nonexistence of sparse triple systems over abelian groups and involutions

In 1973 Paul Erdős conjectured that there is an integer v ₀(r) such that, for every v>v ₀(r) and v≡1,3 (mod 6), there exists a Steiner triple system of order v, containing no i blocks on i+2 points for every 1<i≤r. Such an STS is said to be r-sparse. In this paper we consider relations of automorphisms of an STS to its sparseness. We show that for every r≥13 there exists no point-transitive r-sparse STS over an abelian group. This bound and the classification of transitive groups give further nonexistence results on block-transitive, flag-transitive, 2-transitive, and 2-homogeneous STSs with high sparseness. We also give stronger bounds on the sparseness of STSs having some particular automorphisms with small groups. As a corollary of these results, it is shown that various well-known automorphisms, such as cyclic, 1-rotational over arbitrary groups, and involutions, prevent an STS from being high-sparse.