2,653 research outputs found
A Census Of Highly Symmetric Combinatorial Designs
As a consequence of the classification of the finite simple groups, it has
been possible in recent years to characterize Steiner t-designs, that is
t-(v,k,1) designs, mainly for t = 2, admitting groups of automorphisms with
sufficiently strong symmetry properties. However, despite the finite simple
group classification, for Steiner t-designs with t > 2 most of these
characterizations have remained longstanding challenging problems. Especially,
the determination of all flag-transitive Steiner t-designs with 2 < t < 7 is of
particular interest and has been open for about 40 years (cf. [11, p. 147] and
[12, p. 273], but presumably dating back to 1965). The present paper continues
the author's work [20, 21, 22] of classifying all flag-transitive Steiner
3-designs and 4-designs. We give a complete classification of all
flag-transitive Steiner 5-designs and prove furthermore that there are no
non-trivial flag-transitive Steiner 6-designs. Both results rely on the
classification of the finite 3-homogeneous permutation groups. Moreover, we
survey some of the most general results on highly symmetric Steiner t-designs.Comment: 26 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics
The Classification of Flag-transitive Steiner 4-Designs
Among the properties of homogeneity of incidence structures flag-transitivity
obviously is a particularly important and natural one. Consequently, in the
last decades also flag-transitive Steiner tdesigns (i.e. flag-transitive
t-(v,k,1) designs) have been investigated, whereas only by the use of the
classification of the finite simple groups has it been possible in recent years
to essentially characterize all flag-transitive Steiner 2-designs. However,
despite the finite simple group classification, for Steiner t-designs with
parameters t > 2 such characterizations have remained challenging open problems
for about 40 years (cf. [11, p. 147] and [12, p. 273], but presumably dating
back to around 1965). The object of the present paper is to give a complete
classification of all flag-transitive Steiner 4-designs. Our result relies on
the classification of the finite doubly transitive permutation groups and is a
continuation of the author's work [20, 21] on the classification of all
flag-transitive Steiner 3-designs.Comment: 26 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics
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