Characterizations of the Suzuki tower near polygons

In recent work, we constructed a new near octagon $\mathcal{G}$ from certain involutions of the finite simple group $G_2(4)$ and showed a correspondence between the Suzuki tower of finite simple groups, $L_3(2) < U_3(3) < J_2 < G_2(4) < Suz$, and the tower of near polygons, $\mathrm{H}(2,1) \subset \mathrm{H}(2)^D \subset \mathsf{HJ} \subset \mathcal{G}$. Here we characterize each of these near polygons (except for the first one) as the unique near polygon of the given order and diameter containing an isometrically embedded copy of the previous near polygon of the tower. In particular, our characterization of the Hall-Janko near octagon $\mathsf{HJ}$ is similar to an earlier characterization due to Cohen and Tits who proved that it is the unique regular near octagon with parameters $(2, 4; 0, 3)$, but instead of regularity we assume existence of an isometrically embedded dual split Cayley hexagon, $\mathrm{H}(2)^D$. We also give a complete classification of near hexagons of order $(2, 2)$ and use it to prove the uniqueness result for $\mathrm{H}(2)^D$.Comment: 20 pages; some revisions based on referee reports; added more references; added remarks 1.4 and 1.5; corrected typos; improved the overall expositio

Zoology of Atlas-groups: dessins d'enfants, finite geometries and quantum commutation

Every finite simple group P can be generated by two of its elements. Pairs of generators for P are available in the Atlas of finite group representations as (not neccessarily minimal) permutation representations P. It is unusual but significant to recognize that a P is a Grothendieck's dessin d'enfant D and that most standard graphs and finite geometries G-such as near polygons and their generalizations-are stabilized by a D. In our paper, tripods P -- D -- G of rank larger than two, corresponding to simple groups, are organized into classes, e.g. symplectic, unitary, sporadic, etc (as in the Atlas). An exhaustive search and characterization of non-trivial point-line configurations defined from small index representations of simple groups is performed, with the goal to recognize their quantum physical significance. All the defined geometries G' s have a contextuality parameter close to its maximal value 1.Comment: 19 page

Dense near octagons with four points on each line, III

This is the third paper dealing with the classification of the dense near octagons of order (3, t). Using the partial classification of the valuations of the possible hexes obtained in [12], we are able to show that almost all such near octagons admit a big hex. Combining this with the results in [11], where we classified the dense near octagons of order (3, t) with a big hex, we get an incomplete classification for the dense near octagons of order (3, t): There are 28 known examples and a few open cases. For each open case, we have a rather detailed description of the structure of the near octagons involved

Geometric contextuality from the Maclachlan-Martin Kleinian groups

There are contextual sets of multiple qubits whose commutation is parametrized thanks to the coset geometry $\mathcal{G}$ of a subgroup $H$ of the two-generator free group $G=\left\langle x,y\right\rangle$. One defines geometric contextuality from the discrepancy between the commutativity of cosets on $\mathcal{G}$ and that of quantum observables.It is shown in this paper that Kleinian subgroups $K=\left\langle f,g\right\rangle$ that are non-compact, arithmetic, and generated by two elliptic isometries $f$ and $g$ (the Martin-Maclachlan classification), are appropriate contextuality filters. Standard contextual geometries such as some thin generalized polygons (starting with Mermin's $3 \times 3$ grid) belong to this frame. The Bianchi groups $PSL(2,O\_d)$, $d \in \{1,3\}$ defined over the imaginary quadratic field $O\_d=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-d})$ play a special role

A new near octagon and the Suzuki tower

We construct and study a new near octagon of order $(2,10)$ which has its full automorphism group isomorphic to the group $\mathrm{G}_2(4){:}2$ and which contains $416$ copies of the Hall-Janko near octagon as full subgeometries. Using this near octagon and its substructures we give geometric constructions of the $\mathrm{G}_2(4)$-graph and the Suzuki graph, both of which are strongly regular graphs contained in the Suzuki tower. As a subgeometry of this octagon we have discovered another new near octagon, whose order is $(2,4)$.Comment: 24 pages, revised version with added remarks and reference

On semi-finite hexagons of order (2,t)(2, t) containing a subhexagon

The research in this paper was motivated by one of the most important open problems in the theory of generalized polygons, namely the existence problem for semi-finite thick generalized polygons. We show here that no semi-finite generalized hexagon of order $(2,t)$ can have a subhexagon $H$ of order $2$. Such a subhexagon is necessarily isomorphic to the split Cayley generalized hexagon $H(2)$ or its point-line dual $H^D(2)$. In fact, the employed techniques allow us to prove a stronger result. We show that every near hexagon $\mathcal{S}$ of order $(2,t)$ which contains a generalized hexagon $H$ of order $2$ as an isometrically embedded subgeometry must be finite. Moreover, if $H \cong H^D(2)$ then $\mathcal{S}$ must also be a generalized hexagon, and consequently isomorphic to either $H^D(2)$ or the dual twisted triality hexagon $T(2,8)$.Comment: 21 pages; new corrected proofs of Lemmas 4.6 and 4.7; earlier proofs worked for generalized hexagons but not near hexagon