3-nets realizing a diassociative loop in a projective plane

A \textit{$3$-net} of order $n$ is a finite incidence structure consisting of points and three pairwise disjoint classes of lines, each of size $n$, such that every point incident with two lines from distinct classes is incident with exactly one line from each of the three classes. The current interest around $3$-nets (embedded) in a projective plane $PG(2,K)$, defined over a field $K$ of characteristic $p$, arose from algebraic geometry. It is not difficult to find $3$-nets in $PG(2,K)$ as far as $0<p\le n$. However, only a few infinite families of $3$-nets in $PG(2,K)$ are known to exist whenever $p=0$, or $p>n$. Under this condition, the known families are characterized as the only $3$-nets in $PG(2,K)$ which can be coordinatized by a group. In this paper we deal with $3$-nets in $PG(2,K)$ which can be coordinatized by a diassociative loop $G$ but not by a group. We prove two structural theorems on $G$. As a corollary, if $G$ is commutative then every non-trivial element of $G$ has the same order, and $G$ has exponent $2$ or $3$. We also discuss the existence problem for such $3$-nets

The classification of flag-transitive Steiner 3-designs

We solve the long-standing open problem of classifying all 3-(v,k,1) designs with a flag-transitive group of automorphisms (cf. A. Delandtsheer, Geom. Dedicata 41 (1992), p. 147; and in: "Handbook of Incidence Geometry", ed. by F. Buekenhout, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 1995, p. 273; but presumably dating back to 1965). Our result relies on the classification of the finite 2-transitive permutation groups.Comment: 27 pages; to appear in the journal "Advances in Geometry

Almost simple groups with socle Ln(q)L_n(q) acting on Steiner quadruple systems

Let $N=L_n(q)$, {$n \geq 2$}, $q$ a prime power, be a projective linear simple group. We classify all Steiner quadruple systems admitting a group $G$ with N \leq G \leq \Aut(N). In particular, we show that $G$ cannot act as a group of automorphisms on any Steiner quadruple system for $n>2$.Comment: 5 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A

On surfaces of general type with pg=q=1,K2=3p_g=q=1, K^2=3

The moduli space $\mathscr{M}$ of surfaces of general type with $p_g=q=1, K^2=g=3$ (where $g$ is the genus of the Albanese fibration) was constructed by Catanese and Ciliberto in \cite{CaCi93}. In this paper we characterize the subvariety $\mathscr{M}_2 \subset \mathscr{M}$ corresponding to surfaces containing a genus 2 pencil, and moreover we show that there exists a non-empty, dense subset $\mathscr{M}^0 \subset \mathscr{M}$ which parametrizes isomorphism classes of surfaces with birational bicanonical map.Comment: 35 pages. To appear in Collectanea Mathematic