J. W. P. Hirschfeld - Böcker

This book is an account of the combinatorics of projective spaces over a finite field, with special emphasis on one and two dimensions. With its successor volumes, Finite projective spaces over three dimensions (1985), which is devoted to three dimensions, and General Galois geometries (1991), on a general dimension, it provides a comprehensive treatise of this area of mathematics. The area is interesting in itself, but is important for its applications to coding theory and statistics, and its use of group theory, algebraic geometry, and number theory. This edition is a complete reworking of the first edition. The chapters bear almost the same titles as the first edition, but every chapter has been changed. The most significant changes are to Chapters 2, 10, 12, 13, which respectively describe generalities, the geometry of arcs in ovals, the geometry of arcs of higher degree, and blocking sets. The book is divided into three parts. The first part comprises two chapters, the first of which is a survey of finite fields; the second outlines the fundamental properties of projective spaces and their automorphisms, as well as properties of algebraic varieties and curves, in particular, that are used in the rest of the book and the accompanying two volumes. Parts II and III are entirely self-contained; all proofs of results are given. The second part comprises Chapters 3 to 5. They cover, in an arbitrary dimension, the properties of subspaces such as their number and characterization, of partitions into both subspaces and subgeometries, and of quadrics and Hermitian varieties, as well as polarities. Part III is a detailed account of the line and the plane. In the plane, fundamental properties are first revisited without much resort to the generalities of Parts I and II. Then, the structure of arcs and their relation to curves is described; this includes arcs both of degree two and higher degrees. There are further chapters on blocking sets and on small planes, which means of orders up to thirteen. A comprehensive bibliography of more than 3000 items is provided. At the end of each chapter is a section, Notes and References, which attributes proofs, includes further comments, and lists every relevant reference from the bibliography.

This volume is a successor to the title listed below. This book restricts itself to three dimensions and considers both those topics which are analogues of geometry over the complex numbers and topics arising out of the modern theory of incidence structures.

This volume comprises papers presented at the Third Isle of Thorns Conference on Finite Geometries and Designs. The papers explore the structure and associated incidence structures of Galois geometries, and their related automorphism groups.Amongst the main topics covered are generalized quadrangles and n-gons, groups acting on geometries, linear spaces, partial geometries, diagram geometries, non-Desarguesian planes, strongly regular graphs, and designs.

The British Combinatorial Conference is held every two years and is now a key event for mathematicians worldwide, working in combinatorics. This volume is published on the occasion of the 18th meeting, which was held 1st-6th July 2001 at the University of Sussex. The papers contained here are surveys contributed by the invited speakers, and are thus of a quality befitting the event. There is also a tribute to Crispin Nash-Williams, past chairman of the British Combinatorial Committee. The diversity of the subjects covered means that this will be a valuable reference for researchers in combinatorics. However, graduate students will also find much here that could be of use for stimulating future research.

Originally published in 1981, this collection of 33 research papers follows from a conference on the interwoven themes of finite Desarguesian spaces, Steiner systems, coding theory, group theory, block designs, generalized quadrangles, and projective planes. There is a comprehensive introduction, which aims to interest the non-specialist in the subject and which indicates how the contributions fit together. This is a field of research pursued both for its intrinsic interest and its applications. These papers include a number of open problems whose statement requires very little mathematical sophistication.

This volume presents up-to-date research on finite geometries and designs, a key area in modern applicable mathematics. An introductory chapter discusses topics presented in each of the main chapters, and is followed by articles from leading international figures in this field. These include a discussion of the current state of finite geometry from a group-theoretical viewpoint, and surveys of difference sets and of small embeddings of partial cycle systems into Steiner triple systems. Also presented are successful searches for spreads and packing of designs, rank three geometries with simplicial residues and generalized quadrangles satisfying Veblen's Axiom. In addition, there are articles on new 7-designs, biplanes, various aspects of triple systems, and many other topics. This book will be a useful reference for researchers working in finite geometries, design theory or combinatorics in general.