Proper partial linear spaces affording imprimitive rank 3 automorphism groups

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Baykalov, Anton A., Devillers, Alice, Praeger, Cheryl E.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918134659678208
author Baykalov, Anton A.
Devillers, Alice
Praeger, Cheryl E.
author_facet Baykalov, Anton A.
Devillers, Alice
Praeger, Cheryl E.
contents A partial linear space is a point--line incidence structure such that each line is incident with at least two points and each pair of points is incident with at most one line. It is said to be proper if there exists at least one non-collinear point pair, and at least one line incident with more than two points. The highest degree of symmetry for a proper partial linear space occurs when the automorphism group $G$ is transitive on ordered pairs of collinear points, and on ordered pairs of non-collinear points, that is to say, $G$ is a transitive rank $3$ group on the points. While the primitive rank 3 partial linear spaces are essentially classified, we present the first substantial classification of a family of imprimitive rank $3$ examples. We classify all imprimitive rank $3$ proper partial linear spaces such that the rank $3$ group is semiprimitive. In particular, this includes all partial linear spaces with a rank 3 imprimitive automorphism group that is innately transitive or quasiprimitive. We construct several infinite families of examples and ten individual examples. The examples in the infinite families admit a rank $3$ action of a linear or unitary group, and to our knowledge most of these examples have not appeared before in the literature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_05124
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Proper partial linear spaces affording imprimitive rank 3 automorphism groups
Baykalov, Anton A.
Devillers, Alice
Praeger, Cheryl E.
Group Theory
Combinatorics
20B25, 05B30, 51E30
A partial linear space is a point--line incidence structure such that each line is incident with at least two points and each pair of points is incident with at most one line. It is said to be proper if there exists at least one non-collinear point pair, and at least one line incident with more than two points. The highest degree of symmetry for a proper partial linear space occurs when the automorphism group $G$ is transitive on ordered pairs of collinear points, and on ordered pairs of non-collinear points, that is to say, $G$ is a transitive rank $3$ group on the points. While the primitive rank 3 partial linear spaces are essentially classified, we present the first substantial classification of a family of imprimitive rank $3$ examples. We classify all imprimitive rank $3$ proper partial linear spaces such that the rank $3$ group is semiprimitive. In particular, this includes all partial linear spaces with a rank 3 imprimitive automorphism group that is innately transitive or quasiprimitive. We construct several infinite families of examples and ten individual examples. The examples in the infinite families admit a rank $3$ action of a linear or unitary group, and to our knowledge most of these examples have not appeared before in the literature.
title Proper partial linear spaces affording imprimitive rank 3 automorphism groups
topic Group Theory
Combinatorics
20B25, 05B30, 51E30
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05124