English

Minimal blocking sets in PG(n,2) and covering groups by subgroups

Group Theory 2007-08-20 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

In this paper we prove that a set of points BB of PG(n,2) is a minimal blocking set if and only if <B>=PG(d,2)<B>=PG(d,2) with dd odd and BB is a set of d+2d+2 points of PG(d,2)PG(d,2) no d+1d+1 of them in the same hyperplane. As a corollary to the latter result we show that if GG is a finite 2-group and nn is a positive integer, then GG admits a Cn+1\mathfrak{C}_{n+1}-cover if and only if nn is even and G(C2)nG\cong (C_2)^{n}, where by a Cm\mathfrak{C}_m-cover for a group HH we mean a set C\mathcal{C} of size mm of maximal subgroups of HH whose set-theoretic union is the whole HH and no proper subset of C\mathcal{C} has the latter property and the intersection of the maximal subgroups is core-free. Also for all n<10n<10 we find all pairs (m,p)(m,p) (m>0m>0 an integer and pp a prime number) for which there is a blocking set BB of size nn in PG(m,p)PG(m,p) such that <B>=PG(m,p)<B>=PG(m,p).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.2282,
  title  = {Minimal blocking sets in PG(n,2) and covering groups by subgroups},
  author = {Alireza Abdollahi and M. J. Ataei and A. Mohammadi Hassanabadi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.2282},
  year   = {2007}
}
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