Related papers: Small transitive homogeneous $3$-$(v,\{4,6\},1)$ d…
In this paper the 3-way intersection problem for $S(2,4,v)$ designs is investigated. Let $b_{v}=\frac {v(v-1)}{12}$ and $I_{3}[v]=\{0,1,...,b_{v}\}\setminus\{b_{v}-7,b_{v}-6,b_{v}-5,b_{v}-4,b_{v}-3,b_{v}-2,b_{v}-1\}$. Let $J_{3}[v]=\{k|$…
A $(v, k, \lambda)$ symmetric design is said to have the symmetric difference property (SDP) if the symmetric difference of any three blocks is either a block or the complement of a block. Symmetric designs fulfilling this property have the…
It is clear that the full automorphism group of the $(15,8,4)$-design of points and hyperplane complements of ${\rm PG}(3,2)$ is ${\rm GL}(4,2)$. Using methods of point-line geometries, we determine the full automorphism groups of the…
In 1987, Huw Davies proved that, for a flag-transitive point-imprimitive $2$-$(v,k,\lambda)$ design, both the block-size $k$ and the number $v$ of points are bounded by functions of $\lambda$, but he did not make these bounds explicit. In…
In this paper, we provide a complete classification of $2$-$(v,k,2)$ design admitting a flag-transitive automorphism group of affine type with the only exception of the semilinear $1$-dimensional group. Alongside this analysis we provide a…
Let $\mathcal{D}$ be a non-trivial $G$-block-transitive $3$-$(v,k,1)$ design, where $T\leq G \leq \mathrm{Aut}(T)$ for some finite non-abelian simple group $T$. It is proved that if $T$ is a simple exceptional group of Lie type, then $T$ is…
A Ryser design $\mathcal{D}$ on $v$ points is a collection of $v$ proper subsets (called blocks) of a point-set with $v$ points satisfying (i) every two blocks intersect each other in $\lambda$ points for a fixed $\lambda < v$ (ii) there…
Let $\mathcal{D} = (\mathcal{P}, \mathcal{B})$ be a $2$-$(v, k, \lambda)$ design, and let $G$ be a half-flag-transitive automorphism group of ${\cal D}$. In this article, we first establish three sufficient conditions for $G$ to be…
In this paper we investigate the spectrum of super-simple 2-$(v,5,1)$ directed designs (or simply super-simple 2-$(v,5,1)$DDs) and also the size of their smallest defining sets. We show that for all $v\equiv1,5\ ({\rm mod}\ 10)$ except…
In this paper we develop several general methods for analysing flag-transitive point-imprimitive $2$-designs, which give restrictions on both the automorphisms and parameters of such designs. These constitute a tool-kit for analysing these…
Given five positive integers $v, m,k,\lambda$ and $t$ where $v \geq k \geq t$ and $v \geq m \geq t,$ a $t$-$(v,k,m,\lambda)$ general covering design is a pair $(X,\mathcal{B})$ where $X$ is a set of $v$ elements (called points) and…
In this article, we study $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting a flag-transitive automorphism group. The automorphism groups of these designs are point-primitive of almost simple or affine type. We determine $2$-designs with…
The study of symmetric configurations $v_3$ with block size 3 has a long and rich history. In this paper we consider two colouring problems which arise naturally in the study of these structures. The first of these is weak colouring, in…
In this article, we study symmetric designs admitting flag-transitive, point-imprimitive almost simple automorphism groups with socle sporadic simple groups. As a corollary, we present a classification of symmetric designs admitting…
In this paper we present the results from a program developed by the author that finds the unitals of the known 193 projective planes of order 25.. There are several planes for which we have not found any unital. One or more than one…
We investigate block designs, under the A- and MV-criteria, when each treatment can have only one or two replications due to resource constraints, as can happen, for example, in early generation varietal trials. While these are commonly…
A \textbf{single change covering design} is a $v$-set $X$ and an ordered list $\cL$ of $b$ blocks of size $k$ where every $t$-set must occur in at least one block. Each pair of consecutive blocks differs by exactly one element. A single…
In this paper, we completely classify the non-trivial 2-(v,k,3) designs admitting an almost simple, flag-transitive automorphism group with socle PSL(2,q).
An incidence structure consists simply of a set P of points and a set B of blocks, with a relation of incidence between points and blocks.A symmetric (v,k,\lambda) block design is the subject of this paper. The symmetric (n^2+n+1, n+1,1)…
We study point-block incidence structures $(\mathcal{P},\mathcal{B})$ for which the point set $\mathcal{P}$ is an $m\times n$ grid. Cameron and the fourth author showed that each block $B$ may be viewed as a subgraph of a complete bipartite…