English

On flag-transitive automorphism groups of $2$-designs with $\lambda$ prime

Group Theory 2025-05-09 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

In this article, we study 22-(v,k,λ)(v,k,\lambda) designs D\mathcal{D} with λ\lambda prime admitting flag-transitive and point-primitive almost simple automorphism groups GG with socle TT a finite exceptional simple group or a sporadic simple groups. If the socle of GG is a finite exceptional simple group, then we prove that D\mathcal{D} is isomorphic to one of two infinite families of 22-designs with point-primitive automorphism groups, one is the Suzuki-Tits ovoid design with parameter set (v,b,r,k,λ)=(q2+1,q2(q2+1)/(q1),q2,q,q1)(v,b,r,k,\lambda)=(q^{2}+1,q^{2}(q^{2}+1)/(q-1),q^{2},q,q-1) design, where q1q-1 is a Mersenne prime, and the other is newly constructed in this paper and has parameter set (v,b,r,k,λ)=(q3(q31)/2,(q+1)(q61),(q+1)(q3+1),q3/2,q+1)(v,b,r,k,\lambda)=(q^{3}(q^{3}-1)/2,(q+1)(q^{6}-1),(q+1)(q^{3}+1),q^{3}/2,q+1), where q+1q+1 a Fermat prime. If TT is a sporadic simple group, then we show that D\mathcal{D} is isomorphic to a unique design admitting a point-primitive automorphism group with parameter set (v,b,r,k,λ)=(176,1100,50,2)(v,b,r,k,\lambda)=(176,1100,50,2), (12,22,11,6,5)(12,22,11,6,5) or (22,77,21,6,5)(22,77,21,6,5).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.04985,
  title  = {On flag-transitive automorphism groups of $2$-designs with $\lambda$ prime},
  author = {Seyed Hassan Alavi and Ashraf Daneshkhah and Alessandro Montinaro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.04985},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:25:22.323Z