Segre's hemisystem and McLaughlin's graph (Q2427562)

The incidence structure of all points and lines of a non-singular Hermitian surface in \(PG(3,q^2)\) is a generalized quadrangle of order \((q^2,q)\), denoted by \(\mathcal{H}(3,q^2)\). A \textit{regular system of order m} (\(0<m<q+1\)) is a set \(\mathcal{R}\) of lines in \(\mathcal{H}(3,q^2)\) such that every point lies on exacty \(m\) lines of \(\mathcal{R}\). It was shown by B. Segre that if \(q\) is odd then \(\mathcal{R}\) must have order \(m=(q+1)/2\). He called a regular system of \(\mathcal{H}(3,q^2)\) or order \((q+1)/2\) a \textit{hemisystem} of \(\mathcal{H}(3,q^2)\). In this paper the authors provide an alternative construction of Segre's hemisystem \(\mathcal{H}(3,9)\) by investigating the action of the linear groups \(PSL_2(7)<PSU_3(9)\) on generators of \(\mathcal{H}(3,9)\). They also give an alternative construction of the McLaughlin's graph (and so the sporadic simple group \(McL\)) in terms of Segre's hemisystem.