The Frobenius number and partitions of a finite vector space (Q1057338)

A partition of a vector space is a partition of the nonzero vectors into disjoint subspaces. \textit{A. Beutelspacher} [ibid. 31, 202-208 (1978; Zbl 0377.50006)] introduced the concept of T-partition as a generalization of the notion of a (t-1) spread. In the present paper the author investigates T-partitions of vector spaces over a finite field GF(q). Specifically, if \(T=\{t_ 1,t_ 2,...,t_ k\}\) is a set of positive integers with \(t_ 1<t_ 2<...<t_ k\), then the partition \(\pi\) of V (n,q) \((=\) the vector space of dimension n over GF(q)) is called a T- partition provided (i) for any subspace \(W\in \pi\), \(\dim_ qW\in T\), and (ii) for any \(t\in T\) there is a \(W\in \pi\) with \(\dim_ qW=t\). For positive integers \(a_ 1,a_ 2,...,a_ k\) let \(g(a_ 1,a_ 2,...,a_ k)\) denote the Frobenius number, and for a set of positive integers \(T=\{t_ 1,t_ 2,...,t_ k\}\) let N(T,q) be the least integer such that if \(n>N(T,q)\) and \(d=\gcd (t_ 1,t_ 2,...,t_ k)\) is a divisor of n then V(n,q) has a T-partition. The main results in this paper are \((1)\quad N(T,q)\leq d\cdot g(t_ 1/d,...,t_ k/d)+t_{k- 2}+t_{k-1}+t_ k,\) and (2) if \(t_ 1<t_{k-1}/2\) or k-2\(\leq 2(q-1)\) then \(N(T,q)\leq d\cdot g(t_ 1/d,...,t_ k/d)+t_{k-1}+t_ k.\) These results are improvements (in the finite case) of a result of Beutelspacher (see the paper refered to above). The paper also contains several other results related to Beutelspacher's work.