On the existence of translation nets (Q1204414)

A net of order \(s\) and degree \(r\) (an \((s,r)\)-net for short) is an incidence structure with parallelism satisfying the following axioms: i) Any two points are joined by at most one line. ii) Given any point-line pair \((v,l)\), there is a unique line \(l^*\) with \(l\| l^*\) and \(v\in l^*\). iii) Any two nonparallel lines meet in a unique point. iv) There exist \(r\geq 3\) parallel classes, each consisting of \(s\) lines. A translation net of order \(s\) and degree \(r\) is a pair \((N,G)\), where \(N\) is an \((s,r)\)-net and \(G\leq\text{Aut}(N)\) is an automorphism group of \(N\) acting regularly on the points of \(N\) which fixes each parallel class of \(N\). A partial congruence partition with parameters \(s\) and \(r\) (an \((s,r)-PCP\), for short) is a set \({\mathcal H}=\{H_ 1,H_ 2,\dots,H_ r\}\), \(r\geq 3\), of subgroups of order \(s\) in a group \(G\) of order \(s^ 2\) such that \(H_ i=H_ j=G\) for all \(i\neq j\). It is well known that if \({\mathcal H}\) is an \((s,r)-PCP\) in a group \(G\), then the cosets of the subgroups in \({\mathcal H}\) form an \((s,r)\)-translation net with translation group \(G\), and conversely every translation net can be represented in this way. In the paper under review the author determines all groups of order \(p^ 4\) \((p\) a prime number) which admit a \((p^ 2,r)-PCP\) with \(r\geq 3\). The key ingredient is the following ``Factorization Lemma'': Let \(G\) be a group of order \(s^ 2\), and let \(N\) be a normal subgroup of \(G\). Let \({\mathcal H}\) be an \((s,r)-PCP\) in \(G\) for some \(r\geq 3\). Assume that \(N=(H\cap N)(K\cap N)\) for all distinct subgroups \(H,K\) in \({\mathcal H}\). Then a) \(o(N)=n^ 2\) for some positive integer \(n\). b) \(\{H\cap N:H\in{\mathcal H}\}\) is an \((n,r)-PCP\) in \(N\). c) \(\{HN/N:H\in{\mathcal H}\}\) is an \((s/n,r)-PCP\) in \(G/N\). A theorem of \textit{D. Frohardt} [J. Algebra 107, 153-159 (1987; Zbl 0612.20011)] states that if \(G\) is a group of order \(4k^ 2\), for some \(k>4\), that contains a \((2k,k)-PCP\), then \(G\) is an elementary abelian 2- group. By generalizing this result, the author is able to bound the number \(r\) of parallel classes in a translation net \((N,G)\), where \(G\) is a \(p\)-group of order \(p^{2n}\). Namely, if \(G\) is not elementary abelian, then \(r<p^{n-1}\) for \(n\geq 4\), and \(r\leq p^ 2+1\) if \(n=3\) and \(p\) is odd. Finally, it is shown that if \(p\) is an odd prime and \(G\) is the special group of order \(p^ 6\) with exponent \(p\) and center of order \(p^ 2\), then \(G\) admits a \((p^ 3,p^ 2+1)-PCP\) and hence the above bound for \(n=3\) is sharp.