Composed designs (Q1299095)

Let \(({\mathbf P},{\mathbf B})\) be a \(t\)-\((v,k,1)\) design, i.e. a Steiner system \(S(t,k,v)\), and \(({\mathbf P'},{\mathbf B'})\) a \(t\)-\((k,h,\lambda)\) design. For any \(B \in {\mathbf B}\) fix a bijection \(f_B : {\mathbf B'} \rightarrow B\); so \((B, f_B({\mathbf B'}))\) is a design isomorphic to \(({\mathbf P}',{\mathbf B}')\). Now put \({\mathbf B''} := \{ f_B(B') \mid B \in {\mathbf B}\), \(B' \in {\mathbf B'}\}\). Then \(({\mathbf P},{\mathbf B''})\) is a \(t\)-\((v,k,\lambda)\) design, which will be called composed of \(({\mathbf P},{\mathbf B})\) and \(({\mathbf P}',{\mathbf B'})\) and which will be written as \(({\mathbf P},{\mathbf B}) \circ ({\mathbf P}',{\mathbf B'}) .\) In a similar way define the composition of a family of \(t\)-\((k,h,\lambda)\) designs with the \(t\)-\((v,k,1)\) design \(({\mathbf P},{\mathbf B})\) , choosing for any \(B \in {\mathbf B}\) a design of the family and a bijection between it and \(B\). So by means of composition wide classes of designs can be constructed starting from known designs. The author deals with two particular instances of such compositions, viz. \(S \circ P\) where \(S = S(2,k,v)\) is a Steiner system of dimension \(2\) and where either \(P = AG(2,v) = S(2,v,v^2)\) is an affine plane or \(P = PG(2,v-1) = S(2,v,v^2-v+1)\) is a projective plane. He investigates the family of subspaces of such a composed Steiner system and studies its properties. The interested reader is referred to the paper for many interesting results. Furthermore, the author also gives a lower bound for the number of such mutually non-isomorphic composed designs: Let \(D\) be a \(t\)-\((v,k,1)\) design and let \(D'\) be a \(t\)-\((k,h,\lambda)\) design; put \(\alpha := |\Aut(D)|\) and \(\alpha' := |\Aut(D')|\) as well as \(b := {v \choose t}/{k \choose t}\). Then there are at least \((k!/\alpha')^b/\alpha\) mutually non-isomorphic compositions \(D \circ D'\) .