Automorphisms and isomorphisms of symmetric and affine designs (Q1330171)

New results are given on the representation of finite groups as the automorphism groups of combinatorial structures. According to the author's introduction, many theorems of the form ``every finite group is the full automorphism group of a member of a certain class of combinatorial structures'' have been proved, particularly for graphs or Steiner triple systems. The purpose of this paper is ``to prove such a theorem for structures that appear to be a bit more constrained: symmetric designs''. More precisely, the main result of this paper states that given a finite group \(G\) there exist symmetric designs and affine designs having the same parameters as \(\text{PG}(d,q)\) or \(\text{AG}(d,q)\), respectively, for all \(d\geq 50| G|^ 2\) and for each power prime \(q>3\). The proof of this theorem uses results concerning permutations of the points of projective spaces that have been summarized in the final section. A separate section summarizing numerous remarks and conjectures suggested by various results obtained and used in the course of the proof is included, as well.