Partial geometries and the triality quadric (Q1580996)

\textit{R. C. Bose} introduced in Pac. J. Math. 13, 389-419 (1963; Zbl 0118.33903) the notion of a partial geometry. A (finite) partial geometry pg\((s,t,\alpha)\) is an incidence structure with points and lines, where any two distinct points are incident with at most one line, each point is incident with \(t+1\) lines, each line is incident with \(s+1\) points, and if \(L\) is not a line through some point \(p\), then there are exactly \(\alpha\) points \(p_1,\dots,p_\alpha\) on \(L\) and exactly \(\alpha\) lines \(L_1,\dots,L_\alpha\) through \(p\) such that \(L_i\) goes through \(p_i\) for any \(i\). The point graph of a partial geometry is the graph whose vertices are the points of the geometry and any two distinct vertices are connected whenever they are collinear. It happens that there exist non-isomorphic partial geometries having the same point graph. A graph is called faithfully geometric if there is up to isomorphism exactly one partial geometry with this graph as its point graph. In the paper under review the authors focus on the eight known partial geometries \(\text{pg}(7,8,4)\). They show that their point (and block) graphs are all related to the hyperbolic quadric \(Q^+(7,2)\) in the projective geometry \(\text{PG}(7,2)\). Using the quadric \(Q^+(7,2)\) they prove that some of the above mentioned point graphs are faithfully geometric, and moreover, by generalizing their results, they are able to construct two new families of partial geometries \(\text{pg}(2^{2n-1}-1,2^{2n-1},2^{2n-2})\).