Reconstructing ternary Dowling geometries (Q1775744)

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Reconstructing ternary Dowling geometries
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    Reconstructing ternary Dowling geometries (English)
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    4 May 2005
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    Dowling geometries play an essential role in various areas of matroid theory. E.g., fix a basis \(p_1,\dots, p_n\) of the rank-\(n\) ternary projective geometry \(\text{PG}(n-1,3)\). The rank-\(n\) ternary Dowling geometry \(Q_n\) is, up to isomorphism, the restriction of \(\text{PG}(n-1,3)\) to the set of points on coordinate lines. In the present paper it is proved that the only geometry of rank \(n> 4\) all whose proper contractions are ternary Dowling geometries is the ternary Dowling geometry. Based on this, the authors confirm a strengthened version of a conjecture due to J. Kung and J. Oxley which refers to the embeddability of ternary geometries of rank-\(n\) into rank-\(n\) ternary Dowling geometries.
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    Dowling geometry
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    signed graph
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    matroid
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    projective geometry
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