Some characterizations of quasi-symmetric designs with a spread (Q1802195)

A quasi-symmetric design is a block design with two distinct block intersection numbers. A spread is a set of blocks through a point that partition the set of the remaining points. In this paper quasi-symmetric designs with smallest block intersection number 1 that contain a spread are studied. Several characterizations of the design \(\text{PG}_ 2(4,q)\) of the lines in \(\text{PG}(4,q)\) as a quasi-symmetric design with a spread are obtained. In particular, an analogue of the Demowski-Wagner theorem characterizing \(\text{PG}_ 2(4,q)\) as a smooth quasi-symmetric design is proved.