Tactical decompositions and some configurations \(v_4\) (Q1818897)

A configuration \(\mathcal C\) of type \((v_r,b_k)\) is an incidence geometry with \(v\) points and \(b\) blocks such that each block contains exactly \(k\) points and each point is contained in exactly \(r\) blocks. A tactical decomposition of \(\mathcal C\) consists of partitions of the point set and the block set such that for each point class \(P_i\) and each block class \(B_j\) the number of blocks of \(B_j\) through a point \(X\in P_i\) is independent of the choice of the point \(X\), and vice versa. The authors give some examples of tactical decompositions of configurations and introduce tactical decompositions by automorphisms. They focus on symmetrical configurations of type \(v_4:=(v_4,v_4)\), and give explicitly all configurations for \(v\leq 16\) and all configurations with big automorphism groups for \(v=17\).