Divisible designs, Laguerre geometry, and beyond (Q1948555)

This paper is a revised version of the lecture notes [the author, ``Divisible designs, Laguerre geometry, and beyond'', Quaderni Sem. Mat. Brescia 11 (2006)]. It brings together design theory and projective geometry over rings, in particular Laguerre geometry. After an introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 gives a survey about divisible designs. In particular, Spera's method [\textit{A. G. Spera}, Geom. Dedicata 42, No. 3, 285--294 (1992; Zbl 0755.05007)] of constructing divisible designs by group actions is described. Chapter 3 deals with the classical Laguerre geometry of spears and cycles in the Euclidean plane and its generalisation to chain geometries over local algebras. Here, the point set is the projective line over a ring. In Chapter 4, both concepts are combined: Divisible designs are constructed by group actions on the projective line over a local ring. Chapter 5 gives an outlook to finite chain geometries over arbitrary rings. The paper gives an excellent introduction into the topics mentioned. Moreover, it gives an overview on the relevant literature.