On line colorings of finite projective spaces (Q2045382)

A \textit{colouring} of a finite linear space \(S\) is an assignment of the lines of S to a set of colours, say \([k]=\{1,2,\ldots,k\}\). A colouring of \(S\) is called \textit{proper} if any two intersecting lines have a different color, while a colouring is called \textit{complete} if each pair of colours appears on at least one point of \(S\). The \textit{chromatic index} \(\chi'(S)\) is the smallest \(k\) such that there exists a proper colouring with \(k\) colours, the \textit{achromatic index} \(\alpha'(S)\) is the largest \(k\) such that there exists a proper and complete colouring with \(k\) colours, and the \textit{pseudoachromatic index} \(\phi'(S)\) is the largest \(k\) such that there exist a complete (not necessarily proper) colouring with \(k\) colours. It is clear that \(\chi'(S)\leq \alpha'(S)\leq \psi'(S)\) and it is also not too hard to deduce that for \(S=\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\), \(\chi'(S)= \alpha'(S)= \psi'(S)=q^2+q+1\). At present, these values are not known for \(\mathrm{PG}(n,q)\), \(n\geq 3\). In this paper, the authors contribute to this study by showing the following:, where \(\theta_n\) denotes the number of points in \(\mathrm{PG}(n,q)\). They show that for \(n=3.2^i-1\), \(i>0\), \(\alpha'(S)>c_n\frac{1}{q}\theta_n^{\frac{4}{3}+\frac{1}{3n}}\) where \(\frac{1}{2^{7/5}}<c_n<\frac{1}{2^{4/3}}\) is a constant depending only on \(n\). Furthermore, \(\psi'(S)<\frac{1}{q}\theta_n^{3/2}\) for all \(n\geq 2\). The proof of the first statement hinges on the construction of a particular geometric \(2^i-1\)-spread while the proof of the second statement is an easy counting argument. Finally, the authors study the case \(\mathrm{PG}(3,2)\) in detail and provide a quite intricate computer-free proof of the fact that \(\psi'(\mathrm{PG}(3,2))=18\).