Orbits on cycles of automorphisms (Q2707947)

Block's lemma states that an automorphism group \(G\) of a (finite) maximal rank incidence structure acts with at least as many orbits on the blocks as on the points. The authors look at the action of \(G\) on the set \(C_i(G)\) of all \(i\)-cycles that occur in the cycle decomposition of some element of \(G\), and show that cyclic and Abelian automorphism groups act with at least as many orbits on \(C_i(G_{\mathcal B})\) as on \(C_i(G_{\mathcal P})\). They give examples of maximal rank structures with more orbits on the point 2-cycles than on the block 2-cycles, showing that Block's lemma cannot be generalized to these actions on cycles.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe proofs are an application of generalized characters and use an interpretation of Block's lemma as described by \textit{A. Camina} and \textit{J. Siemons} [Linear Algebra Appl. 117, 25-34 (1989; Zbl 0681.20002)].