Actions of finite hypergroups and examples (Q4370044)

In this paper, the idea of an action of a finite hypergroup on a finite set is illustrated. This notion extends the group case and includes notions like *-actions, irreducibility, and transitivity. Besides several results for particular examples of hypergroups of small size, the following basic inequality is derived: Let \(K\) be a finite commutative hypergroup with identity \(e \) and Haar measure \(\omega\) normalized by \(\omega (e)=1\). If \(K\) acts irreducibly on a finite set \(X\), then \(|X|\leq \omega(K)\) holds. -- In view of this result, the author says that an action is maximal if \(|X|= \omega(K)\) holds. It is observed that the existence of a maximal *-action is related to the question whether the hypergroup is related to some association scheme. This interesting problem is related with connections between hypergroups, Coxeter groups, and subfactors which are due to V. S. Sunder and A. K. Vijayarajan. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0879.00047].