Classification of flag-transitive Steiner quadruple systems (Q5937135)

In the last decades, there has been great interest in classifying \(t\)-\((v, k, \lambda)\) designs with certain transitivity properties. For example, all point \(2\)-transitive \(2\)-\((v, k, 1)\) designs were classified by Kantor and a few years later Buekenhout et al. reached a classification of all flag-transitive \(2\)-\((v, k, 1)\) designs. Both the results depend on the classification of finite simple groups. However, the classification of flag-transitive \(3\)-\((v, k, 1)\) designs is ``still an open and outstanding problem''. A Steiner quadruple system of order \(v\) is a \(3\)-\((v, 4, 1)\) design and will be denoted \(\text{SQS}(v)\). In this paper, by using the classification of finite \(2\)-transitive permutation groups, all \(\text{SQS}(v)\) with a flag-transitive automorphism group are completely classified, thus solving the ``still open and longstanding problem of classifying all flat-transitive \(3\)-\((v, k, 1)\) designs'' for the smallest value of \(k\). Moreover, the result generalizes a theorem of Luneburg that characterized all flag-transitive \(\text{SQS}(v)\) under the additional strong assumption that every non-identity element of the automorphism group fixes at most two points. The procedures and the proof of the author are independent of Luneburg's.