Unitals and unitary polarities in symmetric designs (Q676715)

A unital in a symmetric \(2\)-\((v,k,\lambda)\) design \({\mathcal D}\) is a subset \({\mathcal U}\) of the points such that through every \(P\) in \({\mathcal U}\) there are \(k-1\) blocks of \({\mathcal D}\) meeting \({\mathcal U}\) in \(\alpha\) points, for constant \(\alpha\), and one meeting \({\mathcal U}\) in \(P\). A polarity of \({\mathcal D}\) is called unitary if its absolute points form a unital. All of this generalizes the equivalent concepts for projective planes. The authors give an account of unitals in designs with small \(v\) and give several elegant examples of unitals in some known series of designs. Among other results, they show that in classical projective geometries of dimension three, unitals coincide with ovoids, and that they cannot occur in projective geometries of dimension greater than three, though they show by example that unitals in designs with the parameters of these geometries are possible. They also demonstrate the existence of a unitary polarity of a \(2\)-\((45,12,3)\) design.