On the elation structure of specific designs (Q807626)

Suppose D is a symmetric 2-design. An automorphism \(\lambda\in Aut(D)\) is said to be axial with axis x if every point incident with x is fixed by \(\lambda\). An automorphism \(\lambda\) is said to be central with centre X if every block incident with X is fixed by \(\lambda\). An automorphism with axis x is defined to be an (X,x) elation if it has centre X on x, a pure translation if it has no centre, and a translation if it is an elation or pure translation. The main aim of this paper and subsequent papers is to generalize the results of Wagner and Piper to the case of symmetric designs. Assuming the existence of certain elations, this paper classifies the designs according to the elation structure (a generalization of the concept for projective planes). Thus, considering symmetric 2-designs D which have an automorphism group G containing sufficiently many elations, it has been proved that all elations in G have the same order. The elation structure (i.e. centre axis pairs) of a well-defined subgroup of G has been classified. For one class, D is necessarily a projective space.