SEMINAR: Groups and Combinatorics Seminar: Four Problems in Finite Geometry

Anton Betten (Colorado State University)

will speak on

Four problems in finite geometry

at 1pm Tuesday 21 September in MLR2

Abstract: I will survey the status of four open problems in Finite Geometry, and report on recent partial progress. The structures live in projective and polar spaces, and are related to 'nice' tactical decompositions. The symmetry groups are all classical groups over finite fields. The problems to be discussed are BLT-sets in orthogonal spaces, minimal (and possibly multiple) blocking sets in Desarguesian projective planes, m-systems in polar spaces, and semifields. We hope to give a feeling for the kind of mathematics that is involved. Also, we wish to mention some computer algorithms. Part of this is an application of Computational Group Theory, the other part is combinatorial search.