Families of Association Schemes on Triples from Two-Transitive Groups

Abstract

Association schemes on triples (ASTs) are ternary analogues of classical association schemes. Analogous to Schurian association schemes, ASTs arise from the actions of two-transitive groups. In this paper, we obtain the sizes and third valencies of the ASTs obtained from the two-transitive permutation groups by determining the orbits of the groups' two-point stabilizers. Specifically, we obtain these parameters for the ASTs obtained from the actions of $S_n$ and $A_n$, $PGU(3,q)$, $PSU(3,q)$, and $Sp(2k,2)$, $Sz(2^{2k+1})$ and $Ree(3^{2k+1})$, some subgroups of $A\Gamma L(k,n)$, some subgroups of $P\Gamma L(k,n)$, and the sporadic two-transitive groups. Further, we obtain the intersection numbers for the ASTs obtained from these subgroups of $P\Gamma L(k,n)$ and $A \Gamma L(k,n)$, and the sporadic two-transitive groups. In particular, the ASTs from these projective and sporadic groups are commutative.