arXiv subjects

Carmen Amarra

Publications and source records attributed to Carmen Amarra.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Recursive constructions for block-transitive, poset-imprimitive two-designs

We give two general constructions for $2$-designs, that can be used recursively, and interchangeably, to produce new infinite families of $2$-designs admitting block-transitive groups of automorphisms which preserve arbitrarily large posets of partitions of the point-set. The only arbitrarily large posets for which constructions were previously known are chains of arbitrary length. Using the constructions we exhibit new infinite families of poset-imprimitive block-transitive $2$-designs corresponding to several different arbitrarily large posets, as well as constructions for most posets with four nodes.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Block-transitive designs with a poset of imprimitive partitions

We study block designs which admit an automorphism group that is transitive on blocks and points, and leaves invariant every partition in a given finite poset of partitions of the point set. The full stabiliser $G$ of all the partitions in the poset is a generalised wreath product. We use the theory of generalised wreath products to give necessary and sufficient conditions, in terms of the `array' of a point-subset $B$, for the set of $G$-images of $B$ to form the block-set of a $G$-block-transitive $2$-design. This generalises previous results for the special cases where the poset is a chain or an anti-chain. We also give explicit infinite families of examples of $2$-designs for each poset involving three proper partitions, and for the famous $N$-poset with four partitions. (Posets with two proper partitions have been treated previously.) This suggests the problem of finding explicit examples for other posets.

math.GR↗

arXiv2024

Higher-dimensional grid-imprimitive block-transitive designs

It was shown in 1989 by Delandtsheer and Doyen that, for a $2$-design with $v$ points and block size $k$, a block-transitive group of automorphisms can be point-imprimitive (that is, leave invariant a nontrivial partition of the point set) only if $v$ is small enough relative to $k$. Recently, exploiting a construction of block-transitive point-imprimitive $2$-designs given by Cameron and the last author, four of the authors studied $2$-designs admitting a block-transitive group that preserves a two-dimensional grid structure on the point set. Here we consider the case where there a block-transitive group preserves a multidimensional grid structure on points. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for such $2$-designs to exist in terms of the parameters of the grid, and certain `array parameters' which describe a subset of points (which will be a block of the design). Using this criterion, we construct explicit examples of $2$-designs for grids of dimensions three and four, and pose several open questions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Chain-imprimitive, flag-transitive 2-designs

We consider $2$-designs which admit a group of automorphisms that is flag-transitive and leaves invariant a chain of nontrivial point-partitions. We build on our recent work on $2$-designs which are block-transitive but not necessarily flag-transitive. In particular we use the concept of the ``array'' of a point subset with respect to the chain of point-partitions; the array describes the distribution of the points in the subset among the classes of each partition. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions on the array in order for the subset to be a block of such a design. By explicit construction we show that for any $s \geq 2$, there are infinitely many $2$-designs admitting a flag-transitive group that preserves an invariant chain of point-partitions of length $s$. Moreover an exhaustive computer search, using {\sc Magma}, seeking designs with $e_1e_2e_3$ points (where each $e_i\leq 50$) and a partition chain of length $s=3$, produced $57$ such flag-transitive designs, among which only three designs arise from our construction -- so there is still much to learn.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

On locally $n \times n$ grid graphs

We investigate locally $n \times n$ grid graphs, that is, graphs in which the neighbourhood of any vertex is the Cartesian product of two complete graphs on $n$ vertices. We consider the subclass of these graphs for which each pair of vertices at distance two is joined by sufficiently many paths of length $2$. The number of such paths is known to be at most $2n$ by previous work of Blokhuis and Brouwer. We show that if each distance two pair is joined by at least $n-1$ paths of length $2$ then the diameter is bounded by $O(\log(n))$, while if each pair is joined by at least $2(n-1)$ such paths then the diameter is at most $3$ and we give a tight upper bound on the order of the graphs. We show that graphs meeting this upper bound are distance-regular antipodal covers of complete graphs. We exhibit an infinite family of such graphs which are locally $n \times n$ grid for odd prime powers $n$, and apply these results to locally $5 \times 5$ grid graphs to obtain a classification for the case where either all $μ$-graphs have order at least $8$ or all $μ$-graphs have order $c$ for some constant $c$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Block-transitive 2-designs with a chain of imprimitive partitions

More than $30$ years ago, Delandtsheer and Doyen showed that the automorphism group of a block-transitive $2$-design, with blocks of size $k$, could leave invariant a nontrivial point-partition, but only if the number of points was bounded in terms of $k$. Since then examples have been found where there are two nontrivial point partitions, either forming a chain of partitions, or forming a grid structure on the point set. We show, by construction of infinite families of designs, that there is no limit on the length of a chain of invariant point partitions for a block-transitive $2$-design. We introduce the notion of an `array' of a set of points which describes how the set interacts with parts of the various partitions, and we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of the `array' of a point set, relative to a partition chain, for it to be a block of such a design.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Multiple contractions of permutation arrays

Given a permutation $σ$ on $n$ symbols $\{0, 1, \ldots, n-1\}$ and an integer $1 \leq m \leq n-1$, the $m$th contraction of $σ$ is the permutation $σ^{{\sf CT}^m}$ on $n-m$ symbols obtained by deleting the symbols $n-1, n-2, \ldots, n-m$ from the cycle decomposition of $σ$. The Hamming distance ${\rm hd}(σ,τ)$ between two permutations $σ$ and $τ$ is the number of symbols $x$ such that $σ(x) \neq τ(x)$. In this paper we give a complete characterization of the effect of a single contraction on the Hamming distance between two permutations. This allows us to obtain sufficient conditions for ${\rm hd}(σ,τ)-{\rm hd}(σ^{{\sf CT}^m},τ^{{\sf CT}^m})\leq 2m$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Delandtsheer--Doyen parameters for block-transitive point-imprimitive 2-designs

Delandtsheer and Doyen bounded, in terms of the block size, the number of points of a point-imprimitive, block-transitive 2-design. To do this they introduced two integer parameters, m and n, now called Delandtsheer--Doyen parameters, linking the block size with the parameters of an associated imprimitivity system on points. We show that the Delandtsheer--Doyen parameters provide upper bounds on the permutation ranks of the groups induced on the imprimitivity system and on a class of the system. We explore extreme cases where these bounds are attained, give a new construction for a family of designs achieving these bounds, and pose several open questions concerning the Delandtsheer--Doyen parameters.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Generalised shuffle groups

The mathematics of shuffling a deck of $2n$ cards with two "perfect shuffles" was brought into clarity by Diaconis, Graham and Kantor. Here we consider a generalisation of this problem, with a so-called "many handed dealer" shuffling $kn$ cards by cutting into $k$ piles with $n$ cards in each pile and using $k!$ shuffles. A conjecture of Medvedoff and Morrison suggests that all possible permutations of the deck of cards are achieved, so long as $k\neq 4$ and $n$ is not a power of $k$. We confirm this conjecture for three doubly infinite families of integers: all $(k,n)$ with $k>n$; all $(k, n)\in \{ (\ell^e, \ell^f )\mid \ell \geqslant 2, \ell^e>4, f \ \mbox{not a multiple of}\ e\}$; and all $(k,n)$ with $k=2^e\geqslant 4$ and $n$ not a power of $2$. We open up a more general study of shuffle groups, which admit an arbitrary subgroup of shuffles.

math.GR↗

arXiv2017

Quotient-complete arc-transitive latin square graphs from groups

We consider latin square graphs $Γ= \rm{LSG}(H)$ of the Cayley table of a given finite group $H$. We characterize all pairs $(Γ,G)$, where $G$ is a subgroup of autoparatopisms of the Cayley table of $H$ such that $G$ acts arc-transitively on $Γ$ and all nontrivial $G$-normal quotient graphs of $Γ$ are complete. We show that $H$ must be elementary abelian and determine the number $k$ of complete normal quotients. This yields new infinite families of diameter two arc-transitive graphs with $k = 1$ or $k = 2$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Affine primitive symmetric graphs of diameter two

Let $n$ be a positive integer, $q$ be a prime power, and $V$ be a vector space of dimension $n$ over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Let $G := V \rtimes G_0$, where $G_0$ is an irreducible subgroup of ${\rm GL}(V)$ which is maximal by inclusion with respect to being intransitive on the set of nonzero vectors. We are interested in the class of all diameter two graphs $Γ$ that admit such a group $G$ as an arc-transitive, vertex-quasiprimitive subgroup of automorphisms. In particular, we consider those graphs for which $G_0$ is a subgroup of either ${\rm ΓL}(n,q)$ or ${\rm ΓSp}(n,q)$ and is maximal in one of the Aschbacher classes $\mathcal{C}_i$, where $i \in \{2,4,5,6,7,8\}$. We are able to determine all graphs $Γ$ which arise from $G_0 \leq {\rm ΓL}(n,q)$ with $i \in \{2,4,8\}$, and from $G_0 \leq {\rm ΓSp}(n,q)$ with $i \in \{2,8\}$. For the remaining classes we give necessary conditions in order for $Γ$ to have diameter two, and in some special subcases determine all $G$-symmetric diameter two graphs.

math.CO↗