Galois Geometry and Generalized Polygons

From 14 to 25 April 1998, an intensive course on Galois Geometry and Generalized Polygons has been organised at the University of Ghent. This course is organised as part of the Socrates Programme of the European Union. The list of participants contains 11 lecturers and 61 students.

We wish to acknowledge financial support of the following institutes and associations:

• Commission of the European Communities; DGXXII - Education, Training and Youth
• The University of Ghent
• EIDMA (Euler Institute for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications).

Partners in this programme are:

• Universiteit Gent (BE)
• Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
• Justus - Liebig Universität Giessen (DE)
• Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen (DE)
• University of Sussex (GB)
• University of London - Queen Mary and Westfield College (GB)
• Università degli Studi di Napoli, Federico II (IT)
• Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Caserta (IT)
• Università degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza (IT)
• Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza (IT)
• Università Studi di Siena (IT)
• Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (NL)

The course has covered the following topics given by experts in the field.
Notes in postscript format are available and can be download by clicking at the relevant topic.

1. Arcs and caps in PG(n,q).

The cyclic arc of size q-√(q)+1.
Complete arcs arising from conics and cubics.
Lecturers: Gabor Korchmaros (Potenza), James Hirschfeld (Sussex) and Leo Storme (Gent)

2. Unitals.

Lecturer: Christine O'Keefe (Adelaide, Australia)

3. Blocking sets in projective and affine planes.

Lecturer: Aart Blokhuis (Eindhoven and Amsterdam)

4. Generalized quadrangles.

Lecturers: Jef Thas (Gent), Guglielmo Lunardon (Napoli)

5. Ovoids and spreads of polar spaces.

Lecturers: Frank De Clerck (Gent), Hendrik Van Maldeghem (Gent)

6. Extensions of geometries.

Lecturers: Hans Cuypers (Eindhoven) Antonio Pasini (Siena)

• A shortened introduction to diagram geometry with an appendix on flag-transitive extensions of finite polar spaces. (A. Pasini)
• The Mathieu groups and their geometries. (H. Cuypers)

If you have any question do not hesitate to contact the local organiser Frank De Clerck by e-mail at fdc@cage.UGent.be