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Notes on Finite Geometry (Site Map)
by Steven H. Cullinane

Home page:

Finite geometry of the square and cube
2006 April (html)

Notes listed by size of the underlying structure:

  4
Theme and variations
2004 April 28 (html)
See also Timothy A. Smith's web page on Fugue 21, Book II, of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier"
2005 (pdf) (Shockwave)
  6
The 2-subsets of a 6-set are the points of a PG(3,2)
1986 May 26 (jpg)

21 projective partitions
1986 June 6 (jpg)

An outer automorphism of S6 related to M24
1986 June 11 (jpg)

Picturing outer automorphisms of S6
1986 July 3 (jpg)

Modeling the 21-point plane with outer automorphisms of S6
1986 Dec. 4 (html)
  7
For the seven lines (or seven points) of the smallest projective plane, see "The eightfold cube" under "8" below.

For an example of a Singer 7-cycle, see "Generating the octad generator" under "24" below.
  8
The eightfold cube
2005 May 4 (html)

Physical Space and the Eightfold Cube
2009 April 10 (html)

A Reflection Group of Order 168
2007 December 7 (html)

Knight Moves: Geometry of the Eightfold Cube
2008 January 16 (html)

Diamonds and Whirls
1984 September 15 (jpg)

Movable graphic designs on the 2x2x2 cube
2006 March 7 (JavaScript)

Cube Space, 1984-2003
2008 October 24 (html)

For a finite-geometry model of the eight elements of the quaternion group, see the article on the 3x3 square under "9" below.
  9
Geometry of the 3x3 square (and the group GL(2,3))
2005 August 28 (html)

A 2008 note, "GL(2,3)," by Nick Wedd with neater versions of the pictures in the above note
2008 December 10 (html)
12
Symmetry invariance under M12
1985 August 22 (html)
15
Inscapes: views of the generalized quadrangle GQ(2,2)
2006 Jan. 19 (html)

Inscapes I,
1982 June 12 (jpg) (pdf)

Inscapes II, query,
1982 Sept. 22 (jpg) (html) (pdf)

Inscapes III: PG(2,4) from PG(3,2),
1986 Feb. 4 (jpg)

The 2-subsets of a 6-set are the points of a PG(3,2)
1986 May 26 (jpg)

Inscapes IV: Inner and outer group actions,
1986 July 11 (jpg)

Picturing the smallest projective 3-space,
1986 April 26 (jpg)  (gif) (pdf)

A linear complex related to M24
1986 May 8 (jpg)

An outer automorphism of S6 related to M24
1986 June 11 (jpg)

Picturing outer automorphisms of S6
1986 July 3 (jpg)

The smallest projective (3-)space
2002 May 21 (html)
16
The animated diamond theorem
Nov. 18, 2006 (html)

The diamond theorem
1978, 2006 (html) (pdf)
See also --

Cases of the diamond theorem
2002 May 22 (html)

Research announcement: an invariance of symmetry
1978 (pdf)
Geometry of the 4x4 square
2004 March 18 (html) (pdf)

The Kaleidoscope Puzzle
2005 Aug. 9 (JavaScript)

The Diamond 16 Puzzle
2002 Feb. 12 (JavaScript)

Orthogonality of Latin squares viewed as skewness of lines
1978 December (jpg) (pdf)
For a generalization, see  Latin-square geometry: orthogonal Latin squares as skew lines
2005 Feb. 6 (html) (pdf)
Diamond theory in 1937: a problem of Carmichael
2006 March 29 (html)

The finite relativity problem
1986 Feb. 20 (html) (pdf)

The geometry of logic
2007 Mar. 10 (html)

Vector logic: Excerpt from a paper by Jonathan Westphal and Jim Hardy
2004 February (html) (Copy of paper received Sept. 11, 2007)

The geometry of qubits
2007 Aug. 12 (html)

Quilt geometry
2004 Aug. 9 (html)

List of problems related to permutations acting on a 16-set in Introduction to the Theory of Groups of Finite Order, by Robert D. Carmichael (1937) (reprinted by Dover Books, 1956)
2001 (html)
21
21 projective partitions
1986 June 6 (jpg)

Modeling the 21-point plane with outer automorphisms of S6
1986 Dec. 4 (html)
24
The Miracle Octad Generator (MOG) of R. T. Curtis
2005 Nov. 30 (html)
See also -- How the MOG works, in "Geometry of the 4x4 square"  (html)
Generating the octad generator
1985 April 28 (html) (pdf)

Elements (Stoicheia) of Geometry
2007 Feb. 28 (html)

Notes for Epiphany 2009
2009 Jan. 6 (html)

The Diamond Connection:
Background for two papers on constructing S(5,8,24) from PG(3,2)
2009 May 20 (html)
27
For a finite-geometry version of the 27 lines on a cubic surface, see "Solomon's cube" below.
28
For a finite-geometry version of the 28 bitangents to a quartic, see "Solomon's cube" below.
35
For a model of the 35 lines in the projective 3-space over the 2-element field, see the section headed "16" above.
64
Solomon's cube
2003 May 28 (html)

Movable graphic designs on the 4x4x4 cube
2006 March 8 (JavaScript)

Geometry of the I Ching
2000 Aug. 8 (html)

The Klein correspondence, Penrose space-time, and a finite model
2007 May 28 (html)
Notes that are not size-specific:     
Binary Coordinate Systems
1984 July (html)

Reflection Groups in Finite Geometry
2007 December 7 (html)

Diamond theory
1976, 2000-2004 (html).
Related:

Brief history of symmetry
(html)

References
(html)

Rough critique of an attempted proof
(html)
Latin-square geometry: orthogonal Latin squares as skew lines
2005 Feb. 6 (html) (pdf)
 
The Algebra of Groups
2008 October 15 (html)

Generalized definition of orthogonal squares
2006 (html)


A four-color theorem: function decomposition over a finite field
1982 May 12 (html)

Block designs
1984 Sept. 15, 2004 Feb. 1 (html)

Duality and Symmetry
2001 Jan. 16 (html)

Pattern groups
2005 Oct. 2 (html)
Related:

Group topologies
1986 March 31 (jpg)

.. and all of the other notes listed in this site map.
Cases of the diamond theorem
2002 May 22 (html)

Symmetry of Walsh functions
2001 Aug. 31 (html)

Galois geometry
2004 July 16 (html)

Modeling finite geometries
2004 Dec. 2 (html)

Crystal and dragon
2003 Aug. 27 (html)

Binary geometry
2006 June 23 (html)

Related websites --
The "Kufi Blocks" of Ben Nicholson
2006 July 9 (html)

Applications to physics:
Reflections on Symmetry
(Finite Geometry and Quantum Information Theory)
2004 July 18, plus updates (html)

Chronological index of typewritten notes closely related to Diamond Theory:
76-08-??... Diamond theory cover page  From the author's 1976 booklet. See Math16.com for the meaning of the cover illustration.
78-??-??... Research announcement (4x4 case of diamond theorem and algebraic generalization)  This research announcement was the basis for an abstract (79T-A37) in the Feb. 1979 AMS Notices.
78-12-??... Orthogonality of Latin squares viewed as skewness of lines  Structural diagrams of 4x4 arrays play the role of lines in PG(3,2). Orthogonality of arrays corresponds to skewness of lines.
82-05-12... Map systems (A four-color theorem)
82-06-12... Inscapes  A new combinatorial way of illustrating symplectic polarities in PG(3,2).
82-09-22... Inscapes II  The concept in "Inscapes" is generalized.
83-06-21... An invariance of symmetry The diamond theorem on a 4x4x4 cube, and a sketch of the proof.
83-10-01... Portrait of O  A table of the octahedral group O using the 24 patterns from the 2x2 case of the diamond theorem.
83-10-16... Study of O  A different way of looking at the octahedral group, using cubes that illustrate the 2x2x2 case of the diamond theorem.
84-09-15... Diamonds and whirls  Block designs of a different sort -- graphic figures on cubes. See also the University of Exeter page on the octahedral group O.
84-09-25... Affine groups on small binary spaces Six ways to slice a cube, and the resulting affine groups. For details, see the author's 1984 paper Binary Coordinate Systems.
85-03-26... Visualizing GL(2, p)
85-04-28... Generating the octad generator  The Miracle Octad Generator (MOG) of R. T. Curtis -- A correspondence between the 35 partitions of an 8-set into two 4-sets and the 35 lines of PG(3,2).
85-08-22... Symmetry invariance under M12  A generalization of the two-color plane patterns, made up of all-black and all-white squares, that underlie plane patterns, made up of two-color diagonally-divided squares, of diamond theory.
86-02-04... Inscapes III: PG(2,4) from PG(3,2)
86-02-20...
The relativity problem in finite geometry  "This is the relativity problem: to fix objectively a class of  equivalent coordinatizations and to ascertain the group of transformations S mediating between them." -- Hermann Weyl, The  Classical Groups
86-04-26... Picturing the smallest projective 3-space  A symplectic polarity, the Conwell-Curtis correspondence, and the large Mathieu group.
86-05-08... A linear complex related to M24  Anatomy of the polarity pictured in the 86-04-06 note.
86-05-26... The 2-subsets of a 6-set are the points of a PG(3,2)
Beutelspacher's model of the 15 points of PG(3,2) compared with a 15-line complex in PG(3,2).
86-06-06... Twenty-one projective partitions The author's model of the 21-point projective plane PG(2,4).
For a general method of constructing such models, see Modeling the 21-point plane with outer automorphisms of S6.
The following problem was suggested by the above.
PROBLEM: Let M be an nxn square (0,1) matrix with exactly k 1's in each row and each column. What conditions are necessary and sufficient for there to exist row/column permutations that make M a symmetric matrix?
For more on this problem, see Duality and Symmetry.
86-06-11... An outer automorphism of S6 related to M24  An application of the "inscape" model of a generalized quadrangle to the construction of the large Mathieu group.
86-07-03... Picturing outer automorphisms of S6  An application of the "inscape" model to S6.
86-07-11... Inscapes IV  An outer automorphism that is literally outer.

Chronological index of misc. typewritten notes
Includes some notes on mathematics  unrelated or only loosely related to the above notes on finite geometry--
81-11-05... Patterns invariant... two examples
81-12-24... Solid symmetry
82-09-12... A symplectic array
82-12-27... Group scores
83-05-31... Decompositions of group enveloping algebras
83-08-04... Group identity algebras
83-08-16... Transformations over a bridge
83-11-08... Compound groups
83-11-10... Group compounds
83-11-27... Table groups
84-01-05... Linear operators in geometric function spaces
85-04-05... Group actions on partitions
85-04-05... GL(2, 3) actions on a cube
85-11-17... Groups related by a nontrivial identity
85-12-11... Dynamic and algebraic compatibility of groups
86-01-11... Geometry of Partitions II
86-03-31... Group topologies

Notes of a more philosophical nature:

Index

A mathematician's aesthetics

Mathematics of Wallace Stevens's "The Rock"

The diamond archetype

Jung and the Imago Dei

Elegance: The aesthetics of parallelism

Poetry's bones

Time fold

The diamond theory of truth

Mirror-play of the fourfold in Heidegger

Notes for Epiphany 2009
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