The present volume contains, together with numerous addition and extensions, the course of lectures which I gave at Pavia (26 September till 5 October 1955) by invitation of the "Centro Internazionale Mate matico Estivo". The treatment has the character of a monograph, and presents various novel features, both in form and in substance; these are indicated in the notes which will be found at the beginning and end of each chapter, Of the nine parts into which the work is divided, the first four are essentially differential in character, the next three deal with algebraic geometry, while the last two are concerned with certain aspects of the theory of differential equations and of correspondences between topo logical varieties. A glance at the index will suffice to give a more exact idea of the range and variety of the contents, whose chief characteristic is that of establishing suggestive and sometimes unforeseen relations between apparently diverse subjects (e. g. differential geometry in the small and also in the large, algebraic geometry, function theory, topo logy, etc. ); prominence is given throughout to the geometrical view point, and tedious calculations are as far as possible avoided. The exposition has been planned so that it can be followed without much difficulty even by readers who have no special knowledge of the subjects treated.

This book provides an accessible and self-contained introduction to the theory of algebraic curves over a finite field, a subject that has been of fundamental importance to mathematics for many years and that has essential applications in areas such as finite geometry, number theory, error-correcting codes, and cryptology. Unlike other books, this one emphasizes the algebraic geometry rather than the function field approach to algebraic curves.

The authors begin by developing the general theory of curves over any field, highlighting peculiarities occurring for positive characteristic and requiring of the reader only basic knowledge of algebra and geometry. The special properties that a curve over a finite field can have are then discussed. The geometrical theory of linear series is used to find estimates for the number of rational points on a curve, following the theory of Stohr and Voloch. The approach of Hasse and Weil via zeta functions is explained, and then attention turns to more advanced results: a state-of-the-art introduction to maximal curves over finite fields is provided; a comprehensive account is given of the automorphism group of a curve; and some applications to coding theory and finite geometry are described. The book includes many examples and exercises. It is an indispensable resource for researchers and the ideal textbook for graduate students."

This volume contains the proceedings of the 18th British Combinatorial Conference. This meeting, held every two years is now a key event for mathematicians working in combinatorics throughout the world. The papers contained here are from the invited speakers and are thus of a quality fitting for the event. This book will be a valuable reference for researchers in a variety of branches of combinatorics. However, graduate students will find much here that will be of use for future directions in their research.

This book is an account of the combinatorics of projective spaces over a finite field, with special emphasis on one and two dimensions. With its successor volumes, Finite projective spaces over three dimensions (1985), which is devoted to three dimensions, and General Galois geometries (1991), on a general dimension, it provides a comprehensive treatise of this area of mathematics. The area is interesting in itself, but is important for its applications to coding theory and statistics, and its use of group theory, algebraic geometry, and number theory. This edition is a complete reworking of the first edition. The chapters bear almost the same titles as the first edition, but every chapter has been changed. The most significant changes are to Chapters 2, 10, 12, 13, which respectively describe generalities, the geometry of arcs in ovals, the geometry of arcs of higher degree, and blocking sets. The book is divided into three parts. The first part comprises two chapters, the first of which is a survey of finite fields; the second outlines the fundamental properties of projective spaces and their automorphisms, as well as properties of algebraic varieties and curves, in particular, that are used in the rest of the book and the accompanying two volumes. Parts II and III are entirely self-contained; all proofs of results are given. The second part comprises Chapters 3 to 5. They cover, in an arbitrary dimension, the properties of subspaces such as their number and characterization, of partitions into both subspaces and subgeometries, and of quadrics and Hermitian varieties, as well as polarities. Part III is a detailed account of the line and the plane. In the plane, fundamental properties are first revisited without much resort to the generalities of Parts I and II. Then, the structure of arcs and their relation to curves is described; this includes arcs both of degree two and higher degrees. There are further chapters on blocking sets and on small planes, which means of orders up to thirteen. A comprehensive bibliography of more than 3000 items is provided. At the end of each chapter is a section, Notes and References, which attributes proofs, includes further comments, and lists every relevant reference from the bibliography.

This volume presents up-to-date research on finite geometries and designs, a key area in modern applicable mathematics. An introductory chapter discusses topics presented in each of the main chapters, and is followed by articles from leading international figures in this field. These include a discussion of the current state of finite geometry from a group-theoretical viewpoint, and surveys of difference sets and of small embeddings of partial cycle systems into Steiner triple systems. Also presented are successful searches for spreads and packing of designs, rank three geometries with simplicial residues and generalized quadrangles satisfying Veblen's Axiom. In addition, there are articles on new 7-designs, biplanes, various aspects of triple systems, and many other topics. This book will be a useful reference for researchers working in finite geometries, design theory or combinatorics in general.

Originally published in 1981, this collection of 33 research papers follows from a conference on the interwoven themes of finite Desarguesian spaces, Steiner systems, coding theory, group theory, block designs, generalized quadrangles, and projective planes. There is a comprehensive introduction, which aims to interest the non-specialist in the subject and which indicates how the contributions fit together. This is a field of research pursued both for its intrinsic interest and its applications. These papers include a number of open problems whose statement requires very little mathematical sophistication.

This self-contained and highly detailed study considers projective spaces of three dimensions over a finite field. It is the second and core volume of a three-volume treatise on finite projective spaces, the first volume being Projective Geometrics Over Finite Fields (OUP, 1979). The present work restricts itself to three dimensions, and considers both topics which are analogous of geometry over the complex numbers and topics that arise out of the modern theory of incidence structures. The book also examines properties of four and five dimensions, fundamental applications to translation planes, simple groups, and coding theory.