Theory of Association Schemes is the first concept-oriented treatment of the structure theory of association schemes. It contains several recent results which appear for the first time in book form. The generalization of Sylow 's group theoretic theorems to scheme theory arises as a consequence of arithmetical considerations about quotient schemes. The theory of Coxeter schemes (equivalent to the theory of buildings) emerges naturally and yields a purely algebraic proof of Tits main theorem on buildings of spherical type. Also a scheme-theoretic characterization of Glauberman 's Z*-involutions is included. The text is self-contained and accessible for advanced undergraduate students.

This book provides a comprehensive algebraic treatment of hypergroups, as defined by F. Marty in 1934. It starts with structural results, which are developed along the lines of the structure theory of groups. The focus then turns to a number of concrete classes of hypergroups with small parameters, and continues with a closer look at the role of involutions (modeled after the definition of group-theoretic involutions) within the theory of hypergroups. Hypergroups generated by involutions lead to the exchange condition (a genuine generalization of the group-theoretic exchange condition), and this condition defines the so-called Coxeter hypergroups. Coxeter hypergroups can be treated in a similar way to Coxeter groups. On the other hand, their regular actions are mathematically equivalent to buildings (in the sense of Jacques Tits). A similar equivalence is discussed for twin buildings. The primary audience for the monograph will be researchers working in Algebra and/or Algebraic Combinatorics, in particular on association schemes.

This book is a concept-oriented treatment of the structure theory of association schemes. The generalization of Sylow 's group theoretic theorems to scheme theory arises as a consequence of arithmetical considerations about quotient schemes. The theory of Coxeter schemes (equivalent to the theory of buildings) emerges naturally and yields a purely algebraic proof of Tits main theorem on buildings of spherical type.

The primary object of the lecture notes is to develop a treatment of association schemes analogous to that which has been so successful in the theory of finite groups. The main chapters are decomposition theory, representation theory, and the theory of generators. Tits buildings come into play when the theory of generators is developed. Here, the buildings play the role which, in group theory, is played by the Coxeter groups. - The text is intended for students as well as for researchers in algebra, in particular in algebraic combinatorics.