Minicourse (MC-DAG-2): Generalized polygons and semipartial geometries.

Lecturers:

(from right to left:) prof. dr. F. De Clerck, prof. dr. J.A. Thas, prof. dr. H. Van Maldeghem (University of Ghent)

The lecturers are members of the research group Incidence Geometry of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Computer Algebra at the University of Ghent (Belgium). The interests of the group include projective geometry over finite fields, finite incidence geometry, coding theory, algebraic geometry over finite fields, generalized polygons, the theory of Tits- buildings, etc.

This research group was founded by J.A Thas, who has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of Ghent since 1970 and who is currently head of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Computer Algebra. Since 1988 he has been member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts. He is author of the books "Finite Generalized Quadrangles" (co-author S.E. Payne), and "General Galois Geometries" (co-author J.W.P. Hirschfeld). He is also editor of the Proceedings "Advances in Finite Geometry and Designs" (co-editors J.W.P. Hirschfeld and D.R. Hughes) and "Finite Geometry and Combinatorics" (co-editors A. Beutelspacher, F. Buekenhout, J. Doyen, F. De Clerck and J.W.P. Hirschfeld).

F. De Clerck was the first student in finite geometry of J.A. Thas. He has done his Ph.D. in 1978 and is at present Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghent.

H. Van Maldeghem received his Ph.D. in 1984 after a one-year stay at the Univerity of Illinois at Chicago Circle. Currently he is a Senior Research Associate at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research.

In 1994, F. De Clerck and H. Van Maldeghem have been editors of A Tribute to J.A. Thas (Volume 1, No 3 of the Bulletin of the Belgian Mathematical Society, Simon Stevin), at the occasion of the 50th birthday of J.A. Thas.

Contents:

Basic results on generalized quadrangles will be given, together with the most important developments in the theory since the appearance of ``Finite Generalized Quadrangles'' by S. E. Payne & J. A. Thas. More general rank 2 geometries will be treated. On the one hand the course will focus on recent results in the theory of generalized polygons, on the other hand partial and semipartial geometries will be discussed.

The lectures are based on some chapters of ``Handbook of Incidence Geometry Buildings and Foundations'' (ed. F. Buekenhout, North-Holland, 1995), more precisely on the chapters 'Generalized Polygons' and 'Some Classes of Rank 2 Geometries'. Familiarity with generalities about projective spaces will be assumed. The emphasis lies on geometric and combinatorial methods.

The time schedule of this minicourse will be as follows:

Time and place:

April 22-26, 1996, Eindhoven.

Registration

The EIDMA minicourses are free for students and members of research groups affiliated with EIDMA. For other participants an amount of NLG 1,500.- is due. Reductions may apply to students and members of other scientific institutes.

For registation and more detailed information, please contact 
         Mrs Henny Houben (Secretary EIDMA)
         Euler Institute for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications
         Eindhoven University of Technology
         P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
         telephone: +31-40-247 31 21
         telefax:   +31-40-243 58 10
         E-mail:    eidma@win.tue.nl
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Last modified: March 4, 1996.