Incidence geometry is a central part of modern mathematics that has an impressive tradition. The main topics of incidence geometry are projective and affine geometry and, in more recent times, the theory of buildings and polar spaces. Embedded into the modern view of diagram geometry, projective and affine geometry including the fundamental theorems, polar geometry including the Theorem of Buekenhout-Shult and the classification of quadratic sets are presented in this volume. Incidence geometry is developed along the lines of the fascinating work of Jacques Tits and Francis Buekenhout. The book is a clear and comprehensible introduction into a wonderful piece of mathematics. More than 200 figures make even complicated proofs accessible to the reader.

This book gives an introduction to the field of Incidence Geometry by discussing the basic families of point-line geometries and introducing some of the mathematical techniques that are essential for their study. The families of geometries covered in this book include among others the generalized polygons, near polygons, polar spaces, dual polar spaces and designs. Also the various relationships between these geometries are investigated. Ovals and ovoids of projective spaces are studied and some applications to particular geometries will be given. A separate chapter introduces the necessary mathematical tools and techniques from graph theory. This chapter itself can be regarded as a self-contained introduction to strongly regular and distance-regular graphs. This book is essentially self-contained, only assuming the knowledge of basic notions from (linear) algebra and projective and affine geometry. Almost all theorems are accompanied with proofs and a list of exercises with full solutions is given at the end of the book. This book is aimed at graduate students and researchers in the fields of combinatorics and incidence geometry.

The workshop was set up in order to stimulate the interaction between (finite and algebraic) geometries and groups. Five areas of concentrated research were chosen on which attention would be focused, namely: diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups, geometries viewed as incidence systems, properties of finite groups of Lie type, geometries related to finite simple groups, and algebraic groups. The list of talks (cf. page iii) illustrates how these subjects were represented during the workshop. The contributions to these proceedings mainly belong to the first three areas; therefore, (i) diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups, (ii) geometries viewed as incidence systems, and (iii) properties of finite groups of Lie type occur as section titles. The fourth and final section of these proceedings has been named graphs and groups; besides some graph theory, this encapsules most of the work related to finite simple groups that does not (explicitly) deal with diagram geometry. A few more words about the content: (i). Diagram geometries and chamber systems with transitive automorphism groups. As a consequence of Tits' seminal work on the subject, all finite buildings are known. But usually, in a situation where groups are to be characterized by certain data concerning subgroups, a lot less is known than the full parabolic picture corresponding to the building.

Hardbound. This Handbook deals with the foundations of incidence geometry, in relationship with division rings, rings, algebras, lattices, groups, topology, graphs, logic and its autonomous development from various viewpoints. Projective and affine geometry are covered in various ways. Major classes of rank 2 geometries such as generalized polygons and partial geometries are surveyed extensively.More than half of the book is devoted to buildings at various levels of generality, including a detailed and original introduction to the subject, a broad study of characterizations in terms of points and lines, applications to algebraic groups, extensions to topological geometry, a survey of results on diagram geometries and nearby generalizations such as matroids.

This is the second edition of the standard text on design theory. Exercises are included throughout, and the book concludes with an extensive and updated bibliography of well over 1800 items.

When? These are the proceedings of Finite Geometries, the Fourth Isle of Thorns Conference, which took place from Sunday 16 to Friday 21 July, 2000. It was organised by the editors of this volume. The Third Conference in 1990 was published as Advances in Finite Geometries and Designs by Oxford University Press and the Second Conference in 1980 was published as Finite Geometries and Designs by Cambridge University Press. The main speakers were A. R. Calderbank, P. J. Cameron, C. E. Praeger, B. Schmidt, H. Van Maldeghem. There were 64 participants and 42 contributions, all listed at the end of the volume. Conference web site http://www. maths. susx. ac. uk/Staff/JWPH/ Why? This collection of 21 articles describes the latest research and current state of the art in the following inter-linked areas: • combinatorial structures in finite projective and affine spaces, also known as Galois geometries, in which combinatorial objects such as blocking sets, spreads and partial spreads, ovoids, arcs and caps, as well as curves and hypersurfaces, are all of interest; • geometric and algebraic coding theory; • finite groups and incidence geometries, as in polar spaces, gener alized polygons and diagram geometries; • algebraic and geometric design theory, in particular designs which have interesting symmetric properties and difference sets, which play an important role, because of their close connections to both Galois geometry and coding theory.

On September 1-7, 1996 a conference on Groups and Geometries took place in lovely Siena, Italy. It brought together experts and interested mathematicians from numerous countries. The scientific program centered around invited exposi tory lectures; there also were shorter research announcements, including talks by younger researchers. The conference concerned a broad range of topics in group theory and geometry, with emphasis on recent results and open problems. Special attention was drawn to the interplay between group-theoretic methods and geometric and combinatorial ones. Expanded versions of many of the talks appear in these Proceedings. This volume is intended to provide a stimulating collection of themes for a broad range of algebraists and geometers. Among those themes, represented within the conference or these Proceedings, are aspects of the following: 1. the classification of finite simple groups, 2. the structure and properties of groups of Lie type over finite and algebraically closed fields of finite characteristic, 3. buildings, and the geometry of projective and polar spaces, and 4. geometries of sporadic simple groups. We are grateful to the authors for their efforts in providing us with manuscripts in LaTeX. Barbara Priwitzer and Thomas Hintermann, Mathematics Editors of Birkhauser, have been very helpful and supportive throughout the preparation of this volume.

The book deals with fundamental structural aspects of algebraic and simple groups, Coxeter groups and the related geometries and buildings. All contributing authors are very active researchers in the topics related to the theme of the book. Some of the articles provide the latest developments in the subject; some provide an overview of the current status of some important problems in this area; some survey an area highlighting the current developments; and some provide an exposition of an area to collect problems and conjectures. It is hoped that these articles would be helpful to a beginner to start independent research on any of these topics, as well as to an expert to know some of the latest developments or to consider some problems for investigation.

This is the first Supplementary volume to Kluwer's highly acclaimed Encyclopaedia of Mathematics. This additional volume contains nearly 600 new entries written by experts and covers developments and topics not included in the already published 10-volume set. These entries have been arranged alphabetically throughout. A detailed index is included in the book. This Supplementary volume enhances the existing 10-volume set. Together, these eleven volumes represent the most authoritative, comprehensive up-to-date Encyclopaedia of Mathematics available.