Technische Universität Dresden Diplomarbeit on Incidence Structures and Cellular Algebras

Technische Universität Dresden
Fachrichtung Mathematik
Institut für Algebra
Incidence structures and cellular algebras

revised Version
Diplomarbeit
zur Erlangung des ersten akademischen Grades
Diplommathematiker
vorgelegt von: Christian Pech,

geboren am 22.11.73
in Dresden
Tag der Einreichung: 15.01.98

Betreuer: Prof. Dr. M. Klin,
Prof. Dr. R. Pöschel
CONTENTS 2
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Preliminaries 7
2.1 Permutation groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Cellular algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
A. Definitions and notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
B. Symmetries of cellular algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
C. Some simple propositions about cellular algebras . . . . . . 15
D. Some distinguished classes of cellular algebras . . . . . . . 17
2.3 Incidence structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A. Definitions and notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
B. Symmetries of incidence structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
C. t-structures and t-designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
D. Some distinguished classes of designs . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3 Computations in cellular algebras 25

3.1 Permutation groups and centralizer algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Generating matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4 Flag algebras 30
4.1 Flag-algebras of symmetric 2-designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2 Flag-algebras of quasi-symmetric designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.3 Flag-algebras of quasi-balanced designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Applications of flag algebras 67

5.1 Hadamard-3-designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.2 The other parameter class of quasi-symmetric 3-designs . . . . . . 77
5.3 2-designs with λ = 1 and v < b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.4 Generalized quadrangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.5 Generalized triangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.6 Graphs associated to [L, N ] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
1 INTRODUCTION 3
1 Introduction
A combinatorial object can be interpreted as a basic set provided with a number
of relations. For instance a graph is defined as a set of vertices equipped with a
binary relation – the adjacency relation.
Between the permutations of the basic set and the relations a Galois correspon-
dence can be introduced. In particular, to each set of permutations the set of
all invariant relations and to each set of relations the set of all automorphisms is
associated. The closed objects of this Galois connection were first described by
M. Krasner in [Kra-38]. From one hand these are just the permutation groups
and from the other hand these are the so called Krasner-clones. This fact makes
it possible to characterize symmetries of combinatorial objects either through
permutation groups or (dually) through Krasner-clones.
In the investigation of transitive permutation groups the binary invariant relations
play a prominent role. Inspired by the work of I. Schur about S-rings, H. Wielandt
in [Wie-36] introduced the concept of the V-ring (German Vertauschungsring).
In the literature these rings are frequently called centralizer algebra. The V-ring
consists of exactly those complex matrices that commute with all permutational
matrices of the given group (see Section 3.1). It can be easily showed that the
adjacency matrices of the 2-orbits of the group form a basis of the V-ring. On
the other hand each binary invariant relation can be expressed as the union of
2-orbits.
The high importance of the V-rings in permutation group theory lead to the
development of a separate structural theory. In [WeiL-68] B. Yu. Weisfeiler and
A. A. Leman introduced cellular algebras. These are complex, self-adjoint matrix
algebras that are closed (in addition to the usual operations) with respect to the
so called Schur-Hadamard product (compare Section 2.2). It is easy to see that
each V-ring represents a cellular algebra. However, the opposite is not true in
general.
Another important element of this development is the theory of association
schemes. The basis of this theory was laid already in the 1930th by R. C. Bose
and K. R. Nair. Out of this evolved the investigation of the Bose-Mesner algebras,
which – from todays point of view – are a special class of cellular algebras.
For a long time the theories of the V-rings and of the association schemes de-
veloped independently. In [Hig-70] both concepts were brought together by
D. G. Higman. He introduced coherent configurations (as a basic set equipped
with a system of binary relation that fulfill certain axioms) and their associated
coherent algebras.
Coherent and cellular algebras comprise more or less the same class of algebraical
structures. In the literature both terms are used synonymously. This treatise uses
1 INTRODUCTION 4
the terminology of cellular algebras.

The coherent algebras represent at the same time algebraical and combinatorial
structures. This makes them to one of the most important tools in algebraic
combinatorics. They are especially useful for the description of symmetries of
combinatorial objects.
It was D.G. Higman who, in the 1980th, investigated some classes of low-rank co-
herent algebras and who observed the close relation to certain classes of incidence
structures.
Another interesting aspect of coherent configurations (in connection with inci-
dence geometries) was presented by P. H. Zieschang in [Zie-95]. Homogeneous
coherent configurations are called by him generalized groups. This makes it pos-
sible to interprete regular finite buildings as generalized groups in the same way
as thin buildings can be interpreted as groups (the Coxeter groups). An impor-
tant special case is formed by the dihedral configurations. These are coherent
configurations that are generated by two generalized involutions. They are in
a one to one correspondence with a class of incidence structures – the Coxeter
geometries ([Zie-97]). In particular, for a given Coxeter geometry the associated
dihedral configuration is the smallest coherent configuration that contains both:
the collinearity relation RL and the concurrency relation RN on the flags of the
geometry.
Algebras that are generated by the adjacency matrices L = A(RL ) and N =
A(RN ) have been treated much earlier. An especially successful application of
such algebras was presented by R. Kilmoyer and L. Solomon in [KilS-73]. There
a very elegant proof of the classical theorem of W. Feit and G. Higman was given.
This theorem says that generalized n-gons may only exist for n ∈ {2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12}.
Indeed, the generalized n-gons are special Coxeter geometries and the algebras
that were used in [KilS-73] are the associated dihedral algebras.
Finally, it is important to understand that there are numerous ways to represent
one and the same incidence structure as a combinatorial object in the above
sense. Apart from the classical definition it is possible to use the set of flags
as basic set and to equip it with the collinearity- and the concurrency relation.
Then the smallest coherent algebra containing L and N is called flag algebra of
the incidence structure.
Because of the close relation of coherent algebras with the V-rings of permutation
groups, it is possible to use the flag algebras for the examination of symmetries
of incidence structures. Here the term “symmetry” is to be understood in a
combinatorial sense as approximation of the usual symmetry concept since an
incidence structure with a small flag algebra needs not to have many automor-
phisms. However, if its automorphism group is large, one can expect that the
flag algebra has a low rank.
1 INTRODUCTION 5
The main topic of this treatise is, to classify incidence structures by properties
of their flag algebras, to find classes of especially symmetric incidence structures
and to examine their flag algebras.
In Section 2 the usual terminology for permutation groups, cellular algebras and
incidence structures is provided.
Section 3 contains descriptions of the most important combinatorial problems
for cellular algebras such as the construction of the first standard basis, the
computation of the structure constants and the cellular subalgebras etc. For
V-rings and for cellular algebras generated by matrices known methods for the
solutions of these tasks are given ([FarKM-94]).
The last two sections form the kernel of the treatise. Section 4 contains the
theoretical considerations. As was mentioned above, incidence structures can be
interpreted as relational structure on their flags. This allows to introduce such
terms as “L-path”, “N-path”, “L-distance”, “N-distance”, “L-connected” and
“N-connected”. This approach follows the methods of algebraical graph theory
for the investigation of adjacency algebras of graphs (see e.g. [Big-93]). Using
these concepts matrices are constructed that have to be contained in each flag
algebra. With these matrices it is possible to give a lower bound for the rank of
flag algebras. Incidence structures that attain this lower bound are called “flag
minimal”. Independently, incidence structures whose flag algebra is dihedral are
called “dihedral designs”. It is observed that each dihedral design must belong
to one of the following classes:
1) symmetric 2-designs,
2) quasi-symmetric designs with intersection numbers (0, µ) or
3) quasi-balanced designs with intersection numbers (0, λ; 0, µ) (see Section
2.3.D for a definition).
Especially remarkable are therefore the flag minimal dihedral designs.

For the case of designs a basis of the self-adjoint complex matrix algebra generated
by L and N is given. Following this the first standard basis of the flag algebra
for flag minimal dihedral designs is constructed. It turns out that these designs
play the same role in the theory of flag algebras as the distance regular graphs
do in the algebraic graph theory. In particular, the elements of the first standard
basis can be expressed only using the two distance concepts “L-distance” and
“N-distance”.
The three above mentioned classes of designs are considered in Sections 4.1, 4.2
and 4.3
In Section 4.1 results from [Smi-88] and [FarKM-94] about the flag algebras of
symmetric 2-designs are collected.
1 INTRODUCTION 6
For quasi-symmetric designs in Section 4.2, again, the known results from [KliMMZ-97]
about the flag algebras of 2-designs with λ = 1 are given. In addition to this two
other classes of flag minimal dihedral designs are described: the quasi-symmetric
3-designs and the affine point-hyperplane designs. For these classes of algebras
generating relations are elaborated.
Section 4.3 starts with a consideration of disconnected designs. This was not done
before since the 2-designs are self-evidently both: L-connected and N-connected.
A proof is presented that in general for designs the to concepts L-connected and
N-connected are equivalent. This is followed by a complete description of the
disconnected flag-minimal dihedral designs using connected flag minimal dihedral
designs. Finally, a proof for the fact that generalized n-gons are flag-minimal and
dihedral is given. In principle this was already known from [KilS-73]. However,
no evident proof is given there that the considered algebras are coherent.
In Section 5 the combinatorial standard problems for some of the flag algebras
from Section 4 are treated. Using a special kind of term rewriting systems the
structure constants for whole classes of algebras are computed. Each constant
is then a function. The cellular subalgebras are constructed using the method
from Section 3. Using the structure constants it is possible to search for other
types of combinatorial objects such as distance regular graphs (drg), strongly
regular graphs (srg) or directed strongly regular graphs (dsrg). In this way a
few infinite families of directed strongly regular graphs are discovered. At the
end of the section an attempt is made to generalize these series of dsrgs to other
(non flag-minimal) classes of designs. The result is, that two of the families
can be extended to all 2-designs. Another series can be generalized to all quasi-
symmetric 2-designs with intersection numbers (0, µ) and with k = 2µ or µ = 1.
The supplement contains MAPLE-implementations of the following combinato-
rial algorithms:
• Calculation of the structure constants and construction of the cellular sub-

algebras,
• Search for directed strongly regular graphs.
For those algebras where the automatic construction of the cellular subalgebras
was not successful, protocols of the hand-computations are added.
Hereby I declare that I wrote this master thesis independently. All results were
obtained basing on the sources that are mentioned in the section “References”.
Moreover, each citation is marked appropriately in the text.
2 PRELIMINARIES 7
2 Preliminaries
2.1 Permutation groups

Definition 2.1 (Permutation) Let Ω be a set of n elements. A bijective map
π : Ω −→ Ω is called permutation of Ω. The image of an element x ∈ Ω under a
permutation π of Ω will be denoted as xπ .
Lemma 2.2 Let Ω be a set of n elements. Then the set of all permutations of
Ω forms a group S(Ω) — the full symmetric group of Ω. The operations in S(Ω)
are the usual composition of maps and the inversion of maps according to:
• x(πφ) = (xπ )φ ,
−1
• xπ = y ⇐⇒ y π = x.
Definition 2.3 (Permutation Group) Let Ω be a finite set (|Ω| = n). A

subgroup U ≤ S(Ω) is called permutation group of Ω. Additionally define
1) the degree of U as deg(U ) := n and
2) the order of U as ord(U ) := |U |.
Definition 2.4 (Orbit) Let G ≤ S(Ω) be a permutation group. Let x ∈ Ω

then
xG := {y ∈ Ω | ∃π ∈ G : xπ = y}
is called the orbit that is generated by x (or just orbit of x).
Lemma 2.5 Let G ≤ S(Ω) be a permutation group. For x, y ∈ Ω define x ∼

y ⇐⇒ y ∈ xG . Then ∼ is an equivalence relation of Ω. Thus Ω splits into
orbits of G. The set of all orbits of G on Ω will be denoted as orb(G, Ω).
Definition 2.6 (Action) Let G be a finite group (not necessarily a permuta-

tion group). Let Ω be a finite set. Let
Φ : G × Ω −→ Ω.
The triple (G, Ω, Φ) is called action of G on Ω if:

2 PRELIMINARIES 8
1) ∀x ∈ Ω ϕ(e, x) = x (where e is the identity element of G),
2) ∀x ∈ Ω, ∀g, h ∈ G ϕ(gh, x) = ϕ(h, ϕ(g, x)).
Remarks:
1) Let G be finite group and let (G, Ω, Φ) be an action of G on the finite set
Ω. Then Φ induces a homomorphism Φ e of G into S(Ω) according to:
xΦ(g) := Φ(g, x).

e
2) The image of G under Φ

e is called permutation representation of G on Ω
(with respect to Φ).
3) Let K = ker(Φ)e := {g ∈ G | Φ(g)

e = id} be the kernel of Φ.
e Then (G, Ω, Φ)
will be called faithful if |K| = 1.
4) If (G, Ω, Φ) is faithful then it will be identified with Φ(G).

e If in addition Φ
is clear from the context then the action (G, Ω, Φ) is denoted as (G, Ω) —
the usual notation for a permutation group on Ω.
Notation: Let U and G be groups such that U ≤ G. Then NG (U ) denotes the

normalizer of U in G. If G = S(Ω) then instead of NS(Ω) (U ) the form N(U, Ω)
or even N(U ) will be used.
A more detailed introduction to permutation groups can be found e.g. in [Wie-64],
[KliPR-88] or [Ker-91].
2.2 Cellular algebras

A. Definitions and notations
Following some definitions for different types of linear operator algebras will be
given. As the terminology in this field is to be considered as classical, termini
such as e.g. vector space, linear operator or adjoint operator will be used without
further introduction. A rather extensive treatment of the matter can be found in
[Gre-63] and [Koc-62].
Definition 2.7 (B-Algebra) Let V be a finite dimensional vector space over

the complex number field C. A set W of linear operators from V into itself is
called B-algebra if it complies to the following axioms:
1) The identity operator I is element of W ,

2 PRELIMINARIES 9
2) ∀A, B ∈ W : the sum A + B ∈ W ,

3) ∀A ∈ W, ∀λ ∈ C : the scalar multiple λA ∈ W ,
4) ∀A, B ∈ W : the operator product A · B ∈ W ,
5) ∀A ∈ W : the adjoint operator A∗ ∈ W .
Definition 2.8 (Cellular Algebra) Let V be a finite dimensional vector

space over the complex number field C. Let v = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } be a basis of V .
Let further on W be the matrix representation of a B-algebra on V with respect
to v. W is called cellular algebra if it fulfills the following axioms (in addition to
the axioms of a B-algebra):
1) W contains the all-1 matrix J

2) W is closed with respect to the Schur-Hadamard multiplication which is
defined as follows: A = (aij ), B = (bij )
A◦B = C = (cij ) where cij = aij bij
Note that for the definition of cellular algebras it is really necessary to fix a base
in V since the Schur-Hadamard product cannot be defined base independently
(it is a combinatorial property of the algebra).
Proposition 2.9 (Schur-Wielandt Principle) Let W be a cellular algebra.

Let A = (aij ) ∈ W , 0 6= c = aij ∈ C for some i and j.
Then the matrix

1 aij = c
A(c) = (cij ) where cij =
0 else
is element of W .
2:
If A does only have entries c and 0 then nothing has to be proved.
Otherwise let {x1 = c, x2 , . . . , xk } be the set of different entries of A. Define
A(i) = A − xi J and
Ã := A◦A(2) ◦ · · · ◦A(k) , Ã = (ãij ) .
Then ãij 6= 0 ⇐⇒ aij = c. Moreover all entries of Ã are equal to c(c − x2 )(c −
x3 ) · · · (c − xk ) or 0. Thus we get
1
A(c) = Ã
c(c − x2 )(c − x3 ) · · · (c − xk )
:2
2 PRELIMINARIES 10
Proposition 2.10 (Existence of the first standard basis) Let W be a

cellular algebra. Then W contains a basis hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i of 0/1-matrices with
the following properties:
1) A1 + A2 + · · · + Ar = J,
2) Ai ◦Aj = δij Ai ,
3) For each i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r} there exists a j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r} such that A∗i = Aj .
This basis is called first standard basis of W .
2:
In this proof the notion “support” of a matrix A = (aij ) will be used. It is defined
as the set of all pairs (i, j) such that aij 6= 0.
Because of the Schur-Wielandt principle each element A of W can be expressed
as
A = a1 A(a1 ) + a2 A(a2 ) + · · · + ak A(ak )
where A(ai ) is a 0/1-matrix. From this follows that W has a basis of 0/1-matrices,
suppose this is
W = hB1 , B2 , . . . , Bs i.
Take any two distinct elements Bi , Bj for which Bi ◦Bj 6= 0 Define B̃i = Bi −
(Bi ◦Bj ), B̃j = Bj − (Bi ◦Bj ), B̃ = Bi ◦Bj . Then
n o
B1 , B2 , . . . , Bi−1 , B̃i , Bi+1 , . . . , Bj−1 , B̃j , Bj+1 . . . , Bs , B̃
is still a (linearly) generating set of W . Repeating this procedure leads to a gen-

erating set of matrices with mutually disjoint support. Because of this property
this set of matrices forms a base hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i of W .
Let Ai be any of these basis elements. Then
r
X
A∗i = a k Ak .
k=1
Suppose ai = 1 then Ai = A∗i (the number of non-zero entries of A∗i and of Ai

must be equal).
Suppose ai = 0 and more than one other coefficient — say aj and ak — are equal
to 1. Then the support of A∗j is strictly contained in the support of Ai . But this
is a contradiction to the basis properties of hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i.
Consequently A∗i = Aj for some j.
This completes the proof.
:2
2 PRELIMINARIES 11
Definition 2.11 (Structure Constants) Let W be a cellular algebra with

first standard basis hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i. Then for each i, j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r} the product
Ai Aj is expressible as linear combination of the elements of the first standard
basis. In particular
Xr
A i Aj = pki,j Ak .
k=1
The parameters pki,j are non-negative integers. They are called structure constants
of W .
Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra over Cn . Then:
1) r is called the rank of W — denoted as rank(W ),
2) n is called the degree of W — denoted as deg(W ).
The class of cellular algebras of a fixed degree n will be denoted as Wn .

Remarks:
1) In the sequel, when we write W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i for a cellular algebra,

then hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i is assumed to be the first standard basis of W .
2) The original definition of a cellular algebra did not require that the unit
operator I must be included. However, in this thesis only such cellular
algebras will be treated which are proper B-algebras.
3) The algebra of all n × n-matrices is cellular.
4) The number of cellular algebras of fixed degree n is bounded by the number

of partitions of J into 0/1 matrices. In particular Wn is finite.
5) Wn can be ordered naturally using the usual inclusion.
It can be easily checked that the intersection of any set of cellular algebra of degree
n is again a cellular algebra. Therefore (as usual for algebraical structures) the
class (Wn , ⊆) forms a complete lattice.
Moreover, in Wn a closure operator can be defined as follows:
Definition 2.12 (WL-Closure) Let M be a set of complex n × n matrices.

Define \
h hM i i := {W ∈ Wn | M ⊆ W }.
Then h hM i i is the smallest cellular algebra containing M .
2 PRELIMINARIES 12
In more combinatorial definitions of cellular algebras often instead of the closeness

against adjunction the closeness against matrix transposition is required. The
following lemma will show that the above given definition of cellular algebras
matches exactly the combinatorial concept.
Lemma 2.13 Let V be a linear space over the complex number field C. Let W
a matrix representation of a linearly closed subset of operators on V that has a
basis hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i of real matrices.
Then W is closed with respect to transposition if and only if W is closed with
respect to adjunction.
2:
“=⇒”: P
Let A ∈ W , A = ai Ai . Since the Ai are real matrices, we have
X X
A∗ = ai A∗i = ai Ati
Now each Ati is in turn a linear combination of the Aj :

X
Ati = xij Aj
This implies
r X
X r
∗
A = ai xij Aj
i=1 j=1
But this is of course an element of W .
“⇐=”:
exactly the same reasoning as above leads to the closeness with respect to trans-
position.
:2
The following terms and notations are commonly used in the theory of cellular
algebras.
Definition 2.14 (Cell) Let W be a cellular algebra and hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be

its first standard basis. W is called cell if the identity operator I is element of
{A1 , A2 , . . . , Ar }.
Definition 2.15 (Partition of a Cellular Algebra) Let W be a cellu-

lar algebra of degree n. Let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be some partition of the set
{1, 2, . . . , n}.
2 PRELIMINARIES 13
For x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} define the following n × n matrices:

(x,y) 1 i ∈ P x , j ∈ Py
J := (ui,j ) where ui,j =
0 else
P is called cellular partition if J (x,y) ∈ W for all x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}.
Lemma 2.16 Let W be a cellular algebra of degree n and let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt }

be some partition of the set {1, 2, . . . , n}.
For x ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} define

(x) 1 i = j, i ∈ Px
I = (wi,j ) where wi,j = .
0 else
Then P is cellular if and only if I (x) ∈ W for all x ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}.
2:
If P is cellular then one can easily see that I (x) = I◦J (x,x) .
If I (x) ∈ W for all x then we can define J (x,y) = I (x) JI (y) .
:2
Lemma 2.17 Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra which is not a cell.

Without loss of generality assume that I can be expressed as I = A1 +A2 +· · ·+At .
For i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} define Pi := {x | (Ai )xx = 1}.
Then P := {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } is a cellular partition of W . Moreover P is the finest
cellular partition of W . This partition will be called main partition of W .
2
Notation: Let W be a cellular algebra, let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be a cellular
partition of W . Let A ∈ W and let x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}. Then A<x,y> shall denote
the submatrix of A that is induced by Px × Py .
In analogy with J (x,y) define A(x,y) := A◦J (x,y) .
Lemma 2.18 Let W be a cellular algebra, let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be a cellular

partition of W and let A ∈ W . Then P induces a decomposition of A
 
A<1,1> A<1,2> · · · A<1,t>
 A<2,1> A<2,2> · · · A<2,t> 
A=
 
.. .. .. .. 
 . . . . 
<t,1> <t,2> <t,t>
A A ··· A
2 PRELIMINARIES 14
If P is the main partition of W then this decomposition is tactical. This means

that for all x, y there exist constants rxy and cxy such that
A(x,y) J (y,y) = rx,y J (x,y)

J (x,x) A(x,y) = cx,y J (x,y)
Lemma 2.19 Let W be a cellular algebra and let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be a

cellular partition of W . Then for each x ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}
Wx := {A<x,x> | A ∈ W }
is a cellular algebra. If P is the main partition of W then the Wx are cells. They
will be referred to as the cells of W .
Definition 2.20 (Cell Type) Let W be a cellular algebra with first standard
basis hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i. Let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be a cellular partition of W .
Then by Lemma 2.18 for each basis element Ai there exists exactly one pair
(x,y)
x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} such that Ai 6= 0. This leads to a partition of the basis into
t2 classes. According to this observation the type of P is defined as
T (P) = (tx,y )

where tx,y := A ∈ {A1 , A2 , . . . , Ar } | A(x,y) 6= 0 .
Remark: The type of the main partition of W is called cell type of W and is
denoted as T (W ).
B. Symmetries of cellular algebras
Definition 2.21 (Isomorphism) Let W1 = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i and

W2 = hB1 , B2 , . . . , Br i be cellular algebras of degree n and of rank r. A permu-
tation matrix P is called isomorphism from W1 to W2 if:
∀i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r} : Ai P = P Bi
Definition 2.22 (Automorphism) Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular al-

gebra. A permutation matrix P is called weak automorphism of W if
∀i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r}∃j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r} : Ai P = P Aj .
If in addition
∀i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r} : Ai P = P Ai
then P is called automorphism of W .
2 PRELIMINARIES 15
Lemma 2.23 Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra of degree n. Then

the following are true:
1) The set of all weak automorphisms of W forms a group (under usual com-
position and inversion of matrices). It is denoted as wAut(W ).
2) The set of all automorphisms of W forms a group. It is denoted as Aut(W ).
The two groups Aut(W ) and wAut(W ) act naturally on {1, 2, . . . , n}. In par-
ticular define the action ( wAut(W ), {1, 2, . . . , n}, Φ) according to (P, x) 7→ xπ
where iπ = j ⇐⇒ Pi,j = 1. Moreover this action is faithful. In the sequel
no distinction will be made between the representation as matrix group and the
representation as permutation group. The following interesting relation of the
two groups is given here without a proof:
Proposition 2.24 Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra. Let Aut(W )

and wAut(W ) be as defined above then Aut(W ) wAut(W ).
C. Some simple propositions about cellular algebras
This subsection was included to give some motivation for the algebraical approach
to cellular algebras that was given above.
For classical notions such as invariant subspace, character, irreducibility of in-
variant subspaces or multiplicity of characters no self-contained introduction is
given though. For a good introduction [Koc-62] can be used.
Lemma 2.25 Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cell of degree n and let ~j be the all
one vector. Then the following are true:
1) h~ji is a W -invariant subspace of C.
2) Let χ be the character that is afforded by h~ji through
χ(A) = λ where A~j = λ~j
then χ has multiplicity 1.
3) For all i ∈ {1, . . . , r} the value of χ(Ai ) is equal to the spectral radius of
Ai .
2:
(1) this is equivalent to the statement that the elements of the first standard
basis are adjacency matrices of regular graphs. For cells this is easily verified.
2 PRELIMINARIES 16
(2) In order to proof this statement it is enough to find one element A of W

for which the eigenvalue χ(A) has multiplicity one. Take A = J − I. Then the
following set of vectors forms an Eigenbase of A:
x1 = (1, 1, . . . , 1), x2 = (1, −1, 0, . . . , 0)

x3 = (0, 1, −1, 0, . . . , 0) . . . xn = (0, 0, . . . , 1, −1)
The corresponding eigenvalues are as follows: Ax1 = (n − 1)x1 , Axi = −xi for
i ∈ {2, . . . , n}.
(3) Let A = Ai for some i and let k be the eigenvalue of A belonging to ~j (k is a
positive real integer). Let λ be any other eigenvalue of A and ~x = (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn )
be an arbitrary eigenvector of λ. Let xi be an entry of ~x with maximal absolute
value. Then
n
X
(A~x)i = λxi = aij xj
j=1

Xn
|λxi | = |λ||xi | = aij xj

j=1
n
X n
X
≤ |aij ||xj | = aij |xj |
j=1 j=1
Xn
≤ aij |xi | = k|xi |
j=1
xi 6= 0 =⇒ |λ| ≤ k
:2
The previous lemma points out the existence of a distinguished character for any
cell W (it is closely related to the theorem of Perron and Frobenius which makes
a similar claim for irreducible positive real matrices; see for instance [Gan-70]).
It will be used in the following lemma to give an algebraic characterization of the
number of cells of a cellular algebra.
Lemma 2.26 Let W be a cellular algebra of degree n and let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt }

be its main partition. Then
1) there exists an irreducible W -invariant subspace H of dimension t in Cn ,

2) H = hj~1 , j~2 , . . . , j~t i where j~x = I (x,x)~j (~j is the all 1 vector).
3) the character χ that is afforded by H maps an element Ai of the first
standard basis of W onto its spectral radius if and only if there exists
(x,x)
x ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} such that Ai 6= 0, else it is mapped onto 0,
2 PRELIMINARIES 17
4) χ has multiplicity one,
2:
First we prove point 1 and 2.
(x,y)
Let Ai be a basis element of W and let x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} such that Ai 6= 0.
By Lemma 2.18
(x,y)
Ai J (y,y) = rJ (x,y) (1)
where r is some positive integer (depending on Ai ). Then Ai j~k = δkx rj~y . From
this follows that H is indeed W -invariant. By easy computations using Equation
1 one can observe that the restriction of W onto H is the full operator algebra
A(H). Thus H is irreducible.
About 3:
(x,y)
Let Ai be a basis element of W and let x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} such that Ai 6= 0.
Let Ãi be the matrix of Ai operating on H in the above given basis. Equation
1 states that Ai j~k 6= 0 if and only if k = x. From this follows immediately that
tr(Ãi ) 6= 0 ⇐⇒ x = y.
Assume that x = y. Then Ai corresponds to a basis element A of the cell Wx
(namely A<x,x>
i ). The spectrum of A is contained in the spectrum of Ai . All
other eigenvalues of Ai are equal to 0. Now Lemma 2.25 gives the desired result.
About 4:
Consider once again the all 1 matrix of some cell Wi of W . Then this has its
spectral radius as eigenvalue with multiplicity one. Consequently the W -invariant
subspace H is unique and thus the multiplicity of χ is equal to one.
:2
D. Some distinguished classes of cellular algebras
Strongly regular graphs
Definition 2.27 (Strongly Regular Graph) Let Γ = (V, E) be a simple

undirected graph with v vertices. Let A be its adjacency matrix. Then Γ is
called strongly regular if there exist non-negative integers k, λ, µ such that
A2 = kI + λA + µ(J − A − I)
The tuple (v, k, λ, µ) is called set of parameters of Γ.
Proposition 2.28 Let Γ be a simple, undirected graph with adjacency matrix A.

Then the following are equivalent:
1) Γ is strongly regular with parameters (v, k, λ, µ)

2) h hAi i = hI, A, J − A − Ii. In other words h hAi i is a rank 3-cell.
2 PRELIMINARIES 18
Distance regular graphs The distance regular graphs play a very prominent
role in algebraic graph theory. Many interesting results in group theory and
combinatorics were obtained with their help.
Here their definition is given mainly because they form a rather natural general-
ization of the class of strongly regular graphs.
A very detailed exposition of the theory of distance regular graphs can be found
in [BroCN-89].
Definition 2.29 Let Γ = (V, E) be a simple, undirected graph.
1) A sequence of x distinct vertices (v1 , v2 , . . . , vx ) is called walk of length x−1

from v1 to vx if for all 1 < i ≤ x : (vi−1 , vi ) ∈ E. A walk is called path if
vi−1 6= vi+1 for all 2 ≤ i ≤ x − 1.
2) Γ is called connected if for any two vertices v and w there exists a path
from v to w.
3) If Γ is connected then the distance d(v, w) between two vertices v and w is
defined to be the minimal length that a path from v to w can have. The
diameter of Γ is defined as diam(Γ) := maxv,w∈V d(v, w).
4) Let Γ be connected, let v ∈ V and 0 < i ≤ diam(Γ). Then Γ(i) (v) := {x ∈
V | d(v, x) = i}.
Definition 2.30 (Distance Regular Graph) Let Γ = (V, E) be a simple,

undirected, connected graph of diameter d. Γ is called distance regular if there
exist sequences of non-negative integers (ai )di=0 , (bi )d−1 d
i=0 and (ci )i=1 such that for
any two vertices v and w of Γ with d(v, w) = i:
ai = |Γ(i) (v) ∩ Γ(1) (w)|
bi = |Γ(i+1) (v) ∩ Γ(1) (w)|
ci = |Γ(i−1) (v) ∩ Γ(1) (w)|
The array  
a0 a1 . . . ad−1 ad
 b0 b1 . . . bd−1 ∗ 
∗ c1 . . . cd−1 cd
is called intersection array of Γ.
Proposition 2.31 Let Γ be a distance regular graph with intersection array

 
a0 a1 . . . ad−1 ad
 b0 b1 . . . bd−1 ∗ .
∗ c1 . . . cd−1 cd
2 PRELIMINARIES 19
Let A be its adjacency matrix. Then
h hAi i = hA0 , A1 , . . . , Ad i
where
1 d(x, y) = i
Ai = (ax,y ) with ax,y =
0 else
Moreover A0 = I, A1 = A and
AAi = ci+1 Ai+1 + ai Ai + bi−1 Ai−1 for 0 ≤ i ≤ d
with the additional assumption that A−1 = Ad+1 = 0 and b−1 = cd+1 = 0.
2:
The proof of this proposition will be omitted here. It is not too difficult and can
be found e.g. in [KliPR-88] or [BroCN-89].
:2
Dihedral algebras
Definition 2.32 (Generalized Involution) Let W be a cellular algebra. An

element A ∈ W is called generalized involution if
1) A is element of the first standard basis of W ,
2) there exists an integer x such that A2 = xI + (x − 1)A.
Lemma 2.33 Let W be a cellular algebra. W is called dihedral if it contains two

generalized involutions A and B such that
W = h hA, Bi i.
Remark: Dihedral algebras were introduced by P. H. Zieschang as generaliza-

tions of dihedral groups in the structural theory of association schemes (which
correspond to cells in the notation of cellular algebras).
This theory gives a generalization of the concept of groups in a very natural way.
It can be shown that to each dihedral configuration there corresponds a geometry
(the so called Coxeter geometry). For details see e.g. [Zie-95], [Zie-97].
2 PRELIMINARIES 20
2.3 Incidence structures

A. Definitions and notations
The following small introduction to incidence structures follows closely to [HugP-85].

In particular the notations used here are compatible with those used by Hughes
and Piper.
Definition 2.34 (Incidence Structure) Let P be a set of points, B be a set

of blocks such that P ∩ B = ∅ and let F ⊆ P × B be a set of flags. Then the
triple (P, B, F) is called incidence structure.
Notations:
1) Points will be denoted by capital Latin letters such as P, Q, . . .. Blocks will

be denoted as small Latin letters such as a, b, . . ..
2) Let P ∈ P, a ∈ B such that (P, a) ∈ F. This situation will be referred to

by different formulations including:
• P lies on a,
• a contains P ,
• a goes through P ,
• P and a are incident,
or whatever else may be convenient.
3) The number of points and blocks will be denoted by v and b respectively.
4) If P is a point then hP i denotes the set of blocks through P . Dually, if a is

a block then hai denotes the set of points on a.
5) For a point P define |P | := |hP i|. Correspondingly, for a block a define

|a| := |hai|.
6) Let S be an incidence structure. If there exist two distinct blocks a and b

of S such that hai = hbi then S is said to have repeated blocks. Dually, if
there exit two distinct points P and Q such that hP i = hQi then S is said
to have repeated points.
7) An incidence structure is called non-trivial if
(a) v > 1, b > 1,

(b) for all P ∈ P : 1 < |hP i| < b − 1,
(c) for all a ∈ B : 1 < |hai| < v − 1.
2 PRELIMINARIES 21
8) A non-trivial incidence structure S is called uniform if there exists a k > 0

such that each block contains exactly k points.
9) A non-trivial incidence structure S is called regular if there exists an r > 0
such that each point lies on exactly r blocks.
10) A non-trivial, uniform, regular incidence structure without repeated blocks
is called design.
Remark: In what follows only incidence structures without repeated blocks shall
be considered. In this case each block is determined by the set of points on it.
For that reason a block b will be identified with hbi. In particular, the incidence
relation F can be assumed to be the relation of inclusion (∈). Instead of (P, B, F)
sometimes the shortened notation (P, B) will be used. For reasons of convenience,
sometimes we will also identify a point P with hP i.
There are many different ways to associate an incidence structure to a given one.
A few of these constructions will be introduced now.
Definition 2.35 (Dual Structure) Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence struc-
ture. Then define the dual structure S ∗ of S by exchanging the role of points and
of blocks. In other words S ∗ := (B, P, F ∗ ) where F ∗ = {(p, P ) | (P, p) ∈ F}.
Definition 2.36 (Complementary Structure) Let S = (P, B, F) be an in-

cidence structure. Then the complementary structure S of S is defined by comple-
menting the incidence relation. Namely, S := (P, B, F) where F = (P × B) \ F.
Definition 2.37 (Internal, External Structure) Let S = (P, B, F) be

an incidence structure. Let P ∈ P be some point. Then the internal structure
SP of S at P is defined as follows:
SP := (P 0 , B 0 , F 0 )
where
B 0 = {b ∈ B | (P, b) ∈ F}
P 0 = {Q ∈ P \ {P } | ∃b ∈ B 0 : (Q, b) ∈ F}
F 0 = F ∩ (P 0 × B 0 ).
Similarly the external structure S P of S at P is defined. Namely:
S P := (P 00 , B 00 , F 00 )
where
B 00 = {b ∈ B | (P, b) ∈ / F}
P = {Q ∈ P | ∃b ∈ B 00 : (Q, b) ∈ F }
00
F 00 = F ∩ (P 00 × B 00 ).
2 PRELIMINARIES 22
Dually, for a block b ∈ B the structures Sb and S b can be defined as internal and
external structures in S ∗ .
B. Symmetries of incidence structures
Definition 2.38 (Isomorphism) Let S1 = (P1 , B1 , F1 ) and S2 = (P2 , B2 , F2 )

be two incidence structures. Then S1 and S2 are said to be isomorphic if there
exist bijective maps ϕ : P1 −→ P2 and ψ : B1 −→ B2 such that
(P, p) ∈ F1 ⇐⇒ (ϕ(P ), ψ(p)) ∈ F2 .
In this case we will write

S1 ∼
= S2 .
The pair (ϕ, ψ) will be called isomorphism from S1 to S2 .
Definition 2.39 (Automorphism) Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence struc-

ture. An isomorphism (ϕ, ψ) from S onto itself will be called automorphism of
S. The two maps ϕ and ψ are elements of S(P) and S(B) respectively.
Lemma 2.40 If S is an incidence structure, then the set of automorphisms of

S forms a group under componentwise operations according to
(ϕ1 , ψ1 )(ϕ2 , ψ2 ) = (ϕ1 ϕ2 , ψ1 ψ2 )

(ϕ, ψ)−1 = (ϕ−1 , ψ −1 )
This group will be denoted as Aut(S).
For the automorphism group of an incidence structure there can be introduced

two natural actions — one on the points and the other on the blocks:
Definition 2.41 Let S be an incidence structure and let G be its automorphism

group. Define the two actions (G, P, Φ1 ) and (G, B, Φ2 ) according to
Φ1 ((ϕ, ψ), P ) := P ϕ
Φ2 ((ϕ, ψ), b) := bψ
Proposition 2.42 With the notions from above the following are true:
1) (G, P, Φ1 ) is faithful if and only if S does not have repeated blocks.

2) (G, B, Φ2 ) is faithful if and only if S does not have repeated points.
2
2 PRELIMINARIES 23
C. t-structures and t-designs
Definition 2.43 (t-Structure) Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure,

let t ∈ N \ {0}. S is called t-structure if there exists an integer λt such that each
t-element subset of P is contained in exactly λt blocks.
Notations:
1) A uniform t-structure is called t-(v, k, λt ) structure or t-structure with pa-

rameters (v, k, λt ).
2) A design that is at the same time a t-(v, k, λt ) structure is called t-(v, b, r, k, λt )

design or just t-design with parameters (v, b, r, k, λt ).
Proposition 2.44 Let S = (P, B, F) be a uniform t-(v, k, λt ) structure. Then

S is a s-structure for any 0 ≤ s < t.
2:
Let 0 ≤ s < t. Let S ⊆ P such that |S| = s.
A pair (T, b) of a t-element point-set T and a block b is called good if S ⊆ T and
T ⊆ b.
Let us count the good pairs in two different ways:
From one hand there are v−s

t−s
t-element subsets of P containing S each of which
is contained in λt blocks. This gives v−s

t−s
λt good pairs.
From the other hand assume there are m blocks containing S. Then for each such
block there are k−s
t−s
t-element subsets of P that contain S. This yields m k−s
t−s
good pairs.
All in all we have
v−s k−s
λt =m .
t−s t−s
Consequently
(v − s)! (k − t)!
m = λt .
(v − t)! (k − s)!
This means in particular that m is independent on the actual choice of S. Ex-
pansion of the formula gives:
(v − s)(v − s − 1) · · · (v − t + 1)
m = λt .
(k − s)(k − s − 1) · · · (k − t + 1)

:2
2 PRELIMINARIES 24
Proposition 2.45 Let D = (P, B) be a t-(v, b, r, k, λt ) design with t ≥ 2. Let

P ∈ P be a point of D. Then the internal structure DP is a (t−1)-(v −1, r, λ2 , k −
1, λt ) design.
Definition 2.46 (Extendable design) A t-design D = (P, B) is called ex-

tendable if there exists a (t + 1)-design D0 = (P 0 , B 0 ) and a point P ∈ P 0 such
that D ∼
= D0 P . In this case D0 is called extension of D.
D. Some distinguished classes of designs
This subsection will be used to introduce some classes of designs that will be of
special interest later in this thesis.
Definition 2.47 (Symmetric Design) A 2-design D is called symmetric de-

sign if it has the same amount of points as of blocks (v = b). It is easily observed
that a symmetric 2-design has parameters of the form (v, v, k, k, λ2 ).
Definition 2.48 (Quasi-Symmetric Design) A 2-(v, b, r, k, λ2 ) design D is

called quasi-symmetric design if there exist integers x < y such that for two
distinct blocks b1 and b2 of D either |b1 ∩ b2 | = x or |b1 ∩ b2 | = y. In this case x
and y are called intersection numbers of the quasi-symmetric design D.
Sometimes a quasi-symmetric design is denoted as 2-(v, b, r, k, λ2 )-(x, y) design.
Definition 2.49 (Quasi-Balanced Design) A design D with parameters (v, b, r, k)

is called quasi-balanced if there exist four integers u < w and x < y such that:
1) for each distinct pair of points P1 and P2 either |P1 ∩P2 | = u or |P1 ∩P2 | = w,
2) for each distinct pair of blocks b1 and b2 either |b1 ∩ b2 | = x or |b1 ∩ b2 | = y.
In this case (u, w; x, y) are called intersection numbers of D.

Sometimes a quasi-balanced design is denotes as (v, b, r, k)-(u, w; x, y) design.
Definition 2.50 (Partial Linear Space) A quasi-balanced design D with pa-

rameters (v, b, r, k)-(0, 1; 0, 1) is called partial linear space.
3 COMPUTATIONS IN CELLULAR ALGEBRAS 25
3 Computations in cellular algebras

Cellular algebras are at the same time algebraical and combinatorial objects.
From one hand they can be treated as special cases of B-algebras. From the
other hand the existence (and uniqueness) of the first standard basis together
with the structure constants gives a completely combinatorial definition.
The combinatorial nature of cellular algebras gives raise to many computational
problems which can (and sometimes must) be solved using computers. Before
going into detail about existing algorithms and program implementations thereof
let us have a look onto a general statement of the common tasks:
Imagine, we are given some information that describes a cellular algebra (it does
not matter now, of which nature this information is). Then the following tasks
are desirable:
1) Compute the standard representation of the algebra (in form of its first
standard basis)!
2) Compute the structure constants of the cellular algebra!
3) Compute the lattice of cellular subalgebras!
4) Compute the automorphism group of the algebra (the automorphism groups

of the cellular subalgebras may be of interest too)!
In the following these problems are considered for different common situations.
3.1 Permutation groups and centralizer algebras

As initial information we are given some permutation group (G, Ω). The desired
cellular algebra is the centralizer algebra V(G, Ω) which is defined as follows.
To each element π of (G, Ω) there corresponds naturally a permutation matrix
P ∈ A(CΩ ). Now
V(G, Ω) := {X ∈ A(CΩ ) | ∀π ∈ (G, Ω) : XP = P X}.
Problem 1
It is a very well known fact that the elements of the first standard basis of V(G, Ω)
are the adjacency matrices of the 2-orbit graphs of (G, Ω). The computation of
these graphs is straightforward. Thus problem 1 is solved in this case.
Problem 2
For the solution of problem 2 let us restate the definition of structure constants
in a combinatorial way:
Suppose, we are given a cellular algebra W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i. Then for any

i, j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , r}
X r
Ai Aj = pki,j Ak =: A.
k=1
On the other hand, assuming Ai = (ax,y ), Aj = (bx,y ), A = (cx,y ), we have

n
X
cx,y = ax,z bz,y .
z=1
If we define for each Ai from the first standard basis the relation
Ri := {(x, y) | ax,y = 1}
then we get
cx,y = |{z | (x, z) ∈ Ri , (z, y) ∈ Rj }| .
By definition of a cellular algebra, if (x, y) ∈ Rk then cx,y = pki,j .
Thus each structure constant is obtained by simple counting.
Improvements of the above stated scheme are possible by using the known re-
lations between the structure constants. This usually has the effect that fewer
structure constants have to be counted. However, each relation that is taken into
account first of all increases the overhead of the algorithm. Experience shows
that for algebras of rather small rank such theoretical improvements do not lead
to much higher speed.
Still, if the first standard basis contains many anti-symmetric elements then the
following easy observation may be useful:
Assume for each basis element Ai its mate Ai0 is known such that Ai ∗ = Ai0 .
Then
0
pki,j = pkj 0 ,i0 .
Problem 3
For the computation of cellular subalgebras one makes use of the following fact:
Lemma 3.1 Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra. Let U ≤ W where

U has first standard basis hB1 , B2 , . . . , Bs i. Then there exists a partition of
{1, 2, . . . , r} into s subsets I1 , I2 , . . . , Is such that for any k ∈ {1, 2, . . . , s}
X
Bk = Aj .
j∈Ik
2
Now the main principle is to test different partitions of {1, 2, . . . , r} whether they
lead to subalgebras.
However, not all possible partitions have to be considered since not each subset of
{1, 2, . . . , r} can represent a P
basis element of a subalgebra. In order to illustrate
this let us assume that B = i∈I Ai is a candidate for a basis element. Then the
following conditions have to be satisfied:
1) B◦B ∗ ∈ {B, 0}
2) for any k ∈ N \ {0} there exist integers c1 , c2 and an element R of W such

that
if B◦B ∗ = B

k c1 B + R
B =
c1 B + c2 B ∗ + R if B◦B ∗ = 0
where B◦R = B ∗ ◦R = 0.
P
This test is applied to each subset I ⊆ {1, 2, . . . , r} for which i∈I Ai is symmet-
ric or antisymmetric resulting in a list of “good” subsets. Usually it is enough to
work with k ≤ 3.
Now, systematically, all partitions of {1, 2, . . . , r} are considered that consist only
of “good” subsets. For each such partition the axioms of a cellular algebra are
verified (by atempting to compute its structure constants). In particular, for a
candidate X = {I1 , I2 , . . . , Is } and for each l, m ∈ {1, 2, . . . , s} the product
X X r
X
( Ai )( Aj ) = c i Ai
i∈Il i∈Im i=0
is computed using the structure constants. If X describes a cellular algebra then

for each Il and for all i, j ∈ Il the condition ci = cj must hold. Clearly this
condition is also sufficient.
In this way a complete list of cellular subalgebras of W is constructed.
Note that for the search of “good” sets and for the final test whether a partition is
a cellular subalgebra only the structure constants of W have to be known. Thus
the computation time depends only on the rank of W but not on its degree.
Problem 4
is a standard problem in combinatorics. All that is needed is a program that can
compute automorphism groups of edge-coloured graphs. Usually such programs
make use of the so called partition backtracking in order to construct automor-
phisms.
It is worth mentioning in the end that for this special case (centralizer rings
of permutation groups) there exists a computer package that solves the above
mentioned four problems. Its name is COCO and it was written by I.Faradžev
and M.Klin (UNIX-version by A.E.Brouwer). Further references to COCO and
the stated methods can be found e.g. in [FarK-91] and [FarKM-94].
3.2 Generating matrices

The initial information in this case is a n × n square matrix. The desired result is
the smallest cellular algebra containing this matrix. This algebra exists since the
algebra of all n × n matrices is cellular and since all cellular algebras of degree n
form a complete lattice.
An algorithmical solution of problem 1) was given by B.Yu. Weisfeiler and A.A. Le-
man in 1968, see [WeiL-68] (for an english description see [Wei-76]). Following
the main ideas of their method will be repeated.
Let A = (aij ) be an n × n matrix (where n is a positive integer) with entries
{c1 , c2 , . . . , cl }. Then A can be considered as complete coloured graph (with
vertex set {1, 2, . . . , n} and colours from {c1 , c2 , . . . , cl }) where the arc (x, y) is
given the colour axy . Thus the arc set E falls into colour classes Ec1 , Ec2 , . . . , Ecl .
In general each class Eci falls into a reflexive part, a symmetric part and an
antisymmetric part. Without loss of generality assume that each class is either
reflexive or symmetric or antisymmetric (otherwise Eci is partitioned accordingly;
it can easily be seen that this does not change the outcomming cellular algebra).
k
Now for each k ∈ {1, 2, . . . , l} a function πi,j : Ek → N is defined such that for
(x, y) ∈ Ek :
k
πi,j (x, y) = |{z | (x, z) ∈ Ei , (z, y) ∈ Ej }| .
Until all these functions are constant, they yield partitions of the colour classes
into subclasses as follows: For (x1 , y1 ), (x2 , y2 ) ∈ Ek define
k k
(x1 , y1 ) ≡ (x2 , y2 ) : ⇐⇒ ∀i, j : πi,j (x1 , y1 ) = πi,j (x2 , y2 ).
According to these partitions the graph gets recoloured. Note that the new colour
classes are again either reflexive or symmetric or antisymmetric.
This procedure is repeated until no further refinement of the colour classes oc-
cures. Now the adjacency matrices of the colour classes are just the elements of
the first standard basis of h hAi i.
The above described procedure is called Weisfeiler-Leman stabilization or shorter
WL-stabilization.
Note that in the end not only the first standard basis is known but also the
k
structure constants (they correspond to the constant values of the functions πi,j ).
Thus problems 1) and 2) are solved for this situation.
By now there exist a few good implementations of this algorithm. Two of them
are:
• STABCOL by L. Babel, S. Baumann, M. Lüdecke and G. Tinhofer. This

implementation is described in [BabBLT-97].
• STABIL by L. Babel, I.V. Chuvaeva, M. Klin and D.V. Pasechnik which

is described in [BabCKP-97]. There also a comparison between STABCOL
and STABIL is given using some real world examples.
For the solution of the problems 3) and 4) the situation is identical to the one in
3.1. They can be solved once more using the program package COCO.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 30
4 Flag algebras
In the following, cellular algebras shall be considered as well as B-algebras. In
order not to create confusion between these two concepts let us define for a set
of n × n-matrices M :
1) [M ] := the smallest B-algebra containing all elements of M .
2) h hM i i := the smallest cellular algebra containing all elements of M .
Note, that both closure operators are well defined—for the first this fact is well
known and can be found in almost any text-book about linear algebra. For the
second operator see Definition 2.12.
Definition 4.1 Let M be a finite set. Define
CM := {f : M −→ C}.
For f, g ∈ CM and λ ∈ C define
(f + g)(x) := f (x) + g(x)

(λf )(x) := λ(f (x))
Together with the above defined operations CM forms a linear space. To each
element i of M assign the function
fi : M −→ C where fi (x) = δix
where δix is the usual Kronecker-symbol.

The set {fi | i ∈ M } is linearly independent. It forms the canonical basis of CM .
The elements of M can (and will) be identified with the corresponding elements
of the canonical basis of CM .
In particular, for an incidence structure (P, B, F) the linear space CF will be
called flag-space.
On this space a cellular algebra is defined as follows:
Definition 4.2 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure. Define two rela-

tions RL , RN on F as follows:
Let f1 = (P, a), f2 = (Q, b) be flags of S. Then
• (f1 , f2 ) ∈ RL : ⇐⇒ P 6= Q and a = b (f1 and f2 are collinear),
• (f1 , f2 ) ∈ RN : ⇐⇒ P = Q and a 6= b (f1 and f2 are concurrent).

4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 31
According to these two relations define the two linear operators L and N on CF :
For f ∈ F:
X
Lf := g,
g∈F
(f,g)∈RL
X
N f := g.
g∈F
(f,g)∈RN
Then
WF := h hL, N i i
is called flag-algebra of S.
Algebras that are defined on flags have been used mainly in order to find necessary
conditions for the existence of certain designs. This spirit is demonstrated very
well in [KilS-73] by R. Kilmoyer and L. Solomon where, using flag-algebras, a
beautiful proof of the well known theorem of Feit-Higman is given. The main tool
there is the computation with the irreducible representations of these algebras.
Another interesting problem is to find certain classes of designs that have a flag-
algebra of given rank. Sources where this problem is treated include [Smi-88],
[FarKM-94], [KliMMZ-97] and [Zie-97]. In [Smi-88] there are described some
classes of symmetric designs with flag-algebras of rank seven. In [FarKM-94]
projective planes are considered. In [KliMMZ-97] these results are extended to
2-designs with λ = 1. A more systematical approach is taken by P. H. Zieschang
in [Zie-97]. He examines dihedral cellular algebras and geometries that can be
associated to them.
The second problem will be treated here.
Let us start with a few general definitions and observations.
Definition 4.3 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure. Let RL and RN be

as defined in Definition 4.2.
A flag-walk Q of length n is a sequence of flags (f0 , f1 , . . . , fn ) such that for all
0 ≤ i < n either (fi , fi+1 ) ∈ RL or (fi , fi+1 ) ∈ RN .
Flag-walks are in close relation with the monomials in L and N . For instance
the matrices L and N can be associated with the flag-walks of length one in S
For monomials of higher degree a similar relationship can be observed. However,
here the situation is slightly more complicated.
First of all let Σ = {L, N } be an alphabet and let Σ∗ be the free monoid generated
by Σ (Σ∗ consists of all finite words consisting of letters from Σ such as e.g. LLN .
Then it is possible to associate to any flag-walk Q = (f0 , f1 , . . . , fn ) a word from
Σ∗ as follows:
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 32
Definition 4.4 With the notions from above define the pattern of Q:

L if (fi−1 , fi ) ∈ RL
w(Q) = x1 x2 x3 · · · xn where xi =
N if (fi−1 , fi ) ∈ RN
Note that w(Q) is well-defined since RL ∩ RN = ∅.

Now consider the B-algebra [L, N ]. Let M be the multiplicative monoid in [L, N ]
that is generated by L and N . Then there is a natural homomorphism ϕ from
Σ∗ to M according to ϕ(L) := L, ϕ(N ) := N . In other words this means that
to each pattern w(Q) there corresponds naturally an element of the B-algebra
[L, N ]; namely ϕ(w(Q)).
Lemma 4.5 With the notions from above assume ϕ(w(Q)) = (af,g ). Then af,g
is equal to the number of flag-walks from f to g that have the pattern w(Q).
2:
This will be proved via induction on the length of Q:
If Q is a flag-walk of length 1 then its pattern consists of exactly one letter; L or
N . Without loss of generality assume that w(Q) = L. Then the image of w(Q)
under ϕ is L. Thus, with the notions from above, af,g = 1 ⇐⇒ (f, g) ∈ RL ;
otherwise af,g = 0. On the other hand it is easily seen that their exists a flag of
pattern L from f to g if and only if (f, g) ∈ RL and that such a walk, if it exists,
is unique. Thus, the situation is clear in the case of walks of length 1.
Assume the claim is proved for patterns of length ≤ n − 1. Let w be a pattern of
length n. For two flags f and g define the set Q of all flag-walks from f to g with
pattern w. Then Q can be partitioned according to the following equivalence
relation:
(f = f0 , f1 , . . . , fn = g) ∼ (f = g0 , g1 , . . . , gn = g) : ⇐⇒ fn−1 = gn−1 .
Without loss of generality assume that w = w0 L for some pattern w0 of length

n − 1. In this case to each flag h that is collinear to g there corresponds exactly
one equivalence class Qh of Q/ ∼. This class consists of all flag-walks from f to
h with pattern w0 . Thus if B = ϕ(w0 ) = (bf,g ) then bf,h is equal to |Qh |. Now
with A = ϕ(w) = B · L = (af,g ) and L = (lf,g ) we get
X X X
af,g = bf,h lh,g = bf,h = |Qh | = |Q|.
h∈F (h,g)∈RL (h,g)∈RL
:2
The previous lemma suggests that the structure of the two algebras [L, N ] and
h hL, N i i is closely related to the flag-walks of S. In order to describe this inter-
relation, we need to introduce a few more termini:
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 33
Definition 4.6 Let Σ = {L, N } and let Σ∗ be the free monoid generated by the
alphabet Σ. Define a sequence of words from Σ∗ according to
w0 := I
w1 := L
w2 := N

w2n−1 L if 2 | n
w2n+1 :=
w2n−1 N else

w2n N if 2 | n
w2n+2 :=
w2n L else
where I denotes the empty word.
1) A flag-walk Q is called flag-path if there exists a non-negative integer i such

that w(Q) = wi .
2) A flag-path is called L-path if i is odd. Otherwise it is called N -path.
3) For two flags f and g the L-distance dL (f, g) is defined to be the length of
the shortest L-path from f to g if it exists — otherwise ∞. The N -distance
dN (f, g) is defined analogously.
4) The L-diameter of S is defined as
diamL (S) := max dL (f, g).

f,g∈F
Analogously the N -diameter diamN (S) is defined.
5) S is called L-connected if diamL (S) 6= ∞. It is called N -connected if

diamN (S) 6= ∞.
We have now concepts for the distance of flags. Indeed, similarities to the ter-
minology that is used in graph-theory is not coincidental! Moreover, as in graph
theory, many of the presented proofs will base on the analytical enumeration of
certain configurations of flags (the parallel in graph theory would be the enumer-
ation of certain types of subgraphs of a graph). However, in the case of incidence
structures the formal description of such configurations is rather tedious and
difficult to read. For this reason a more visible notation will be introduced:
Each configuration consists of a set of different symbols (representing the flags)
which are placed in a grid of horizontal and vertical lines. Two flags are placed on
one and the same horizontal line if and only if they are concurrent. Two flags are
placed on one and the same vertical line if and only if they are collinear (compare
Definition 4.2).
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 34
Example 4.7 Two concurrent flags are depicted as
x x
Two collinear flags are depicted as

x
x
Example 4.8 The following is a flag-walk from •1 to •5 with pattern N LN L:

•1 x2
x3 x4
•5
The following symbols are used to depict configurations:
x represents any usual flag,

• represents a distinguished, fixed flag (usually the beginning or the end of a
path); if a distinguished flag has a name (such as e.g. f ) then this name
may be used instead of •.
o represents an “non-flag”; this symbols fills a place of the configuration where
no flag is allowed. Let, e.g., •1 and •2 be flags that are neither collinear
nor concurrent. Moreover assume that there does not exist a flag x that is
collinear to •2 and concurrent to •1 . Then this fact can be illustrated by
the following diagram:
•1 o
•2
+ represents a fixed flag; this symbol appears in places where a flag must
appear. the existence of such flags usually is implied by the other flags. If,
e.g., •1 and •2 that are neither collinear nor concurrent. Assume that there
exists a flag that is collinear to •2 and concurrent to •1 then this is depicted
as follows:
•1 +
•2
? marks a “wildcard”. It is used in places where either a “+” or a “o”
could appear. In other words this means that in the interpretation of the
configuration two cases have to be distinguished — there is a flag; there is
no flag.
Having provided these notations we will start by looking at WF (S) from the
inside. In particular we will describe some distinguished elements of it:
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 35
Lemma 4.9 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure. Let WF (S) be its

flag-algebra. Let

(i) 1 dL (f, g) = i
DL = (af,g ) with af,g = for f, g ∈ F
0 else

(i) 1 dN (f, g) = i
DN = (af,g ) with af,g = for f, g ∈ F
0 else
(i) (i)
Then DL , DN ∈ WF (S).
2:
(i)
Without loss of generality it is enough to prove that DL ∈ WF (D) (for the proof
of the other claim we can switch to the consideration of WF (D∗ )).
The claim will be proved by induction on i.
For i = 0 and for i = 1 nothing needs to be proved.
Now assume that the claim is proved for i ≤ n − 1. We will prove that it also
holds for i = n:Define
n−1
X
(<n) (i)
DL = DL .
i=0
Two flags f and g have L-distance n if and only if there is an L-walk from f to g
that has pattern w2n−1 and there is no flag-walk from f to g of pattern w2j−1 for
all j < n. By Lemma 4.5 this means that if A = ϕ(w2n−1 ) = (af,g ) then af,g 6= 0
and that for all j < n the corresponding entry in ϕ(w2j−1 ) is equal to 0. Let us
define now another matrix:
(<n)
B := (J − DL )◦A = (bf,g ).
Then bf,g 6= 0 if and only if dL (f, g) = n. Hence, using the Schur-Wielandt

(n)
principle we obtain the desired matrix DL as element of WF (D).
:2
Lemma 4.10 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure. Let WF = h hL, N i i

be its flag-algebra. Define a partition P of F according to the equivalence relation
given by
f ∼ g : ⇐⇒ (|P | = |Q|) ∧ (|p| = |q|).
for flags f = (P, p) and g = (Q, q). Then P is a cellular partition for WF (S).
2:
Define A = (af,g ) := L2 ◦I + I and B = (bf,g ) := N 2 ◦I + I.
Then af,f = |p| and bf,f = |P |.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 36
Now, using the Schur-Wielandt principle, we get matrices A|p| and B|P | .
Define C|P |,|p| = (cf,g ) := A|p| ◦B|P | .
Then cg,g = 1 if and only if |p| = |q| and |P | = |Q|.
The different matrices C|P |,|p| form a partition of the identity operator into scalar
0/1-matrices.
The rest follows with Lemma 2.16.
:2
Lemma 4.11 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure and let WF (S) be its
flag-algebra. Then the following are true:
1) Let µ be a natural number such there exist blocks b1 , b2 ∈ B with |b1 ∩b2 | = µ.
Let

1 |p ∩ q| = µ
Xµ = (xf,g ) with xf,g = for flags f = (P, p), g = (Q, q)
0 else
Then Xµ ∈ WF (S).
2) Dually: Let λ be a natural number such that there exist points P1 , P2 ∈ P

with |P1 ∩ P2 | = λ. Let

1 |P ∩ Q| = λ
Yλ = (yf,g ) with yf,g = for flags f = (P, p), g = (Q, q)
0 else
Then Yλ ∈ WF (S).
2:
About 1) Define A = (af,g ) := (LN L◦N ) + N . Then

|p ∩ q| (f, g) ∈ RN
af,g = .
0 else
Using the Schur-Wielandt principle we obtain the matrix Aµ . Now we observe

that Aµ = Xµ ◦N .
Define B = (bf,g ) := Aµ (L + I). Then bf,g 6= 0 if and only if |p ∩ q| = µ. Iterated
use of the Schur-Wielandt principle completes the proof.
About 2) The proof is analogous to the previous one. Use A := (N LN ◦L) + L
and B := Aλ (N + I).
:2
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 37
Lemma 4.12 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure. Let WF (S) be its

flag-algebra. Let

(0,0) (0,0) 1 P ∈/ q∧Q∈
/p
Z(0,0) = (zf,g ) : zf,g = for flags f = (P, p), g = (Q, q)
0 else

(1,0) (1,0) 1 P ∈q∧Q∈ /p
0 else

(0,1) (0,1) 1 P ∈/ q∧Q∈p
0 else

(1,1) (1,1) 1 P ∈q∧Q∈p
0 else
Then Z(0,0) , Z(1,0) , Z(0,1) , Z(1,1) ∈ WF (S).
2:
It can be easily observed that
Z(1,1) = LN ◦N L,
Z(0,1) = LN ◦(J − Z(1,1) ),
Z(1,0) = N L◦(J − Z(1,1) ),
Z(0,0) = J − L − N − Z(0,1) − Z(1,0) − Z(1,1) .
:2
The construction of the above described matrices is independent from the actual
incidence structure S. Thus we obtain a lower bound for the rank of the flag-
algebra of an incidence structure. To give an exact expression for this lower
bound is tedious in the general case. However, it would be very interesting to
examine those designs for that rank(WF ) is minimal in this sense.
Definition 4.13 Let S = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure with flag algebra

WF = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i.
1) S is called flag-minimal if
(a) The main partition of WF (S) is equal to the partition P as defined in

Lemma 4.10,
(b) Each element Ai of the first standard basis of WF (S) can be expressed
(i) (i)
by the matrices L, N , Xλ , Yµ , Z(x,y) , DL and DN only by using the
Schur-Hadamard product and by splitting them according to the main
partition P.
2) S is called flag-homogeneous if WF (S) is a cell.

4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 38
3) S is called dihedral if L and N are elements of the first standard basis of

WF (S).
4) S is called sharply dihedral if it is dihedral and if [L, N ] = h hL, N i i where

[L, N ] denotes the smallest B-algebra generated by L and N .
The above defined concepts define for us a hierarchy of interest.
• Flag-minimal incidence structures,
• Flag-minimal, flag-homogeneous incidence structures,
• Flag-minimal, flag-homogeneous, dihedral incidence structures,
• Flag-minimal, flag-homogeneous, sharply dihedral incidence structures.
Our main interest will be concentrated on the description of the last two classes
(the homogeneous, dihedral case). In most cases a complete characterization
appears to be very difficult. In general the best overview can be given for flag-
minimal + flag-homogeneous + sharply dihedral structures. This case has been
studied now for some time by various authors (exact references will be given
later on). Moreover the chances seem to be rather good to obtain a complete
classification in near future.
Let us start now with the statement of some simple implications:
Lemma 4.14 Let S be a non-trivial incidence structure.
1) If S is sharply dihedral then it is dihedral.
2) If S is dihedral then it is flag-homogeneous.
3) If S is flag-homogeneous then it is a design with parameters (v, b, r, k).
4) If S is dihedral then
• there exists an integer λ such that for any two points P, Q ∈ P:
|P ∩ Q| ∈ {0, λ, r},
• There exists an integer µ such that for any two blocks a, b ∈ B:
|a ∩ b| ∈ {0, µ, k}.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 39
2:
1.) trivial.
2.) If WF is not flag-homogeneous, then it admits a cellular partition P =
{P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } (this is a partition of F). This means that for all x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} :
J (x,y) ∈ WF . If WF is dihedral then there must be such a pair (x, y) such that e.g.
L◦J (x,y) = L. However, this means that two flags f and g may only be collinear
if f ∈ Px and if g ∈ Py . Hence for a flag h = (B, b) that is not in Px there does
not exist any collinear flag. This means, that the block b does contain exactly
one element (namely B). This is a contradiction to the assumption that S is a
non-trivial incidence structure.
3.) this is a direct consequence of Lemma 4.10.
4.) Let P1 , P2 , Q1 and Q2 be points such that |P1 ∩ Q1 | = λ1 and |P2 ∩ Q2 | = λ2
where λ1 , λ2 > 0 and λ1 6= λ2 . This implies that there exist blocks b1 and b2 such
that f1 = (P1 , b1 ), f2 = (Q1 , b1 ), f3 = (P2 , b2 ) and f4 = (Q2 , b2 ). Let Yλ1 = (xf,g )
and Yλ2 = (yf,g ) be as defined in Lemma 4.11. Then xf1 ,f2 = 1 and yf3 ,f4 = 1. At
the same time we also have that (f1 , f2 ) and (f3 , f4 ) are collinear. Consequently,
L◦Yλ1 6= 0 and L◦Yλ2 6= 0. As Yλ1 ◦Yλ2 = 0, this means that S is not dihedral.
The other point of the claim follows with analogous reasonings.
:2
Corollary 4.15 Let S = (P, B, F) be a dihedral incidence structure. Then one

of the following is true:
1) S is a symmetric 2-design.
2) S is a quasi-symmetric 2-(v, b, r, k, λ) design with intersection numbers (0, µ).
3) S is a quasi-balanced design with intersection numbers (0, λ; 0, µ).
Each of these three classes will be treated separately. The search for flag-minimal
designs will consist of the following steps:
1) Description of [L, N ] in terms of defining relations (in the alphabet {L, N }),
2) Description of the first standard basis of WF for dihedral, flag-minimal

designs,
3) Description of the first standard basis of WF for sharply dihedral, flag-

minimal designs,
4) Statement of sufficient conditions for a design to be dihedral and flag-

minimal,
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 40
5) Statement of sufficient (and perhaps even necessary) conditions for a design

to be sharply dihedral and flag-minimal.
For the first two steps there can be made some general observations. These will
be given now — before we start with the consideration of each class.
To characterize sharply dihedral designs it is helpful to know a basis of [L, N ].
The following proposition gives such a description.
Proposition 4.16 Let D = (P, B, F) be a design with parameters (v, b, r, k).

Let (wi ) be the sequence of words as defined in Definition 4.6 and let ϕ be
the natural homomorphism that was defined below Definition 4.4. Assume that
rank([L, N ]) = n.
If n is an even number then either
[L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(wn−1 )i
or
[L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(wn−2 ), ϕ(wn )i.
If n is odd then
[L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(wn−1 )i.
2:
First we observe that
L2 = (k − 1)I + (k − 2)L (2)

N 2 = (r − 1)I + (r − 2)N . (3)
From this follows immediately that [L, N ] has a basis of elements from the se-
quence wi .
The rest will be shown by induction.
Clearly I = ϕ(w0 ), L = ϕ(w1 ) and N = ϕ(w2 ) are linearly independent.
Assume that we proved that M = {ϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(w2t )} is a linearly inde-
pendent set.
Now we distinguish four cases:
1) M ∪ {ϕ(w2t+1 ), ϕ(w2t+2 )} is still linearly independent,
2) M ∪ {ϕ(w2t+1 )} is linearly independent but ϕ(w2t+2 ) is linearly dependent

on M ∪ {ϕ(w2t+1 )}.
3) M ∪ {ϕ(w2t+2 )} is linearly independent but ϕ(w2t+1 ) is linearly dependent

on M ∪ {ϕ(w2t+2 )}.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 41
4) Both, ϕ(w2t+1 ) and ϕ(w2t+2 ) are linearly dependent on M .
Note that the cases 2 and 3 might overlap. However, this will be not loss in
generality.
Case 1: Nothing needs to be proved here.
Case 2: Assume that

2t+1
X
ϕ(w2t+2 ) = ai ϕ(wi )
i=0
By definition we know that w2t+3 = Lw2t+2 and that w2t+4 = N w2t+1 . It

can be easily observed that also
w2t+4 = w2t+2 X for X ∈ Σ = {L, N }
(where X depends only on the last letter of w2t+2 ). Since ϕ is a homomor-

phism this gives
2t+1
X
ϕ(w2t+3 ) = ai ϕ(Lwi )
i=0
2t+1
X
ϕ(w2t+4 ) = ai ϕ(wi X)
i=0
Using the equations 2 and 3 we observe that ϕ(Lwi ) and ϕ(wi X) can be
expressed as linear combinations of the elements of M ∪ {ϕ(x2t+1 )}. Con-
sequently we get that ϕ(w2t+3 ) and ϕ(w2t+4 ) are linear combinations of the
elements of M ∪ {ϕ(x2t+1 )}.
This reasoning can be repeated for all words w2t+s , s ≥ 5 ad infinitum.
Ultimately we come to the conclusion that:
1) rank([L, N ]) = 2t + 1 and
2) [L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(w2t+1 )i.
Case 3: This case can be treated analogously to Case 2. The conclusion here is
that
1) rank([L, N ]) = 2t + 1 and
2) [L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(w2t−1 ), ϕ(w2t ), ϕ(w2t+2 )i.
Case 4: We observe immediately that
1) rank([L, N ]) = 2t and
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 42
2) [L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(w2t )i.

:2
Now we concentrate again on the flag-algebras of flag-minimal design. Until now
the concept of flag-minimality is rather nebulous. For this reason we will try to
elaborate a more simple definition. This goal will be accomplished by giving a
homogeneous description of the elements of the first standard basis of the flag-
algebra of a flag-minimal design.
Definition 4.17 Let D = (P, B, F) be a design with parameters (v, b, r, k) and

with intersection numbers (0, λ; 0, µ). Let f be a fixed (but arbitrarily chosen)
flag of D. Let d = maxg∈F max(dL (f, g), dN (f, g)). For 1 ≤ i ≤ d define
Ui (f ) := {g ∈ F | dL (f, g) = i, dN (f, g) > i},

Mi (f ) := {g ∈ F | dL (f, g) = dN (f, g) = i},
Li (f ) := {g ∈ F | dN (f, g) = i, dL (f, g) > i}.
In Figure 1 this situation is visualized. Note however, that some of the above
defined sets may be empty.
U1 U2 U3 U4 Ud
N L N
L
N M2 L M3 N M4 Md
f
L N L
N
L N L
L1 L2 L3 L4 Ld
Figure 1: The flags relative to f
Now we check, how the flags of the different classes are related to f :
Lemma 4.18 With the notions from above, assume that f = (P, p) and
g = (Q, q). Then the following are true:
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 43
For the induced configuration and

of f and g is
•
g ∈ U1 (f )
•
g ∈ L1 (f ) • •
• o
g ∈ U2 (f )
+ •
• +
g ∈ M2 (f )
+ •
• +
g ∈ L2 (f )
o •
• o
g ∈ U3 (f ) P ∩ Q = ∅, p ∩ q 6= ∅
o •
• o
g ∈ M3 (f ) P ∩ Q 6= ∅, p ∩ q 6= ∅
o •
• o
g ∈ L3 (f ) P ∩ Q 6= ∅, p ∩ q = ∅
o •
• o
other g P ∩ Q = ∅, p ∩ q = ∅
o •
2:
The first 5 lines are evident.
Using an indirect argument one can easily see that if dL (f, g) ≥ 3 and dN (f, g) ≥ 3
• o
then the induced configuration of f and g is .
o •
From now on assume that dL (f, g) ≥ 3 and dN (f, g) ≥ 3. If P ∩ Q 6= ∅ then there
• o +
exists a configuration and hence dN (f, g) = 3.
o • +
• o
If p ∩ q 6= ∅ then there exists a configuration o • and hence dL (f, g) = 3.
+ +
Now the statements in the Lemma are just combinations of these three observa-
tions.
:2
The distance-profile that was described in Figure 1 is in general not sufficient for
the description of the flag-algebras of flag-minimal dihedral designs. The reason
may be traced with the aid of Lemma 4.9. Namely it could happen that the
classes Ui and Li split according to different L- and N -distances of f to the flags
of these sets.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 44
Definition 4.19 With the notions from above define
FiL (f ) := {g ∈ F | dL (f, g) = i}
FiN (f ) := {g ∈ F | dN (f, g) = i}
The sets Ui (f ), Mi (f ) and Li (f ) can be described in terms of FiL (f ) and FiN (f ).

Namely
!
[
Ui (f ) = FiL (f ) ∩ FjN (f ) ,
j>i
Mi (f ) = FiL (f )
∩ FiN (f ),
!
[
Li (f ) = FiL (f ) ∩ FjN (f ) .
j>i
Using Lemma 4.18 we can describe now the first standard basis of the flag algebra
of a flag-minimal dihedral design in a very natural way.
Theorem 4.20 With the notions from above, assume that D = (P, B, F) is a
flag-minimal dihedral design. Then the first standard basis of WF (D) contains
only elements of the following form (besides the identity matrix):

(i,j) 1 if g ∈ FiL (f ) ∩ FjN (f )
A = (af,g ) where af,g = for f, g ∈ F.
0 else
Here 1 ≤ i, j ≤ d (where d is defined as in Definition 4.17). Moreover, all such

matrices are either equal to 0 or belong to the first standard basis of WF (D).
4.1 Flag-algebras of symmetric 2-designs

The following will be a summary of the known facts about the flag-algebras of
symmetric 2-designs. Each result will be stated without a proof. The main
sources are [Smi-88] and [FarKM-94].
Lemma 4.21 Let D be a symmetric 2-design. Then
rank([L, N ]) = 6.
2
The consequence of this lemma is that
[L, N ] = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN Li.

4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 45
By Definition 4.13 this means that the first standard basis of the flag-algebra of
a sharply dihedral symmetric design has to be:
WF (D) = hI, L, N, Z(0,0) , Z(0,1) , Z(1,0) i.
This means that, if D has parameters (v, v, k, k, λ), then λ = 1 (otherwise Z(1,1) 6=
0).
On the other hand in [FarKM-94] a proof can be found that the flag-algebra of a
symmetric design with λ = 1 does always have rank 6.
Altogether we get that
Theorem 4.22 Let D be a symmetric 2-(v, v, k, k, λ)-design. Then D is sharply

dihedral if and only if λ = 1.
About those dihedral flag-minimal designs that are not sharply dihedral we can
say that
WF (D) = hI, L, N, Z(0,0) , Z(0,1) , Z(1,0) , Z(1,1) i.
The dihedral flag-algebras of rank 7 were examined by K. W. Smith in [Smi-88].

His main results are listed in the next theorem:
Theorem 4.23 Let D be a symmetric, flag-minimal dihedral 2-(v, v, k, k, λ) de-

sign with a flag-algebra of rank 7.
• If λ | (k − 1), then D is isomorphic to the design of points and hyperplanes

of a projective space over a field of order q.
• If λ = 2k then D is the complementary design of a design consisting of the

points and hyperplanes of a projective space over the field of two elements.
4.2 Flag-algebras of quasi-symmetric designs

In order to describe the flag-algebra of flag-minimal quasi-symmetric designs it is
necessary to examine the L-distances and N -distances between flags. In order to
accomplish this, the flag-walks of different patterns have to be considered. Before
doing this a few more notations are needed.
Definition 4.24 Let D = (P, B) be a quasi-symmetric (v, b, r, k, λ)-design with

4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 46
intersection numbers (0, µ). Define
I the identity matrix

1 if P 6= Q, p = q
L = (af,g ) with af,g =
0 else
1 if P = Q, p 6= q
N = (af,g ) with af,g =
0 else
1 if |p ∩ q| = µ, P ∈
/ q, Q ∈
/p
Y(0,0) = (af,g ) with af,g =
0 else
1 if |p ∩ q| = µ, P ∈
/ q, Q ∈ p
Y(0,1) = (af,g ) with af,g =
0 else
1 if |p ∩ q| = µ, P ∈ q, Q ∈
/p
Y(1,0) = (af,g ) with af,g =
0 else
1 if |p ∩ q| = µ, P 6= Q, P ∈ q, Q ∈ p
Y(1,1) = (af,g ) with af,g =
0 else
1 if |p ∩ q| = 0
/
O = (af,g ) with af,g = .
0 else
There each time f = (P, p) and g = (Q, q) are flags.
Lemma 4.25 Let D = (P, B) be a quasi-symmetric design with parameters

(v, b, r, k, λ) and with intersection numbers (0, µ) then
1) LN = Y(1,1) + Y(0,1) ,
2) N L = Y(1,1) + Y(1,0) ,
3) LN L = (µ − 1)N + µY(0,0) + (µ − 1)Y(0,1) + (µ − 1)Y(1,0) + (µ − 2)Y(1,1) ,

/
4) N LN = (λ − 1)L + λY(0,0) + (λ − 1)Y(0,1) + (λ − 1)Y(1,0) + (λ − 2)Y(1,1) + λ O,
/
5) LN LN = a1 I + a2 L + a3 N + a4 Y(0,0) + a5 Y(0,1) + a6 Y(1,0) + a7 Y(1,1) + a8 O
where
a1 = (k − 1)(λ − 1)
a2 = (k − 2)(λ − 1)
a3 = (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
a4 = µ(λ − 1) + (k − µ − 1)λ
a5 = (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ − 1)(λ − 1)
a6 = (µ − 1)(λ − 1) + (k − µ)λ
a7 = (µ − 2)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
a8 = (k − 1)λ
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 47
/
6) N LN L = b1 I + b2 L + b3 N + b4 Y(0,0) + b5 Y(0,1) + b6 Y(1,0) + b7 Y(1,1) + b8 O
where
b1 = (k − 1)(λ − 1)
b2 = (k − 2)(λ − 1)
b3 = (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
b4 = µ(λ − 1) + (k − µ − 1)λ
b5 = (µ − 1)(λ − 1) + (k − µ)λ
b6 = (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ − 1)(λ − 1)
b7 = (µ − 2)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
b8 = (k − 1)λ
2:
The proof will be based on the counting of configurations of flags in D. Every
single counting task is quite simple. For this reason most of the details will be
omitted and only one expressive example will be elaborated.
Each expression describes the pattern of a flag-walk. For each pair of flags f and
g the number of flag-walks starting in f and ending in g with this pattern has to
be counted. The matrices that were described in Definition 4.24 form a partition
of J. For this reason the pair (f, g) can be associated to exactly one matrix
A = (ai,j ) from there ((f, g) is associated to A iff af,g = 1). It turns out that the
number of walks does only depend on this matrix A. Thus each expression can
be written as linear combination of the matrices from Definition 4.24.
Following for each pattern a table is given. In the first column the associated
matrix is given. The second column contains the configuration that has to be
counted in order to obtain the coefficient of this matrix. Finally the third column
contains the coefficient itself.
About LN:
Basis element Configuration Resulting coefficient
• o
Y(0,1) 1
x •
• +
Y(1,1) 1
x •
about NL:
• x
Y(1,0) 1
o •
• x
Y(1,1) 1
+ •
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 48
About LNL:
• •
N (µ − 1)
x x
• o
Y(0,0) x x µ
o •
• o
Y(0,1) x x (µ − 1)
+ •
• +
Y(1,0) x x (µ − 1)
o •
• +
Y(1,1) x x (µ − 2)
+ •
About NLN:
• x
L (λ − 1)
• x
• x o
Y(0,0) λ
o x •
• x o
Y(0,1) (λ − 1)
+ x •
• x +
Y(1,0) (λ − 1)
o x •
• x +
Y(1,1) (λ − 2)
+ x •
• x o
/
O λ
o x •
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 49
About LNLN:
• x
I (k − 1)(λ − 1)
x x
• ?
L x x (k − 2)(λ − 1)
• x
• x •
N (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
x x ?
• ? o
Y(0,0) x x ? µ(λ − 1) + (k − µ − 1)λ
o x •
• ? o
Y(0,1) x x ? (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ − 1)(λ − 1)
+ x •
• ? +
Y(1,0) x x ? (µ − 1)(λ − 1) + (k − µ)λ
o x •
• ? +
Y(1,1) x x ? (µ − 2)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
+ x •
• ? o
/
O x x o (k − 1)λ
o x •
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 50
About NLNL:
• x
I (k − 1)(λ − 1)
x x
• x
L x x (k − 2)(λ − 1)
• ?
• x •
N (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
? x x
• x o
Y(0,0) ? x x µ(λ − 1) + (k − µ − 1)λ
o ? •
• x o
Y(0,1) ? x x (µ − 1)(λ − 1) + (k − µ)λ
+ ? •
• x +
Y(1,0) ? x x (µ − 1)(λ − 2) + (k − µ − 1)(λ − 1)
o ? •
• x +
Y(1,1) ? x x (µ − 2)(λ − 2) + (k − µ)(λ − 1)
+ ? •
• x o
O/ o x x (k − 1)λ
o ? •
Now for the promised example: Let us count the coefficient of Y(1,1) in LN LN .
f +
Let f and g be two flags such that their induced configuration is If there
+ g
is a path from f to g with pattern LN LN then this means that we can extend
f +
this configuration as follows: x x . This means that in order to count
+ x g
the paths of pattern LN LN from f to g, we must count configurations of the
• ? +
following type: x x ? . This is done by distinguishing two cases:
+ x •
• ? +
case 1) Count configurations of type x1 x2 + .
+ x3 •
• ? +
case 2) Count configurations of type x1 x2 o .
+ x3 •
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 51
In the first case we have (µ − 2) possibilities to choose the point of the flag x2 . If
we have chosen such a point, we have (λ − 2) possibilities to choose the block of
x2 . All in all we get (µ − 2)(λ − 2) possibilities to choose x2 . Now it can be easily
seen that x2 determines x1 and x3 . Thus the number of choices of x2 is also the
number of configuration that we were looking for.
The second case is solved in the same way as the first case. Here we have (k − µ)
possibilities to choose a point for x2 and (λ − 1) ways to choose its block. Again
we observe that x2 determines x1 and x3 and conclude that there are (k−µ)(λ−1)
configurations in this case.
Altogether this gives the claimed coefficient.
:2
The previous lemma gives enough information for the description of the B-algebra
[L, N ]. One consequence is, e.g.:
Corollary 4.26 With the notions from above the matrices I, L, N , LN , N L,

LN L and N LN form a linearly independent set.
By simple matrix calculations we get:
Lemma 4.27 With the notions from above:
L2 = (k − 1)I + (k − 2)L,
N 2 = (r − 1)I + (r − 2)N,
LN LN + (k + λ − 2)LN = N LN L + (k + λ − 2)N L,
LN LN = (k − 1)(λ − 1)I − (λ − 1)L + (k − 1)(λ − 1)N

−(λ − 1)LN + (k − 1)N L − LN L + (k − 1)N LN.
2:
The first two equations follow directly from the definition of L and N (in partic-
ular the fact that RL and RN are equivalence relations can be used).
The other two equations are direct consequences of Lemma 4.25.
:2
This however is a complete set of generating relations for [L, N ].
Corollary 4.28 Let D = (P, B) be a quasi-symmetric design with parameters

(v, b, r, k, λ) and with intersection numbers (0, µ). Then
[L, N ] = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN i.

4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 52
Another consequence of of Lemma 4.25 is that
/
[L, N ] ≤ hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , Oi.
Having a set of generating relations for [L, N ] it is possible to describe its irre-
ducible representations:
Proposition 4.29 With the notions from above [L, N ] splits into three 1-dimensional
and one 4-dimensional representation. Namely:
Ri (L) Ri (N ) multiplicity
R1 (L) = k − 1 R1 (N ) = r − 1 1
v(r − k)
R2 (L) = k − 1 R2 (N ) = −1 =b−v
k
k + kvr − kv − vr
R3 (L) = −1 R3 (N ) = −1
k

−1 r − λ r−1 0
R4 (L) = R4 (N ) = v−1
0 k−1 1 −1
2:
The correctness of the representations can be confirmed by substituting them
into the equations of Lemma 4.27. The multiplicities can be computed using
elementary linear algebra as follows:
First we use Lemma 4.25 to observe that
N LN + L + λN + LN + N L + λI = λJ.
In other words this means that J ∈ [L, N ]. The all one vector ~j spans an invariant
space belonging to R1 . Thus, in particular it is an eigenspace of J. The eigenvalue
of J belonging to this eigenspace has multiplicity one. Hence the multiplicity of
R1 is equal to 1.
For the other multiplicities we compute the trace of L and N in two different
ways. From one hand L◦I = N ◦I = 0 and thus tr(L) = tr(N ) = 0. From the
other hand the two traces can be expressed using the irreducible representations
with their multiplicities as follows:
4
X
tr(L) = ni tr(Ri (L))
i=1
X4
tr(N ) = ni tr(Ri (N ))
i=1
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 53
where ni denotes the multiplicity of Ri . This means that
tr(L) = (k − 1) + n2 (k − 1) − n3 + n4 (k − 2)
tr(N ) = (r − 1) − n2 − n3 + n4 (r − 2)
Together with the additional equation
n1 + n2 + n3 + 2n4 = |F| = vr
this gives a system of linear equations with n2 , n3 and n4 as indeterminates:

    
k − 1 −1 k − 2 n2 1−k
 −1 −1 r − 2   n3  =  1 − r 
1 1 2 n4 vr − 1
Solving this system one gets the desired identities for n2 , n3 and n4 .
:2
Now we are ready to return to the consideration of flag-algebras. In particular we
are able to describe the flag-algebra of flag-minimal quasi-symmetric (v, b, r, k, λ)-
(0, µ) designs:
Proposition 4.30 Let D = (P, B) be a flag-minimal quasi-symmetric design

with parameters (v, b, r, k, λ) and with intersection numbers (0, µ). Let WF be its
flag-algebra. Then

/
hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Oi if µ = λ = 1
WF =
/ if µ > 1
hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , Oi
2
Remark: All above stated computations and observations (those about the
defining relations and the representations) are correct for both situations — λ = 1
or λ > 1. Indeed the difference between the cases arrises only from the fact that
Y(1,1) = 0 if and only if λ = 1.
As it was stated in the beginning of the section, the situation where λ = 1 was
considered already in [KliMMZ-97]. The results from there give raise to the
following
Theorem 4.31 A flag-minimal quasi-symmetric design D with parameters

(v, b, r, k, λ) is sharply dihedral if and only if λ = 1.
2:
⇐=: Assume that λ = 1. From Lemma 4.25 follows that
LN = Y(0,1)
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 54
NL = Y(1,0)
LN L = Y(0,0)
N LN = Y(0,0)
LN LN = /
(k − 2)Y (0, 0) + (k − 1)Y (1, 0) + (k − 1) O
N LN L = /
(k − 2)Y (0, 0) + (k − 1)Y (0, 1) + (k − 1) O
/ are elements of WF (D). These
Hence we get that I,L,N ,Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , and O
matrices are linearly independent (since they form a partition of J). From the
other hand we now that [L, N ] has dimension 7. Thus
/ =: hA1 , A2 , . . . , A7 i.
[L, N ] = hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Oi
This basis forms a set of mutually orthogonal idempotents with respect to the
Schur-Hadamard product (Ai ◦Aj = δij Ai ). This implies that [L, N ] is closed
under the Schur-Hadamard product. Consequently D is sharply dihedral.
=⇒: Assume that D is sharply dihedral. Then everything follows with Proposi-
tion 4.30.
:2
The characterization of the rank 8 case is more complicated. A complete char-
acterization cannot be given in this thesis. However, a first partial result can be
achieved in the following:
Theorem 4.32 Let D be a quasi-symmetric design with parameters (v, b, r, k, λ)

and with intersection numbers (0, µ).
If D is a 3-(v, b, r, k, λ3 ) design then it is flag-minimal and dihedral.
2:
If D is flag-minimal then it has a first standard basis as described in Proposition
/ is closed
4.30. Hence it suffices to prove that hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , Oi
with respect to multiplication.
This can be achieved by extending the system of generating relation that was
given for [L, N ] in Lemma 4.27.
First of all note that
/ = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN, Y(1,1) i
hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , Oi
This can be verified using Lemma 4.25. In particular
Y(0,1) = LN − Y(1,1)
Y(1,0) = N L − Y(1,1)
1
Y(0,0) = (LN L − (µ − 1)N − (µ − 1)Y(0,1) − (µ − 1)Y(1,0) − (µ − 2)Y(1,1) )
µ
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 55
1
/ =
O (N LN − (λ − 1)L − λY(0,0) − (λ − 1)Y(0,1)
λ
−(λ − 1)Y(1,0) − (λ − 2)Y(1,1) ).
Now we compute (Y(1,1) )2 in terms of the prospective first standard basis. The
following configurations can occur:
• +
I (k − 1)(λ − 1)
+ x
• +
L + x (k − 2)(λ3 − 1) = (λ − 1)(µ − 2)
• +
• + •
N (µ − 1)(λ − 2)
+ x +
• + o
Y(0,0) + x + µλ3
o + •
• + o
Y(0,1) + x + (µ − 1)(λ3 − 1)
+ + •
• + +
Y(1,0) + x + (µ − 1)(λ3 − 1)
o + •
• + +
Y(1,1) + x + (µ − 2)(λ3 − 2)
+ + •
The same is done for Y(1,1) L, LY(1,1) , Y(1,1) N and N Y(1,1) :
Y(1,1) L = (µ − 1)N + (µ − 1)Y(1,0) + (µ − 2)Y(1,1)

LY(1,1) = (µ − 1)N + (µ − 1)Y(0,1) + (µ − 2)Y(1,1)
Y(1,1) N = (λ − 1)L + (λ − 1)Y(0,1) + (λ − 2)Y(1,1)
N Y(1,1) = (λ − 1)L + (λ − 1)Y(1,0) + (λ − 2)Y(1,1)
With this we have a complete set of defining relations for WF (D). Consequently
rank(WF (D)) = 8. Hence D is flag-minimal.
:2
A quasi-symmetric 3-design with intersection numbers (0, µ) is always the one
point extension of a convenient symmetric 2-design. The question, when a sym-
metric design is extendable to a quasi-symmetric 3-design has been treated by
P. J. Cameron in [Cam-73]. He proved the following
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 56
Theorem 4.33 (P. J. Cameron 1973) If D is an extendable symmetric

2-(v, v, k, k, λ) design, then one of the following holds:
1) D is a Hadamard design (i.e. v = 4λ, k = 2λ + 1).
2) v = (λ + 2)(λ2 + 4λ + 2), k = λ2 + 3λ + 1.
3) v = 111, k = 11, λ = 1.
4) v = 495, k = 39, λ = 3.
Note that for Hadamard designs there exists always a unique extension to a quasi-
symmetric 3-design (see e.g. [BetJL-86] for a proof of this classical result). For
this reason such designs are commonly called Hadamard 3-designs.
An example for the second parameter class is the Witt-design with parameters
(22, 77, 21, 6, 5). It is a one point extension of the projective plain of order 4.
Another class of designs with flag-algebras of rank 8 can be constructed using
finite affine spaces. The following definition can be found e.g. in [BetJL-86]:
Definition 4.34 Let F be a field and let V be an n-dimensional vector space

over F . Then the set of all cosets of subspaces of V ordered by inclusion is called
affine space. The cosets of {0} are called points, those of the 1-dimensional
subspaces lines, those of the 2-dimensional subspaces planes and those of the
(n−1)-dimensional subspaces hyperplanes. The coset of a d-dimensional subspace
is called d-flat. In the case when F is a finite field with q elements the affine space
will be denoted as AG(n, q).
Lemma 4.35 Let AG(n, q) be a finite affine space. For d > 0 let P be the set of
points and B be the set of d-flats of AG(n, q). Then AGd (n.q) := (P, B, ∈) is a
2-design.
2:
see e.g. [BetJL-86]
:2
Theorem 4.36 Let n > 2 and let q be a prime-power. Then
rank (WF (AGn−1 (n, q))) = 8.
2:
It is easy to see that AGn−1 (n, q) is quasi-symmetric with intersection numbers
(0, q n−2 ) because two hyperplanes are either parallel or intersect in an (n−2)-flat.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 57
Like in the proof of Theorem 4.32 it is enough to show that (Y(1,1) )2 is expressible
/ The coefficients
as linear combination of I, L, N , Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) and O.
for I, L and N are evident (see proof of Theorem 4.32).
To get the coefficient of Y(0,0) one has to count the following kind of configurations.
f + o
+ x +
o + g
Here f = (P, p) and g = (Q, q) are fixed and x = (X, x) is a variable flag. The
hyperplane x contains P as well as Q. There are λ such planes. For each choice
of x there are |p ∩ x ∩ q| ways to choose X. Since p ∩ x ∩ q must necessarily be
an (n − 3)-flat, the coefficient of Y(0,0) is λq n−3 .
With the same reasoning one gets that the coefficient for Y(0,1) and for Y(1,0) is
(λ − 1)(q n−3 − 1).
The situation is slightly different for the coefficient of Y(1,1) . Here the following
configurations have to be counted:
f + +
+ x +
+ + g
In this case p ∩ x ∩ q may be an (n − 2)- or an (n − 3)-flat. The number of hyper

planes x containing a fixed (n − 2)-flat p ∩ q can be computed as follows: Each
hyperplane has q n−1 and each (n − 2)-flat has q n−2 elements. Hence the number
of elements of x that are not in p ∩ q is (q n−1 − q n−2 ). If two hyperplanes x1 and
x2 contain p ∩ q then x1 ∩ x2 = p ∩ q. Thus the different choices for x form a
partition of F n \ (p ∩ q). Consequently the number of choices for x is equal to
q n − q n−2 q2 − 1
= = q + 1.
q n−1 − q n−2 q−1
Altogether the coefficient of Y(1,1) is equal to (q−1)(q n−2 −2)+(λ−q−1)(q n−3 −2).
:2
4.3 Flag-algebras of quasi-balanced designs

The quasi-balanced designs surely form the most interesting case in this classifi-
cation. While the flag-algebras of flag-minimal, dihedral 2-designs can only have
a rank ≤ 8, the situation for quasi-balanced designs gets more complex. For the
problems that were stated in the beginning of this section, only partial solutions
can be given here.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 58
A new aspect that comes into play in the case of quasi-balanced designs is the
question of flag-connectedness. This was not an issue for the 2-designs that were
studied previously since (as can easily be shown) 2-designs are always L- and N -
connected. Let us begin our investigations with the disconnected quasi-balanced
designs:
Lemma 4.37 Let D be a design with parameters (v, b, r, k) (! r > 1, k > 1 by

our definition of designs). Then D is L-connected if and only if it is N -connected.
2:
First of all note that the two parts of the assertion are dual to each other since
D is L-connected iff D∗ is N -connected. Hence it suffices to show one direction
of the equivalence. We will show L-connected =⇒ N -connected.
Step 1 Assume that f and g are two collinear flags of D. We show that f and
g are N -connected:
Let Q = (f = f1 , f2 , f3 , . . . , fn−1 ) be any N -path starting with f . If there are
indices i < j such that fi = fj then we can construct an N -path from f to g as
follows:
case 1 i = 1 and j is even. Then (f1 , f2 , . . . , fj , g) is an N -path from f to g.
case 2 i = 1 and j is odd. Then (f1 , f2 , . . . , fj−1 , g) is an N -path from f to g.
case 3 i > 1 is even, j is even. Then (f1 , f2 , . . . , fj−1 , fi−1 , fi−2 , . . . , f1 , g) is an

N -path from f to g.
case 4 i > 1 is even, j is odd. Then (f1 , f2 , . . . , fj , fi−1 , fi−2 , . . . , f1 , g) is an

case 5 i > 1 is odd, j is even. Then (f1 , f2 , . . . , fj , fi−1 , fi−2 , . . . , f1 , g) is an

case 6 i > 1 is odd, j is odd. Then (f1 , f2 , . . . , fj−1 , fi−1 , fi−2 , . . . , f1 , g) is an

Thus, if f and g are not N -connected, then this means that neither Q nor any
extension of Q does contain a loop. However, r > 1 and k > 1 and hence any
N -path starting in f can be extended. But this is a contradiction to the finiteness
of D.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 59
Step 2 Let f and g be flags such that there exists an L-path from f to g. We
will show that then there exists an N -path from f to g.
Let Q = (f = f1 , f2 , . . . , fn = g) be an L-path from f to g. In Step 1 we showed
that there exists an N -path (f1 = g1 , g2 , . . . , gm = f2 ) from f1 to f2 . If m is even
then (g1 , g2 , . . . , gm , f3 , f4 , . . . , fn ) is an N -path from f to g. If m is odd then
(g1 , g2 , . . . , gm−1 , f3 , f4 , . . . , fn ) is an N -path from f to g.
:2
Definition 4.38 A design D that is not L-connected (and hence not N -connected)
is called disconnected.
Lemma 4.39 In a disconnected design D = (P, B, F) with parameters (v, b, r, k)

we can define an equivalence relation on the set of flags as follows:
f ∼g : ⇐⇒ there exists a flag-walk from f to g
Let {F1 , F2 , . . . , Fn } be the equivalence classes of ∼. Define
Bi := {b ∈ B | ∃f ∈ Fi : f = (P, b)}
Pi := {P ∈ P | ∃f ∈ Fi : f = (P, b)}.
Then {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn } is a partition of P and {B1 , B2 , . . . , Bn } is a partition of

B.
The Incidence structures (Pi , Bi , Fi ) will be called connectivity components of D.
The connectivity components of D are connected designs.
2:
It is clear that ∼ is an equivalence relation on F. We will show that ∼ induces
a partition of P.
Since D is a nontrivial incidence structure we know that
[
Pi = P.
i
It remains to be shown that Pi ∩ Pj = ∅ ⇐⇒ i 6= j.

Let P ∈ Pi ∩ Pj . Then there exist flags fi = (P, bi ) ∈ Fi and fj = (P, bj ) ∈ Fj .
Thus fi and fj are concurrent and hence connected by an N -path. This implies
i = j.
The proof that ∼ induces a partition on B is analogous.
Now we will show that for i 6= j if P ∈ Pi and b ∈ Bj then (P, b) ∈
/ F.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 60
Assume on the contrary that f := (P, b) ∈ F. Then there exist flags fi = (P, bi ) ∈
Fi and fj = (Pj , b) ∈ Fj . Now (fi , f, fj ) is an N -path from fi to fj . Hence i = j,
but this is a contradiction to the assumption that i 6= j.
The fact that Di = (Pi , Bi , Fi ) is a connected design is an easy consequence.
Indeed the parameters of Di are (vi , bi , r, k) where vi = |Pi | and bi = |Bi |.
:2
For flag-minimal designs the conditions on the connectivity components are much
stronger. In order to be able to formulate necessary and sufficient conditions we
need to introduce the notion of similarity of cellular algebras.
Definition 4.40 Let W1 = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i and W2 = hB1 , B2 , . . . , Br i be cel-

lular algebras of the same degree n. Let (pki,j ) and (p̃ki,j ) structure constants of
W1 and W2 , respectively. Then W1 and W2 are called similar if there exists a
bijection
ϕ(k)
ϕ : {1, 2, . . . , r} −→ {1, 2, . . . , r} such that pki,j = p̃ϕ(i)ϕ(j) .
If two cellular algebras are similar, this means that they are isomorphic as B-
algebras. However, they may be non-isomorphic as cellular algebras.
Theorem 4.41 Let D = (P, B, F) be a design with parameters (v, b, r, k). Let
Di = (Pi , Bi , Fi ) (i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , c}) be the connectivity components of D. Then D
is flag-minimal if and only if
1) all connectivity components are designs with the same parameters (v 0 , b0 , r, k),
2) the flag-algebras of the connectivity components are pairwise similar.
2:
“=⇒”: By the definition of flag-minimality D is flag-homogeneous. Secondly,
note that for two flags f = (P, p) and g = (Q, q) of D we have
dL (f, g) = dN (f, g) = ∞ =⇒ |p ∩ q| = |P ∩ Q| = 0.
Thus we obtain

1 dL (f, g) = dN (f, g) = ∞
B = (bf,g ) with bf,g = for f, g ∈ F
0 else
is an element of the first standard basis of WF (D).

As a consequence we get that all other elements of the first standard basis of
WF (D) have block-diagonal shape. Namely, if WF (D) = hA1 = I, A2 , . . . , Ar =
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 61
Bi then for i < r

 (1) 
Ai
(2)
 Ai 0 
Ai = 
 
.. 
 0 . 
(c)
Ai
Let Di be any connectivity component of D. If Di is flag-minimal then WF (Di )
(i) (i) (i)
has to have hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar−1 i as first standard basis because these are ex-
actly those matrices that are required by Definition 4.13 (the definition of flag-
minimality).
For i, j < r
r−1
X
A i Aj = pki,j Ak .
k=1
Written in terms of block-matrices this means

 (1)   (1) 
Ai A
(2)  j (2) 

 Ai 0 
  Aj 0 
.. ..
  
 0 .  
 0 . 

(c) (c)
Ai Aj
 
(1) (1)
Ai Aj
 (2) (2) 
 Ai Aj 0 
= 
...

0
 
 
(c) (c)
Ai Aj
 Pr−1 k (1) 
k=1 pi,j Ak
Pr−1 k (2)
k=1 pi,j Ak 0
 
= 
 
. . .

 0 
Pr−1 k (c)
k=1 pi,j Ak
Consequentially Di is indeed flag-minimal and the flag-algebras of the different

connectivity components have the same structure constants.
In order to show the mutual similarity of the WF (Di ) it remains to be shown that
all connectivity components have the same parameters (v 0 , b0 , r, k). Observe that
 
J (1)
 J (2) 0 
J −B =
 
. . 
 0 . 
(c)
J
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 62
where J (i) denotes the all-1-matrix of WF (Di ). Let us compute the square of
J − B:  
x1 J (1)
2
 x2 J (2) 0 
(J − B) = x(J − B) 
 
. . .

 0 
(c)
xc J
where xi is equal to the number of flags of Di . Since D is flag-homogeneous we
obtain that (J − B)2 = x(J − B). Thus all connectivity components have the
same number of flags. If Di has parameters (vi , bi , r, k) then x = xi = vi r = bi k.
Hence vi and bi do not depend on i. This completes the first part of the proof.
“⇐=”: Let D1 , D2 , . . . , Dc be flag-minimal designs with parameters (v, b, r, k)
(i)
such that their flag-algebras are pairwise similar. Assume that WF (Di ) = hA1 =
(i) (i)
I, A2 , . . . , Ar−1 i. Without loss of generality assume that
ϕ : {1, 2, . . . , r − 1} −→ {1, 2, . . . , r − 1} : x 7→ x
is a similarity between any two of the flag-algebras.

For 1 ≤ i < r define
 (1) 
Ai
(2)
 Ai 0 
Ai := 
 
... 
 0 
(c)
Ai
Pr−1
Further more set Ar = J − k=1 Ak .
If D is flag-minimal then WF (D) = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i.
In order to show, that A1 , A2 , . . . , Ar form indeed the first standard basis of a
cell it is enough to proof that for 1 ≤ i, k ≤ r there exist constants pki,r and pkr,i
such that
r
X
A i Ar = pki,r Ak
k=1
r
X
Ar Ai = pkr,i Ak .
k=1
Simple counting gives that
Ar Ar = vr(c − 1)(J − Ar ) + vr(c − 2)Ar ,

Ai Ar = p1i,i Ar ,
Ar Ai = p1i0 ,i0 Ar where A∗i = Ai0 .
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 63
Hence D is flag-minimal. This completes the proof.

:2
A consequence of Theorem 4.41 is that we only need to concentrate on the con-
nected designs. A complete characterization of the connected flag-minimal de-
signs leads automatically to the complete characterization of all flag-minimal
designs. The same can be said about flag-minimal + dihedral designs because of:
Corollary 4.42 A flag-minimal design is dihedral if and only if all its connec-
tivity components are dihedral.
2:
This is a direct consequence of the proof of Theorem 4.41
:2
Note that by Lemma 4.5 sharply dihedral flag-minimal designs are always con-
nected.
The most prominent class of quasi-balanced designs is formed by the generalized
n-gons that were introduced by J. Tits. The following paragraphs will base
deeply on [KilS-73]. In this paper the algebras [L, N ] for generalized n-gons are
examined. But before going into details let us start with some definitions.
Definition 4.43 Let D = (P, B, F) be an incidence structure. W.l.o.g. assume

that P ∩ B = ∅. Let V := P ∪ B and let E := F ∪ F ∗ where F ∗ = {(b, P ) |
(P, b) ∈ F }. Then the graph ΓPB (D) := (V, E) is called incidence graph of D.
Note the similarity of incidence graphs to the point-block algebras that were
defined above. Indeed, for most incidence structures the Weisfeiler-Leman closure
of the adjacency matrix of ΓPB coincides with WPB .
Following δ will denote the usual distance operator in graphs.
Definition 4.44 Let D = (P, B, F) be a design with parameters (v, b, t+1, s+1)
and let ΓPB = (V, E) be its incidence graph.
Then D is called generalized n-gon if
1) δ(a, b) ≤ n for all a, b ∈ V ,
2) If δ(a, b) = h < n then there exists exactly one path of length h from a to
b.
3) For any a ∈ V there exists b ∈ V such that δ(a, b) = n
The following are easy consequences of the definition of generalized n-gons:

4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 64
Lemma 4.45 Let D = (P, B, F) be a generalized n-gon and let f = (P, p) and
g = (Q, q) be flags of D. Define d(f, g) := min{dL (f, g), dN (f, g)}. Then the
following are true:
1) d(f, g) ≤ n,
2) If d(f, g) < n then there is a unique flag-walk of length d(f, g) from f to g,
3) If d(f, g) = n then there is exactly one N -path and one L-path of length n
from f to g.
2:
1) A path of length x in ΓPB (D) determines a flag-walk of length x − 1 con-

sisting of the edges of the path. Thus, we have that
δ(P, Q) < n =⇒ d(f, g) ≤ n
If δ(P, Q) = n then because of the first axiom δ(P, q) < n and thus d(f, g) ≤
n.
2) Assume dL (f, g) = d(f, g) < n. Then either δ(p, Q) = d(f, g)−1 or δ(p, q) =
d(f, g) − 1. If δ(p, q) = d(f, g) − 1 then the existence of more than one
L-path of length d(f, g) from f to g implies the existence of more than
one path of length d(f, g) − 1 in ΓPB (D) from p to q. This however is a
contradiction to the definition of a generalized n-gon. The same holds in
the case δ(p, Q) = d(f, g) − 1.
The case dN (f, g) = d(f, g) can be handled analogously.
3) If d(f, g) = n then either δ(P, Q) = δ(p, q) = n − 1 or δ(P, q) = δ(p, Q) =
n − 1. Thus there exist an L- and an N -walk from f to g of length n the
existence of another flag-walk from of length n from f to g would lead to a
contradiction with Axiom 2 of generalized quadrangles.
:2
One of the initial results of [KilS-73] is the description of [L, N ] for generalized
n-gons. This description will be repeated here without proof:
Proposition 4.46 Let D = (P, B, F) be a generalized n-gon with parameters
(v, b, t + 1, s + 1). Then rank([L, N ]) = 2n. More over the defining relation for
[L, N ] are
L2 = sI + (s − 1)L
N2 = tI + (t − 1)N
(LN )m = (N L)m , if n = 2m is even.
(LN )m L = (N L)m N, if n = 2m + 1 is odd.
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 65
By Proposition 4.16 we know that [L, N ] has a basis consisting of elements of the
form ϕ(wi ). From the description of the defining relations of [L, N ] in Proposition
4.46 we know that this basis looks as follows:
[L, N ] = hϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), . . . , ϕ(w2n−1 )i.
From Lemma 4.5 we know that if ϕ(wi ) = (af,g ) then af,g is equal to the number
of flag-walks from f to g that have pattern wi . If i is odd then
af,g 6= 0 =⇒ dL (f, g) ≤ (i + 1)/2
and if i is even then

af,g 6= 0 =⇒ dN (f, g) ≤ i/2
An easy corollary of Lemma 4.45 is that dL (f, g) = dN (f, g) if and only if d(f, g) =
n. Thus a minimal closed flag-path must always consist of exactly 2n flags (a
flag-path (f0 , f1 , . . . , fx ) is called closed if f0 = fx and (fx−1 , f0 , f1 ) is a flag-path).
Now let f, g ∈ F such that dL (f, g) = x and dN (f, g) = y. We will show that
then x + y = 2n. If (f = f1 , f2 , . . . , fx−1 , g) is a minimal L-path from f to g and
(f = g1 , g2 , . . . , gy−1 , g) is a minimal N -path from f to g then the following cases
can occure:
1) (fx−1 , gy−1 ) ∈ RL
2) (fx−1 , gy−1 ) ∈ RN
3) (fx−1 , gy−1 ) ∈
/ RL and (fx−1 , gy−1 ) ∈
/ RN
In the first case dN (f, g) is even while dL (f, g) is odd and the flags
(f0 , f1 , . . . , fx−1 , gy−1 , gy−2 , . . . , g0 )
form a minimal closed flag-path. However, the number of flags on this path is
odd and thus not equal to 2n which is a contradiction.
The same reasoning cancels case 2.
Finally only case 3 is left. In this case we obtain a minimal closed flag-path of
even length. Thus we can conclude that for any two flags f 6= g holds dL (f, g) +
dN (f, g) = 2n.
Minimal flag-paths in D are in a one to one correspondence with minimal paths
in the incidence graph ΓPB (D). The same holds for minimal closed paths and
minimal cycles in the incidence graph. Namely, a minimal closed flag-path of
length 2n corresponds to a minimal cycle consisting of n points and n blocks.
This fact can be used to prove that for any pair of distinct flags f and g with
4 FLAG ALGEBRAS 66
d(f, g) = dL (f, g) ≤ n any L-path from f to g does either have length d(f, g) or
length > n.
All these facts lead to the conclusion that for 0 ≤ i < 2n the basis elements ϕ(wi )
are 0/1-matrices. In particular ϕ(wi ) = (af,g ) such that for i odd af,g = 1 ⇐⇒
dL (f, g) = (i + 1)/2 and for i even af,g = 1 ⇐⇒ dN (f, g) = i/2.
Putting everything together we get
Theorem 4.47 If D is a generalized n-gon with parameters (v, b, t + 1, s + 1)

then D is flag-minimal and sharply dihedral.
2:
By definition a generalized n-gon is always flag-connected.
We already observed that ϕ(w0 ), ϕ(w1 ), ϕ(w2n−1 ) forms a basis of 0/1-matrices
of [L, N ]. Moreover, we know that
2n−1
X
ϕ(wi ) = J.
i=0
It can be easily seen that ϕ(wi )∗ = ϕ(wi ) ⇐⇒ i mod 4 ∈ {1, 2} and ϕ(wi )∗ =
ϕ(wi+1 ) ⇐⇒ i mod 4 = 3. This is exactly the condition that the first standard
basis is closed under transposition.
:2
5 APPLICATIONS OF FLAG ALGEBRAS 67
5 Applications of flag algebras in algebraic graph

theory
In this section we will do some computations with the cellular algebras that were
described in section 4.
The flag-algebras of the following classes of designs were considered there:
1) Projective planes,
2) P Gn−1 (n, q),
3) P Gn−1 (n, 2),
4) 2-(v, b, r, k, λ)-designs with λ = 1,
5) Quasi-symmetric 3-designs with intersection numbers (0, µ).
6) AGn−1 (n, q),
7) Generalized n-gons.
From one hand we are interested in the fulfillment of the tasks that were given in
Section 3. From the other hand we also would like to find interesting combina-
torial objects that can be associated with the flag-algebras. In particular these
are
• Distance regular graphs (drg),
• Strongly regular graphs (srg = drg of diameter 2),
• Directed strongly regular graphs (dsrg).
The drgs and srgs were introduced in Section 2.2.D. Directed strongly regular
graphs are defined as follows:
Definition 5.1 Let Γ = (V, E) be a directed graph with adjacency matrix

A = A(Γ). Then Γ is called directed strongly regular (dsrg) with parameters
(ṽ, k̃, µ̃, λ̃, t̃) if
1) |V | = ṽ,
2) AJ = JA = k̃J,
3) A2 = t̃I + λ̃A + µ̃(J − I − A).

Following are a few helpful propositions about directed strongly regular graphs:
Proposition 5.2 A matrix A is the adjacency matrix of a directed strongly reg-

ular graph with parameters (ṽ, k̃, µ̃, λ̃, t̃) if and only if J − I − A is the adjacency
matrix of a directed strongly regular graph with parameters (ṽ, k̃ 0 , µ̃0 , λ̃0 , t̃0 ) where
k̃ 0 = ṽ − k̃ − 1,
λ̃0 = ṽ − 2k̃ + µ̃ − 2,
t̃0 = ṽ − 2k̃ + t̃ − 1,
µ̃0 = ṽ − 2k̃ + λ̃.
2:
First of all note
A2 = t̃I + λ̃A + µ̃(J − I − A) ⇐⇒ A2 + (µ̃ − λ̃)A + (µ̃ − t̃)I = µ̃J.
Now
(J − I − A)2 = J 2 − J − JA − J + I + A − AJ + A + A2
= ṽJ − 2J − k̃J + I + A − k̃J + A + t̃I + λ̃A + µ̃(J − I − A)
= (ṽ − 2k̃ + µ̃ − 2)J + (2 + λ̃ − µ̃)A + (1 + t̃ − µ̃)I
We would like to express (J − I − A)2 as t̃0 I + λ̃0 (J − I − A) + µ̃0 A. To compute

the coefficients t̃0 , λ̃0 and µ̃0 we can rewrite this expression to
t̃0 I + λ̃0 (J − I − A) + µ̃0 A = (t̃0 − λ̃0 )I + λ̃0 J + (µ̃0 − λ̃0 )A.
This implies that
λ̃0 = ṽ − 2k̃ + µ̃ − 2
t̃0 = ṽ − 2k̃ + t̃ − 1
µ̃0 = ṽ − 2k̃ + λ̃
The fact that k̃ 0 = ṽ − k̃ − 1 can be easily seen (it is a general property of regular
graphs).
:2
Proposition 5.3 A matrix A is the adjacency matrix of a directed strongly reg-

ular graph with the parameters (ṽ, k̃, µ̃, λ̃, t̃) if and only if the matrix A∗ is the
adjacency matrix of a directed strongly regular graph with the same parameters.
2:
Note that A can be expressed as As + Aa where As is a symmetric and Aa is an
antisymmetric 0/1 matrix. Consequently A∗ = (As + Aa )∗ = As + A∗a . Now we

compute
(A∗ )2 = (A2 )∗
= (t̃I + λ̃(As + Aa ) + µ̃(J − I − As − Aa ))∗
= t̃I ∗ + λ̃(As + Aa )∗ + µ̃(J − I − As − Aa )∗
= t̃I + λ̃(As + A∗a ) + µ̃(J − I − As − A∗a )
= t̃I + λ̃A∗ + µ̃(J − I − A∗ ).
The rest follows with

JA∗ = (AJ)∗ = k̃J
and
A∗ J = (JA)∗ = k̃J.
:2
In the following a general description of the strategy for the solution of all tasks
from Section 3 will be given.
General strategy: For each class of designs the following information is needed:
1) a combinatorial description of the first standard basis of WF ,
2) a set R of defining relations for WF in terms of an alphabet Σ (this auto-

matically gives a homomorphism ϕ from the free C-algebra generated by A
into WF ),
3) A set B = {b1 , b2 , . . . , br } of elements of the free C-algebra over Σ such that

B̃ := {ϕ(b1 ), ϕ(b2 ), . . . , ϕ(br )} is a basis of WF (this basis will be called
auxiliary basis),
4) an algorithm NF that, given an arbitrary element x of the free C-algebra

over Σ, computes the representation of ϕ(x) as linear combination in terms
of B̃,
5) A basis transformation T from the first standard basis hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i to

the auxiliary basis B̃.
The combinatorial description of the first standard basis was already given in
Theorem 4.20. Thus task 1 is solved.
Now for the description of the structure constants:
Assume, that Ai and Aj are elements of the first standard basis of WF . Since we
have the basis-transformation T , we can represent Ai and Aj as linear combina-

tions in B̃. Namely:
r
X
Ai = ck ϕ(bk )
k=1
r
X
Aj = dk ϕ(bk )
k=1
To each of these linear combination we can formally associate an element of the

free C-algebra over Σ:
r
X r
X
ck ϕ(bk ) −→ ck bk =: Ai
k=1 k=1
r
X r
X
dk ϕ(bk ) −→ dk bk =: Aj
k=1 k=1
Since ϕ is a homomorphism, we know that

ϕ Ai Aj = Ai Aj .

Using the algorithm NF we can compute ϕ Ai Aj as linear combination in B̃:
r
X
ϕ A i Aj = ak ϕ(bk ).
k=1
Using T −1 we finally get Ai Aj as linear combination of the first standard basis:

r
X
Ai Aj = pki,j Ak .
k=1
Note that for the computation of the structure constants the knowledge of the
actual matrices of Ai and Aj was not necessary. The main work is done inside
of the algorithm NF. In general the existence of such an algorithm depends on
the choice of the defining relations. Usually NF is realized as a so called term
rewriting system (TRS). Such normal form algorithms are treated a bit more
detailed in the supplement. Thus task 2 is solved.
Task 3 is solved exactly as in Section 3.1. If (as in our case) the structure
constants are given as functions, then the test for good subsets involves the
solution of systems of Diophantine equations. This process will become clear in
the next subsection.
About Task 4 we only make the following remark: A non-trivial incidence struc-
ture S = (P, B, F) is well determined by its collinearity relation RL and its
concurrency relation RN . In particular, let P e := F/RN , let Be := F/RL and
let Fe := {(Pe, pe) | Pe ∈ P,
e pe ∈ B,
e Pe ∩ pe 6= ∅}. Then (P, B, F) is isomorphic to
(P,
e B,
e F).
e Now it can be easily seen that
Aut(S) ∼
= Aut(RL ) ∩ Aut(RN ).
Since the cellular algebras are in a Galois correspondence with the 2-closed per-
mutation groups, it is clear that
Aut(RL ) ∩ Aut(RN ) ∼
= Aut(WF (S)).
However, in general it is impossible to predict the automorphism group of a flag-

minimal dihedral design D from the structure of its flag algebra as it may happen
that WF (D) < V(Aut(D), F). Infact V(Aut(D), F) may even be isomorphic to
the full matrix algebra.
5.1 Hadamard-3-designs
Let D be a Hadamard-3-design. Then D has parameters v = 4n, b = 8n − 2,
r = 4n − 1, k = 2n, λ = 2n − 1 and λ3 = n − 1. Moreover, two blocks are either
disjoint or they intersect in exactly n points.
In Proposition 4.30 a combinatorial description of the first standard basis of
WF (D) was given. Namely
WF (D) = hA0 , A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 , A6 , A7 i
where A0 = I, A1 = L, A2 = N , A3 = Y(0,0) , A4 = Y(0,1) , A5 = Y(1,0) , A6 = Y(1,1)

/
and A7 = O.
In Lemma 4.27 and in the proof of Theorem 4.32 the flag algebra WF (D) was
described in terms of defining relation over the alphabet Σ = {I, L, N, Y(1,1) }.
Namely:
Ix = xI = x for x ∈ A,
L2 = (2n − 1)I + (2n − 2)L,
N2 = (4n − 2)I + (4n − 3)N,
N LN L = LN LN + (4n − 3)LN − (4n − 3)N L,
LN LN = (4n2 − 6n + 2)I − (2n − 2)L + (4n2 − 6n + 2)N
−(2n − 2)LN + (2n − 1)N L − LN L + (2n − 2)N LN
Y(1,1) 2 = (4n2 − 6n + 2)I + (2n2 − 6n + 4)L + (n2 − 3n + 2)N
−(n − 1)LN − (n − 1)N L + (n − 1)LN L + 2Y(1,1) ,
Y(1,1) L = (n − 1)N + (n − 1)N L − Y(1,1) ,

LY(1,1) = (n − 1)N + (n − 1)LN − Y(1,1) ,
Y(1,1) N = (2n − 2)L + (2n − 2)LN − Y(1,1) ,
N Y(1,1) = (2n − 2)L + (2n − 2)N L − Y(1,1) .
In Theorem 4.32 we showed that
WF = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN, Y(1,1) i.
This is the auxiliary basis B̃.

The basis transformation T can be deduced from Lemma 4.25. It may be de-
scribed by giving representations of the elements of the first standard basis in
terms of B̃.
I = I
L = L
N = N
n−1 n−1 n−1 1
Y(0,0) = − N− LN − N L + LN L + Y(1,1)
n n n n
Y(0,1) = LN − Y(1,1)
Y(1,0) = N L − Y(1,1)
Y(1,1) = Y(1,1)
2(n − 1) n−1 n−1 n−1
/ =
O − L+ N− LN − NL
2n − 1 n 2n − 1 2n − 1
1 1
− LN L + N LN
n 2n − 1
The inverse transformation is:
I = I
L = L
N = N
LN = Y(0,1) + Y(1,1)
NL = Y(1,0) + Y(1,1)
LN L = (n − 1)N + nY(0,0) + (n − 1)Y(0,1) + (n − 1)Y(1,0) + (n − 2)Y(1,1)
N LN = (2n − 2)L + (2n − 1)Y(0,0) + (2n − 2)Y(0,1) + (2n − 2)Y(1,0)
/
+(2n − 3)Y(1,1) + (2n − 1) O
Y(1,1) = Y(1,1)
With this information all structure constants can be computed. Assume e.g. we
want to know Y(0,1) L in terms of the first standard basis. We start by expressing
Y(0,1) and L in B̃. This is (LN − Y(1,1) ) and again L. Thus we get
Y(0,1) L = LN L − Y(1,1) L.
Using the defining relations we get
Y(0,1) L = LN L − (n − 1)N + (n − 1)N L − Y(1,1) .
Finally we transform back to the first standard basis
Y(0,1) L = nY(0,0) + (n − 1)Y(0,1) .
Of course these tedious computations are done using a computer algebra system
(see supplement).
Thus we know all structure constants and can go for the computation of subal-
gebras as it was described in Section 3.1.
We start with the evaluation of good subsets:
The first standard basis is indexed by the numbers {0, 1, . . . , 7}. We know that
A∗4 = Y(0,1) ∗ = Y(1,0) = A5 are the only antisymmetric elements of the basis.
Each good subset must be either symmetric or antisymmetric (by the axioms of
a cellular algebra). Following is a list of all candidates for good subsets:
{1}, {1, 2}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3, 6}, {1, 2, 3, 6, 7}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6},
{1, 2, 3, 7}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, {1, 2, 6}, {1, 2, 6, 7}, {1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7},
{1, 2, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 2, 7}, {1, 2, 4, 5, 7}, {1, 2, 4, 5}, {1, 3}, {1, 3, 6}, {1, 3, 6, 7},
{1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 3, 7}, {1, 3, 4, 5, 7}, {1, 3, 4, 5}, {1, 6}, {1, 6, 7},
{1, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 4, 5, 6}, {1, 7}, {1, 4, 5, 7}, {1, 4, 5}, {2}, {2, 3}, {2, 3, 6},
{2, 3, 6, 7}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {2, 3, 7}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 7}, {2, 3, 4, 5},
{2, 6}, {2, 6, 7}, {2, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {2, 4, 5, 6}, {2, 7}, {2, 4, 5, 7}, {2, 4, 5}, {3},
{3, 6}, {3, 6, 7}, {3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {3, 4, 5, 6}, {3, 7}, {3, 4, 5, 7}, {3, 4, 5}, {6},
{6, 7}, {4, 5, 6, 7}, {4, 5, 6}, {7}, {4, 5, 7}, {4, 5}, {4}, {5}
If we would like to know, e.g., whether {1, 2, 3} is a good subset, then we have to
compute powers of A1 + A2 + A3 . It turns out that the computation of squares is
sufficient (enough sets are filtered out). Using the previously computed structure
constants we compute that
(A1 + A2 + A3 )2 = (4n2 + 4n − 3)A0 + (2n2 − 2)A1 + (2n2 + 2n − 3)A2
+(n2 + 6n − 6)A3 + (n2 + 2n)A4 + (n2 + 2n)A5
+(n2 − 2n + 2)A6 + (4n − 2)A7
The coefficients of A1 , A2 and A3 must be equal in order for {1, 2, 3} to be a good
set. In particular
2n2 − 2 = 2n2 + 2n − 3.
This implies 2n = 1. However, n must be an integer. Thus {1, 2, 3} is not a good

set for any choice of n.
This process is repeated for all candidates. Finally we find the following good
sets:
{1}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 7}, {2}, {2, 3, 6}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
{2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {2, 4, 5}, {3}, {3, 4, 5, 6}, {3, 4, 5}, {6}, {7}, {4, 5}, {4}, {5}
Moreover {1, 3} is good for n = 2 and {6, 7} is good for n ∈ {2, 3}.
From these good sets we get the following candidates for cellular subalgebras:
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4, 5}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4, 5}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3, 4, 5}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3, 4, 5}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3, 4, 5, 6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2, 3, 6}, {4}, {5}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2, 3, 6}, {4, 5}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2, 4, 5}, {3}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1}, {2, 4, 5}, {3}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}},
{{0}, {1, 3}, {2}, {4}, {5}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1, 3}, {2}, {4}, {5}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1, 3}, {2}, {4, 5}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1, 3}, {2}, {4, 5}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1, 3}, {2, 4, 5}, {6}, {7}},
{{0}, {1, 3}, {2, 4, 5}, {6, 7}},
{{0}, {1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {2}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2}, {3}, {4, 5}, {6}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2}, {3, 4, 5}, {6}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2}, {3, 4, 5, 6}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2, 3, 4, 5, 6}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2, 3, 6}, {4}, {5}},
{{0}, {1, 7}, {2, 3, 6}, {4, 5}},

{{0}, {1, 7}, {2, 4, 5}, {3}, {6}}
For each of these candidates the axioms of a cellular algebra have to be verified.
This is done by computing products of basis-elements. Assume, e.g., we want to
know whether
{{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6, 7}}
represents a cell. One of the products to be checked is A1 A2 . We get
A 1 A2 = A4 + A 6 .
The coefficients of A6 and A7 have to be equal. Thus we get the contradiction

1 = 0. Hence this is not a cell for any choice of n.
When all candidates are tested, we get the complete list of cellular subalgebras
of WF for n > 1:
W0 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A5 ), (A6 ), (A7 )i

W1 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A6 ), (A4 + A5 ), (A7 )i
W2 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ), (A7 )i
W3 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A7 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )i
W4 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A7 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )i
W5 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 )i
W6 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 )i
W7 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 )i
There appears one sporadic cellular subalgebra for n = 2. Namely
W8 = hA0 , A1 + A3 , A2 + A4 + A5 , A6 + A7 i
A quick check reveals that W8 is isomorphic to the Johnson-scheme J(8, 3) which

appears as centralizer algebra of the full symmetric group S(8) in its action on
the 3-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , 8}.
The Hasse-diagram for the cellular subalgebras is depicted in Figure 2.
In principle the rank 3 algebras W4 , W5 , W6 give raise to strongly regular graphs.
However, the parameters of these graphs would be as follows:
Wi v k λ µ
W4 16n2 − 4n 4n − 1 4n − 2 0
W5 16n2 − 4n 2n − 1 2n − 2 0
W6 16n2 − 4n 4n − 2 4n − 3 0
It is easily verified that the fact µ = 0 implies that all the graphs are disjoint
unions of complete graphs — thus they are trivial.
W0
W1
W2 W3
W5 W4 W6 W8
W7
Figure 2: The cellular subalgebras of WF (D) for Hadamard 3-designs
If one of the remaining subalgebras W1 , W2 , W3 belongs to a distance regular

graph then this means that one of its basis elements must be the adjacency
matrix of a graph with diameter > 2. The relevant matrices to be checked are
(A2 + A3 + A6 ), (A4 + A5 ), A7 and (A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ). Using the structure
constants we obtain:
(A2 + A3 + A6 )2 = 4n(2n − 1)A0 + 4n(n − 1)A1 + 2n(2n − 1)A7 +
n(4n − 3)(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ),
(A4 + A5 )2 = (A2 + A3 + A6 )2 ,
(A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )2 = 2(4n − 1)(2n − 1)A0 + 4(2n − 1)2 (A1 + A7 ) +
2(2n − 1)(4n − 3)(A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ) +
(4n − 1)(4n − 3)A2 ,
2
(A7 ) = 2n(A0 + A1 ),
A7 A1 = (2n − 1)A7 .
Hence the first three matrices belong to graphs of diameter two and A7 represents
a disconnected graph. In other words none of the three cells belongs to a distance
regular graph.
Now let us try to construct some directed strongly regular graphs. The method
is very similar to the one used above for the construction of all subalgebras. The
only difference is, that the candidates have to be chosen non-symmetric. In other
words this means that each candidate has to contain either of the antisymmetric
elements {4, 5}. Because of Proposition 5.2 it is enough to consider sets of cardi-
nality ≤ 3. Moreover from Proposition 5.3 follows that only sets containing the
element 4 have to be tested. Altogether we get the following candidates:
{4}, {1, 4}, {1, 2, 4}, {1, 3, 4}, {1, 4, 6}, {1, 4, 7}, {2, 4}, {2, 3, 4}, {2, 4, 6},
{2, 4, 7}, {3, 4}, {3, 4, 6}, {3, 4, 7}, {4, 6}, {4, 6, 7}, {4, 7}
For each of these sets the axioms of a dsrg have to be tested. Namely, the square
of each candidate has to be computed and the coefficients have to be verified.
This generally leads again to systems of Diophantine equations. The results of
these tests are given in the following Theorem:
Theorem 5.4 Let D be a Hadamard-3-design with parameters (v, b, r, k, λ) =

(4n, 8n − 2, 4n − 1, 2n, 2n − 2) and let WF = hA0 , A1 , . . . , A7 i be its flag-algebra
(where the Ai are defined as above). Assume that n > 1. Then (up to transposi-
tion and complement) the following is a complete list of all matrices in WF that
are adjacency matrices of directed strongly regular graphs:
matrix k̃ µ̃ λ̃ t̃
A1 + A 3 + A4 8n2 − 2n − 1 4n2 − 2n 4n2 − 2 4n2 − 1
A1 + A4 + A6 8n2 − 6n + 1 4n2 − 4n + 1 4n2 − 6n + 2 4n2 − 4n + 1
A3 + A4 + A7 8n2 − 2n 4n2 4n2 − 2n 4n2 .
For all graphs ṽ = 16n2 − 4n.
5.2 The other parameter class of quasi-symmetric 3-designs

Let D be a quasi-symmetric 3-design with parameters v = n2 + 5n + 5, b =
(n2 + 4n + 2)(n2 + 5n + 5), r = (n2 + 4n + 2)(n + 2), k = (n + 2)(n + 1),
λ = n2 + 3n + 1, λ3 = n and µ = n + 1 (corresponding to the second line in
Theorem 4.33).
By Theorem 4.32 the first standard basis of WF (D) is
WF (D) = hA0 , A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 , A6 , A7 i
where A0 = I, A1 = L, A2 = N , A3 = Y(0,0) , A4 = Y(0,1) , A5 = Y(1,0) , A6 = Y(1,1)

and A7 = O. / In the proof of the same theorem an auxiliary base together with a
set of defining relations was given. Namely
WF (D) = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN, Y(1,1) i
and
L2 = (n2 + 3n + 1)I + n(n + 3)L

N2 = (n + 3)(n2 + 3n + 1)I + (n3 + 6n2 + 10n + 2)N
N LN L = LN LN + (2n2 + 6n + 1)(LN − N L)
LN LN = n(n + 3)(n2 + 3n + 1)(I + N ) − n(n + 3)(L + LN ) +
(n2 + 3n + 1)(N L + N LN ) − LN L
2
Y(1,1) = n(n + 3)(n2 + 3n + 1)(I + L) + n(n2 + 2n − 1)N
−n(LN + N L − LN L) + 2Y(1,1)
Y(1,1) L = n(N + N L) − Y(1,1)
LY(1,1) = n(N + LN ) − Y(1,1)
Y(1,1) N = n(n + 3)(L + LN ) − Y(1,1)
N Y(1,1) = n(n + 3)(L + N L) − Y(1,1)
The transformation between the first standard basis and the auxiliary basis is
given through:
I = I
L = L
N = N
LN = Y(0,1) + Y(1,1)
NL = Y(1,0) + Y(1,1)
LN L = n(N + Y(0,0) + Y(0,1) + Y(1,0) + Y(1,1) ) + Y(0,0) − Y(1,1)
N LN = n(n + 3)(L + Y(0,0) + Y(0,1) + Y(1,0) + Y(1,1) ) + Y(0,0) − Y(1,1)
Y(1,1) = Y(1,1)
This information is sufficient for the computation of the structure constants of

WF (D). Using the structure constants, the cellular subalgebras can be found
and directed strongly regular graphs can be searched (as it was described in the
beginning this section). The following results were obtained using the MAPLE-
procedures that are described in the supplement.
Theorem 5.5 Let D be a quasi-symmetric 3-design with parameters v = n2 +

5n + 5, b = (n2 + 4n + 2)(n2 + 5n + 5), r = (n2 + 4n + 2)(n + 2), k = (n + 2)(n + 1),
λ = n2 + 3n + 1, λ3 = n and µ = n + 1. Let WF = hA0 , A1 , . . . , A7 i be its
flag-algebra (where the Ai are defined as above). Then the following is a complete
list of cellular subalgebras of WF :
W0 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A5 ), (A6 ), (A7 )i,
W1 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ), (A7 )i,
W2 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 )i,
W3 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 )i,
W4 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 )i.
2
In figure 3 the Hasse-diagram for these subalgebras is given.
The only non-trivial subalgebra that occurs is W1 . Using the structure constants
of WF (D) it is easy to compute that
A27 = (n + 3)(n + 2)(n + 1)3 (A0 + A1 ) + (n + 2)(n + 1)3 (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )
W0
W1
W2 W3
W4
Figure 3: The cellular subalgebras
and
(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )2 = (n + 3)(n + 1)(n2 + 3n + 1)(n + 2)2 (A0 + A1 )

+(n + 2)(n + 1)(n4 + 7n3 + 18n2 + 18n + 3)(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )
+(n2 + 3n + 1)(n + 1)(n + 2)3 A7 .
Consequently these two basis elements are adjacency matrices of graphs with
diameter 2. Since in addition A1 is a generalized involution, W1 does not belong
to a distance regular graph.
Theorem 5.6 With the same notions as in Theorem 5.5 the following is a com-
plete list (up to transposition and complement) of all those matrices in WF that
1) (A1 +A5 +A6 ) with k̃ = (n+2)(n2 +4n+2)(n2 +3n+1), µ̃ = (n2 +3n+1)2 ,

λ̃ = n(n + 3)(n2 + 3n + 1) and t̃ = (n2 + 3n + 1)2 ,
2) (A3 +A5 +A7 ) with k̃ = (n+3)(n+2)(n2 +4n+2)(n+1)2 , µ̃ = (n+3)2 (n+1)4 ,

λ̃ = (n + 3)(n + 2)(n + 1)2 (n2 + 3n + 1) and t̃ = (n + 3)2 (n + 1)4 .
For both dsrgs ṽ = (n + 2)(n + 1)(n2 + 4n + 2)(n2 + 5n + 5).
5.3 2-designs with λ = 1 and v < b

Let D be a non-symmetric 2-(v, b, r, k, λ) design with λ = 1. Then there are
integers x < y such that v = 1 + x + xy, b = (1+x+xy)(y+1)
x+1
, r = y + 1 and
k = x + 1.
From Proposition 4.30 we know, that the first standard basis of WF (D) is
WF (D) = hA0 , A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 , A6 i
where A0 = I, A1 = L, A2 = N , A3 = Y(0,1) , A4 = Y(1,0) , A5 = Y(0,0) and

/ (the order of the basis elements of WF coincides with the order given in
A6 = O
[KliMMZ-97] to make the results comparable).
By Theorem 4.31 D is sharply dihedral. Thus we get a rather small set of defining
relation for WF (D), namely:
L2 = xI + (x − 1)L
N2 = yI + (y − 1)N
LN LN + xLN = N LN L + xN L
LN LN = xN L − LN L + xN LN
By Proposition 4.16 [L, N ] = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN i. The basis trans-

formation between this basis and the first standard basis is as follows:
A0 = I
A1 = L
A2 = N
A3 = LN
A4 = NL
A5 = LN L
A6 = N LN − LN L
The inverse transformation is obvious.

With the method that was described in the beginning of this section the structure
constants can be computed.
Using these structure constants the cellular subalgebras are computed as de-
scribed in Section 3.1 (an example was given in Section 5.1).
The result is as follows:
Theorem 5.7 Let D be a non-symmetric 2-(v, b, r, k, 1) design and let WF =

hA0 , A1 , . . . , A6 i be its flag-algebra (where the Ai are defined as above). Then the
following is a complete list of cellular subalgebras of WF :
W0 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A5 ), (A6 )i

W1 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ), (A6 )i
W2 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )i
W3 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A6 )i for (x, y) = (1, y)
W4 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 )i
W5 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A6 ), (A5 )i for (x, y) = (1, y)
W6 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ), (A2 )i
W7 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A5 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A6 )i for (x, y) = (2, y)
W8 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 + A5 )i for (x, y) = (x, x + 1)
W9 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )i for (x, y) = (x, x + 1)
W10 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 ), (A5 )i for (x, y) = (1, 2)
W11 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 )i for (x, y) = (3, 4)
W0
W3
W1 W8
W7 W5
W2 W9 W6
W4
Figure 4: The cellular subalgebras (except W10 , W11 )
The subalgebras W2 , W5 , W6 , W7 and W9 have rank 3 and therefore belong to

strongly regular graphs. In the following table their parameters are given:
Wi v k λ µ
W2 xy 2 + 2xy + y + x + 1 x x−1 0
W5 y 2 + 3y + 2 y y−1 0
W6 xy 2 + 2xy + x + y + 1 y y−1 0
W7 2y 2 + 5y + 3 4y + 2 2y + 1 4
W9 x3 + 4x2 + 5x + 2 x2 + 2x x2 + 2x − 1 0
Thus W2 , W5 , W6 and W9 are trivial. W7 belongs to a non-trivial srg. Note that

2 2y + 3
2y + 5y + 3 = .
2
Substituting r = 2y + 3 we get that W7 has parameters v = 2r , k = 2(r − 2),

λ = r − 2 and µ = 4. These are the parameters of a so called triangular graph

T (r) (triangular graphs are the edge-graphs of complete graphs). In [Con-58]
W.S. Connor proved that for r > 8, a strongly regular graph that has the param-
eters of T (r) is indeed triangular. The assupmtions of this theorem are fulfilled
in our case.
In the following it is checked whether one of the remaining subalgebras W1 , W3 ,
W8 , W10 and W11 belongs to a distance regular graph. For each candidate each
basis element is tested:
W1 : A1 is a generalized involution.
(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )2 = y(x + 1)2 (A0 + A1 ) + (1 + x)3 A6 +
(1 + x)(x2 + y − 1)(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )
This means that for any feasible choice of x and y the matrix (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )
belongs to a graph of diameter 2.
(A6 )2 = (y − x)xy(A0 + A1 ) +
x(y − x − 1)(y − x)(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )
(3x2 + 2x + x3 − 2xy − 2yx2 − y + y 2 x)A6
With Proposition 2.31 either the coefficient of A1 or of (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ) must
be equal to 0. Since generally x, y 6= 0 and x < y this means that y = x + 1. In
this case we get:
(A6 )2 = x(x + 1)(A0 + A1 ) + (x2 − 1)A6 and
A6 A1 = xA6 .
This means that A6 is the adjacency matrix of a disconnected graph and hence
not a drg.
(A2 + A5 )2 = 2yA0 + (y − 1)(A2 + A5 ) + (A3 + A4 ) + 2A6
The coefficients of (A3 + A4 ) and of A6 are different and 6= 0. With proposition
2.31 this means that (A2 + A5 ) does not represent a drg.
(A3 + A4 )2 = 2yA1 + (A2 + A5 ) + (y − 1)(A3 + A4 ) + 2A6
The coefficients of (A2 + A5 ) and of A6 are different and 6= 0. Thus (A3 + A4 )
does not represent a drg. The matrix A6 was checked already above.
W8 : A2 and (A1 + A6 ) are generalized involutions.

(A3 + A4 + A5 )2 = x(x + 1)(x + 2)A0 + (x + 1)(x2 + 2x + 1)(A1 + A6 ) +
x2 (x + 2)A2 + x(x2 + 2x − 1)(A3 + A4 + A5 )
As x > 0 all the coefficients are > 0. Hence (A3 + A4 + A5 ) represents a graph of
diameter 2.
W10 : (A1 + A2 ) and A5 are generalized involutions.

(A2 + A3 + A4 )2 = 6A0 + 4(A1 + A6 ) + 2(A2 + A3 + A4 ) + 3A5
All coefficients are > 0 and hence (A2 + A3 + A4 ) represents a graph of diameter
2.
W11 : (A1 + A6 ) is a generalized involution.

(A2 + A5 )2 = 40A0 + 24(A1 + A6 ) + 21(A2 + A5 ) + 15(A3 + A4 )
(A3 + A4 )2 = 24A0 + 8(A1 + A6 ) + 9(A2 + A5 ) + 3(A3 + A4 )
Hence both matrices represent graphs of diameter 2.
Altogether the result is that none of the candidates belongs to a distance regular
graph.
The directed strongly regular graphs were already computed in [KliMMZ-97]. A
repetition of the computation there was not done. However, for completeness a
list of all matrices (up to transposition and complement) in WF (D) is given that
matrix k̃ µ̃ λ̃ t̃ remark
A1 + A 3 x + xy x x−1 x
A1 + A 2 + A3 xy + x + y x+1 x+y−1 x+y
A1 + A 3 + A5 2y + 1 2 y y+1 x=1
In each case ṽ = (xy + x + 1)(y + 1).
5.4 Generalized quadrangles

Let D be a generalized quadrangle. Then there exist positive integers s and t
such that D has parameters v = (s + 1)(st + 1), b = (t + 1)(st + 1), r = t + 1 and
k = s + 1 (D is called generalized quadrangle of order (s, t)).
From Theorem 4.47 we know that D is sharply dihedral and that WF (D) has as
first standard basis
WF (D) = hA0 , A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 , A6 , A7 i
where A0 = I, A1 = L, A2 = N , A3 = LN , A4 = N L, A5 = LN L, A6 = N LN
and A7 = LN LN .
From Proposition 4.46 we know the defining relations of WF (D).
Ix = xI = x for x ∈ {L, N }
L2 = sI + (s − 1)L
N2 = tI + (t − 1)N
LN LN = N LN L
This information is enough in order to compute the structure constants of WF (D)

(see the beginning of this section).
As usual, the good subsets are computed using the structure constants (see proto-
col in supplement). After these computations one realizes that the good subsets
fall into 6 classes, namely
1) subsets that are good for any s and any t,
2) subsets that are good for any s and t = 1,
3) subsets that are good for any t and s = 1,
4) subsets that are good for s = t,
5) subsets that are good for s = t2 and
6) subsets that are good for t = s2 .
The candidates for subalgebras can be classified in the same manner.

In our search for subalgebras we make use of the following property of generalized
quadrangles:
Lemma 5.8 A design D is a generalized quadrangle of order (s, t) if and only if

the dual design D∗ is a generalized quadrangle of order (t, s).
2
The Flag-algebras of WF (D) and WF (D∗ ) are obviously isomorphic. Indeed, if
WF (D) = h hL, N i i and WF (D∗ ) = h hL̃, Ñ i i then
L 7→ Ñ
N 7→ L̃
induces the isomorphism. For this reason it is enough, to check only candidates
up to duality. The complete protocol of the computations of subalgebras can be
found in the supplement.
Theorem 5.9 Let D be a generalized quadrangle of order (s, t). Then its flag-
algebra WF (D) has the following cellular subalgebras:
for all (s, t):
W0 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A5 ), (A6 ), (A7 )i

W1 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ), (A6 + A7 )i
W2 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A6 ), (A2 ), (A5 + A7 )i
W3 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 )i
W4 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 )i
W5 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 )i
for s = t:
W6 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A5 + A6 ), (A7 )i
for s arbitrary, t = 1:
W7 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A5 ), (A7 )i

W8 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ), (A6 ), (A7 )i
W9 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 + A5 )i
W10 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ), (A7 )i
W11 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A7 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ), (A6 )i
W12 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A7 ), (A6 )i
W13 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )i
for t arbitrary, s = 1:
W14 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A6 ), (A7 )i

W15 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A6 ), (A2 ), (A5 ), (A7 )i

W16 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A5 + A7 ), (A3 + A4 + A5 )i
W17 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A6 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A7 )i
W18 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A6 ), (A2 + A7 ), (A5 )i
W19 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A6 + A7 ), (A5 )i
W20 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A6 ), (A2 + A5 + A7 )i
sporadic s = t = 1:
W21 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A7 )i

W22 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A5 ), (A2 + A6 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A7 )i
W23 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A7 )i
W24 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A5 + A6 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A7 )i
W25 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A5 + A6 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A7 )i
W26 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A5 + A6 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 )i
W27 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A5 + A6 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 )i
W28 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A6 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 ), (A5 )i
W29 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 ), (A6 )i
W30 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 ), (A2 + A5 + A7 ), (A6 )i
W31 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 ), (A5 )i
W32 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A5 + A6 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 )i
W33 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 ), (A7 )i
other sporadic cases:
W34 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A5 + A6 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 )i s = 3, t=1

W35 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A5 + A6 ), (A3 + A4 + A7 )i s = 1, t=3
W36 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 + A7 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 )i s = 3, t=1
W37 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A6 ), (A2 + A5 + A7 ), (A3 + A4 )i s = 1, t=3
W38 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A7 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A5 + A6 )i s = 2, t=2
W39 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A7 ), (A5 + A6 )i s = 2, t=2
Because of Lemma 5.8 it is enough to consider the cellular subalgebras only up to

duality when searching for distance regular graphs and strongly regular graphs.
Those cellular subalgebras that only arise for s = t = 1 are of no big interest
because a generalized quadrangle of order (1, 1) always consists of the points and
lines of a usual quadrangle. Therefore in the sequel we will always assume that
s > 1 and t ≥ 1
Let us start with the strongly regular graphs: The following is a complete list
(up to duality):
Wi v k λ µ
W3 (s + 1)(st + 1)(t + 1) s s−1 0
W12 2s2 + 4s + 1 s s−1 0
W13 2s2 + 4s + 1 s2 + 2s s2 + 2s − 1 0
W39 45 16 8 4
The first three graphs are trivial (disconnected). W39 has the parameters of a
triangular graph T (10). By the Connor theorem ([Con-58]) it is indeed isomorphic
to T (10).
Now, systematically, for all non-trivial cellular subalgebras (up to duality) we
check whether they belong to distance regular graphs. For all termini related to
drgs that were not introduced by now we refere to [BroCN-89]:
W35 : A1 is a generalized involution. The other two matrices belong to Taylor

graphs with the following parameters:
 
0 8 8 0
A2 + A5 + A6 :  15 6 1 ∗ 
∗ 1 6 15
 
0 6 6 0
A3 + A4 + A7 :  15 8 1 ∗ 
∗ 1 8 15
The first graph is just the halfed 6-cube and the second one is the deCaen-
Mathon-Moorhouse graph.
W37 : (A2 + A5 + A7 ) is a generalized involution. The other two matrices belong

to distance regular graphs with the following parameters:
 
0 0 0 0
A1 + A6 :  10 9 4 ∗ 
∗ 1 6 10
 
0 0 0 0
A 3 + A4 :  6 5 4 ∗ 
∗ 1 2 6
(A1 + A6 ) can be described as the incidence graph of a 2-(16, 16, 10, 10, 6) design
(there are 3 such designs). (A3 + A4 ) represents just the folded 6-cube.
W38 :
(A1 + A2 + A7 )2 = 20A0 + 9(A1 + A2 + A7 ) + 5(A3 + A4 ) + 10(A5 + A6 )

(A3 + A4 )2 = 8A0 + 2(A1 + A2 + A7 ) + (A5 + A6 )
(A5 + A6 )2 = 16A0 + 4(A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A7 ) + 8(A5 + A6 )
Hence all three matrices represent graphs of diameter 2.
(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )2 = t(1 + s)2 (A0 + A1 ) + (1 + s)2 (A6 + A7 ) +

(t − 1)(s + 1)(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )
Hence (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ) represents a graph of diameter 2.
(A6 + A7 )2 = st2 (s + 1)(A0 + A1 ) +

st(t − 1)(s + 1)(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ) +
(1 + s)(t2 s − ts + s − t)(A6 + A7 )
Since s and t must be greater than zero, Proposition 2.31 implies that t = 1.
With this assumption we get
(A6 + A7 )2 = s(s + 1)(A0 + A1 ) + (s2 − 1)(A6 + A7 )

(A6 + A7 )A1 = s(A6 + A7 )
Thus the graph corresponding to (A6 + A7 ) is disconnected for t = 1.
W6 : This subalgebra corresponds to a distance regular graph. In particular,

A1 + A2 is the adjacency matrix of a drg with parameters
 
0 s − 1 s − 1 s − 1 2s − 2
 2s s s s ∗ .
∗ 1 1 1 2
These however are the parameters of the point graph of a generalized octagon of
order (s,1) (it is in fact just the edge graph of the incidence graph of the initial
generalized quadrangle of order (s, s)).
(A1 + A6 )2 = 2sA0 + (s − 1)(A1 + A6 ) + 2A7

(A1 + A6 )A7 = s(A1 + A6 ) + (2s − 1)A7
Hence (A1 + A6 ) represents a disconnected graph.
(A3 + A4 )2 = 2sA0 + s(s − 1)(A1 + A6 ) + (s − 1)2 A7
Because of Proposition 2.31 the coefficients of A7 and of (A1 + A6 ) must be equal.

Hence s = 3. This graph (its dual) was already considered above (see paragraph
about W37 ).
A25 = s2 A0 + s(s − 1)(A1 + A6 ) + (s − 1)2 A7
Again, using Proposition 2.31, the coefficients of (A1 + A6 ) and of A7 must be

equal. Hence s = 1. However, in this case we are working inside a usual quad-
rangle (not interesting).
A27 = s2 A0 + s(s − 1)(A1 + A6 ) + (s − 1)2 A7

A7 (A1 + A6 ) = s(A1 + A6 ) + (2s − 1)A7
This means that A7 represents a disconnected graph.
W8 : A1 and A6 are generalized involutions. A7 was considered already in the

previous paragraph. (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ) was checked already in the paragraph
about W1 .
W9 : (A1 + A6 + A7 ) and A2 are generalized involutions. (A3 + A4 + A5 ) is the

adjacency matrix of a Taylor-graph. Its parameters are:
 
0 0 0 0
 s2 + 2s s2 + 2s − 1 1 ∗ .
2 2
∗ 1 s + 2s − 1 s + 2s
This graph must be isomorphic to a complete bipartite graph from which a match-
ing was removed.
W10 : (A1 + A6 ) and A7 were already considered in the paragraph about W7 .

(A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ) was checked in the paragraph about W1 .
W11 : A6 is a generalized involution. (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 ) was checked already

in the paragraph about W1 .
(A1 + A7 )2 = s(s + 1)(A0 + A6 ) + (s2 − 1)(A1 + A7 )

(A1 + A7 )A6 = s(A1 + A7 )
Hence (A1 + A7 ) represents a disconnected graph.

W0
W1 W2
W6
W3 W4
W5
Figure 5: The cellular subalgebras for arbitrary s, t > 1
W0
W8 W7
W1 W11
W3 W10 W9 W2
W12
W13 W4
W5
Figure 6: The cellular subalgebras for s > 1, t = 1
Finally note that the generalized quadrangles of order (s, 1) are in a one to one
correspondence with the so called s̃ × s̃-grids where s̃ = s + 1. There an x × y-grid
is the edge-graph of the complete bipartite graph Kx,y .
As usual the search for directed strongly regular graphs is much easier than the
search for cellular subalgebras. Only the squares of 16 sets have to be tested in
order to obtain the following result:
Theorem 5.10 Let D be a generalized quadrangle of order (s, t) and with flag-
algebra WF = hA0 , A1 , . . . , A7 i. Then the following are all directed strongly reg-
ular (ṽ, k̃, µ̃, λ̃, t̃)-graphs that can be constructed out of basis elements of WF (up
to transposition and complement):
ṽ = (s + 1)(t + 1)(ts + 1)
Matrix ṽ k̃ µ̃ λ̃ t̃ s t
A1 + A 2 + A3 ṽ ts + t + s 1 t+s−1 t+s arbitr. arbitr.
A1 + A 3 + A5 2(t + 1)2 2t + 1 1 t t+1 1 arbitr.
A2 + A3 + A6 2(s + 1)2 2s + 1 1 s s+1 arbitr. 1
A3 + A5 + A6 8 3 1 1 2 1 1
5.5 Generalized triangles

The flag-algebras of generalized triangles were studied already e.g. in [FarKM-94].
Even the subalgebras are known to some extent. In fact, the work that was done
about the flag-algebras of generalized triangles forms the root from which the
interest into the flag-algebras of other classes of designs originates. For this
reason all the steps, starting from the computation of structure constants till the
description of cellular subalgebras, are repeated here.
A design D is a generalized triangle if and only if it is a symmetric 2-design with
parameters (v, v, k, k, 1). The order of D is defined as s = k − 1 = r − 1.
From Theorem 4.47 we know that D is sharply dihedral and that WF (D) has first
standard basis:
WF (D) = hA0 , A1 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 i
where A0 = I, A1 = L, A2 = N , A3 = LN , A4 = N L and A5 = LN L.
From Proposition 4.46 we know that the defining relations of WF (D) are:
Ix = xI = x for x ∈ {L, N }
L2 = sI + (s − 1)L
N2 = tI + (t − 1)N
LN L = N LN
Basis transformations are not necessary in this case (they are identity operators).
Thus the structure constants can be computed easily. Also the subalgebras and
dsrgs are found without problems. For the protocols of the computations see the
supplement.
Theorem 5.11 Let D be a generalized triangle of order s and with flag-algebra

WF . Then the following is a complete list of cellular subalgebras of WF .
for all s:
W0 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 ), (A3 ), (A4 ), (A5 )i

W1 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 ), (A3 + A4 ), (A5 )i
W2 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )i

W3 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 + A5 ), (A2 )i
W4 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 )i
sporadic cases:
W5 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A5 ), (A2 ), (A3 + A4 )i s=1
W6 = h(A0 ), (A1 ), (A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 )i s=1
W7 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A5 ), (A3 ), (A4 )i s=1
W8 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 ), (A5 )i s=1
W9 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A2 + A5 ), (A3 + A4 )i s ∈ {1, 4}
W10 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A5 ), (A2 + A3 + A4 )i s=2
W11 = h(A0 ), (A1 + A3 + A4 ), (A2 + A5 )i s=2
The sporadic subalgebras with s = 1 are not of interest. For the other algebras
we can say that they either belong to strongly regular or distance regular graphs
or are trivial. In particular W0 and W4 are trivial subalgebras. W1 belongs to
the point-graph of a generalized hexagon of order (s, 1) and is therefore distance
regular. Following is a list of all strongly regular graphs with their parameters:
Wi v k λ µ
W2 (s + 1)(s2 + s + 1) s s−1 0
W3 (s + 1)(s2 + s + 1) s s−1 0
W9 105 32 4 12
W10 21 10 5 4
W11 21 10 5 4
W0
W2 W1 W3
W4
Figure 7: The cellular subalgebras except sporadic cases
5.6 Graphs associated to [L, N ]

Until now we only searched for graphs that can be obtained as merging of elements
of the first standard basis of flag-algebras of designs. Some results from there
include the discovery of a few series of directed strongly regular graphs. In fact
the way these graphs were obtained did not depend on the flag-algebra (the
flag algebra was only used in the proof of strong regularity). For this reason it
seems natural to look if the same construction leads to dsrgs for other classes of
designs. Following such a search will be performed using the B-algebra [L, N ].
The advantage of the use of this algebra is, that e.g. for the 2-designs it can be
easily described.
The notions that will be used here are those from section 4.2.
Proposition 5.12 Let D be a 2-(v, b, r, k, λ) design with collinearity- and con-

currency matrices L and N. Then rank([L, N ]) = 7 if and only if v 6= b. If v = b
then rank([L, N ]) = 6. Moreover J ∈ [L, N ].
2:
LN = Y(0,1) + Y(1,1) (4)

N L = Y(1,0) + Y(1,1) (5)
N LN = (λ − 1)L + λY(0,0) + (λ − 1)Y(0,1) +
/
(λ − 1)Y(1,0) + (λ − 2)Y(1,1) + λ O (6)
/ forms a partition of J this means that

Since (I, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , O)
{I, L, N, LN, N L, N LN } is linearly independent.
/ = 0. However, if D is a symmetric 2-design then D∗ is a symmetric
If v = b then O
2-design with the same parameters as D. This means that
LN L + (λ − 1)L = N LN + (λ − 1)N.
From this follows that [L, N ] = hI, L, N, LN, N L, LN Li (see also Proposition
4.16).
/ =
In the case v < b we observe that O 6 0. The fact that
M = {I, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN }
is linearly independent can be seen from the fact that for X ∈ M we have that
1) X◦Y(0,0) 6= 0 if and only if X ∈ {LN L, N LN }.

/ 6= 0 if and only if X = N LN .
2) X◦ O
Moreover from formula (6) we can deduce that
λJ = N LN + L + λN + λI + Y(0,1) + Y(1,0) + 2Y(1,1) .

using (4) and (5) this can be reformulated as
λJ = N LN + L + λN + λI + LN + N L. (7)
From this follows that LN LN and N LN L can be expressed as linear combination

of M . With Proposition 4.16 we get that M is indeed a basis of [L, N ].
:2
Graphs that are associated with [L, N ] correspond to the 0/1 matrices in this
algebra. In contrast to the cellular algebras the description of all 0/1 matrices
may be difficult. However, we know already some; namely L, N , LN , N L,
L + LN , L + N L, N + LN , N + N L, L + N , L + N + LN , L + N + N L, J and
their complements with respect to J. The following theorem states a property
for two of these matrices:
Theorem 5.13 Let D be any 2-(v, b, r, k, λ) design. Let L and N be its collinearity-
and concurrency matrix respectively. Then
1) (L + LN ) is the adjacency matrix of a directed strongly regular graph with

parameters
(ṽ, k̃, µ̃, λ̃, t̃) = (vr, r(k − 1), λ(k − 1), λ(k − 2), λ(k − 1)).
2) (L + N + LN ) is the adjacency matrix of a directed strongly regular graph

with parameters
(ṽ, k̃, µ̃, λ̃, t̃) = (vr, rk − 1, λk, λ(k − 1) + r − 2, λ(k − 1) + r − 1).
2:
From the proof of Proposition 5.12 we know that
N LN = λJ − L − LN − N L − λI − λN.
Multiplying both sides from left with L gives:
LN LN = λ(k − 1)J − L2 − L2 N − LN L − λL − λLN.
about (1)
With A = (L + LN ) we get
A2 = L2 + L2 N + LN L + LN LN
= L2 + L2 N + LN L + λ(k − 1)J − L2 − L2 N − LN L − λ(L + LN )
= λ(k − 1)J − λA.
From the other hand we can compute
t̃I + λ̃A + µ̃(J − I − A) = λ(k − 1)I + λ(k − 2)A + λ(k − 1)(J − I − A)

= λ(k − 2)A + λ(k − 1)(J − A)
= λ(k − 2)A − λ(k − 1)A + λ(k − 1)J
= λ(k − 1)J − λA.
Finally we see that
AJ = LJ + LN J = (k − 1)J + (r − 1)LJ = (k − 1)J + (k − 1)(r − 1)J = r(k − 1)J
and
JA = JL + JLN = r(k − 1)J.
about (2)
With A = (L + N + LN ) we get
A2 = L2 + LN + L2 N + N L + N 2 + N LN + LN L + LN 2 + LN LN
= LN + N L + N N + N LN + LN 2 + λ(k − 1)J − λL − λLN
= (r − 1)I + λ(k − 1)J + (r − 1 − λ)L + (r − 2)N + (r − λ − 1)LN
+N L + N LN
= (r − λ − 1)I + λkJ + (r − λ − 2)A
On the other hand we can compute
t̃I + λ̃A + µ̃(J − I − A) = (r − λ − 1)I + λkJ + (r − λ − 2)A
Finally we check easily that
AJ = JA = JN + JL + JLN
= ((r − 1) + (k − 1) + (k − 1)(r − 1))J
= (r + k − 2 + kr − k − r + 1)J
= (rk − 1)J.

:2
The last theorem was valid for any design. The two dsrgs that were constructed
there cover two of the three classes from section 5.1. It would be interesting to
check whether the third class does only occur for Hadamard-3-designs or if there
can be made a more general statement.
Let D be a quasi-symmetric design with parameters (v, b, r, k, λ) and with inter-
section numbers (0, µ). Then from Lemma 4.25 we know already that
LN L = (µ − 1)(N + Y(0,1) + Y(1,0) ) + µY(0,0) + (µ − 2)Y(1,1) .

From this we can see that

/
µJ = N + Y(0,1) + Y(1,0) + 2Y(1,1) + µ(L + I + O)
= N + LN + N L + µ(L + I + O). /
Together with (7) this gives that

1−λ µ−1 µ−λ 1 1
/ =
O L+ N+ (LN + N L) − LN L + N LN. (8)
λ µ λµ µ λ
From Lemma 4.27 we know a set of defining relations for [L, N ]. Moreover, from
Lemma 4.25 we know that [L, N ] is a linear subspace of the linear space
/
hI, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , Oi.
With this knowledge it is possible to prove the following theorem:
Theorem 5.14 Let D be a quasi-symmetric design with parameters (v, b, r, k, λ)

and with intersection numbers (0, µ). Then (N +N L+ O) / is the adjacency matrix
of a directed strongly regular graph if and only if either λ = 1 or k = 2µ. In the
case k = 2µ the dsrg has parameters
ṽ = vr
r(2rµ + λ − r − 2µλ)
k̃ =
λ
2r2 µ + 2µλ2 + 2rλ − r2 − 4rµλ − λ2
µ̃ =
λ
2r2 µ + rλ − 4rλµ + 2λ2 µ − r2
λ̃ =
λ
t̃ = µ̃.
2:
The case λ = µ = 1 was considered already in [KliMMZ-97]. The proof is not

repeated here.
/ and assume that λ > 1.
Let A := (N + N L + O)
We already know that A is a 0/1 matrix and that it is an element of [L, N ].
In order for A to be the adjacency matrix of a dsrg it is necessary that
A2 = t̃I + λ̃A + µ̃(J − I − A) (9)
for some integers t̃, λ̃ and µ̃. Using equation 8 and the defining relations of [L, N ]
that were given in Lemma 4.27 it is possible to express
2
A2 = N 2 + N 2 L + N O
/ + N LN + N LN L + N L O
/ + ON
/ + ON
/ L+O
/
as linear combination of {I, L, N, LN, N L, LN L, N LN }. With Lemma 4.25 this

can be transformed into a linear combination of
/
{I, L, N, Y(0,0) , Y(0,1) , Y(1,0) , Y(1,1) , O}.
However, these computations are extremely tedious. The result is
A2 = c0 I + c1 L + c2 N + c3 Y(0,0) + c4 Y(0,1) + c5 Y(1,0) + c6 Y(1,1) + c7 O

/
where
1
c0 = (−2rkλµ + 2rkλµ2 + r2 kµ2 − k 3 λ − 2rk 2 λµ + rk 2 λ + k 3 λ2 − 4kλµ2
λµ2
+2kλ2 µ + 4k 2 λµ − r2 µ2 − 2k 2 λ2 µ + kλ2 µ2 − λ2 µ2 − k 2 λ2 + 2rλµ2 )
c1 = c0
1
c2 = (+2rkλµ2 − 2rk 2 λµ + k 3 λ2 − r2 µ2 + kλ2 µ2 − 2k 2 λ2 µ + r2 kµ2 + rλµ2
λµ2
−kλµ2 + k 2 λµ − 2λµ3 )
1
c3 = (+λ2 µ2 + kλµ2 + rkλµ − 2λµ3 − kλ2 µ + 2rkλµ2 − 2rk 2 λµ + k 3 λ2
λµ2
−r2 µ2 + kλ2 µ2 − 2kλ2 µ + r2 kµ2 )
c4 = c3
c5 = c2
c6 = c2
1
c7 = c2 + 2 (−3kλµ2 + k 2 λµ + 2λµ3 )
λµ
/ the condition from equation 9 is equivalent to
Since A = N + Y(1,0) + Y(1,1) + O,
the system of equations:
t̃ = c0 , λ̃ = c2 = c5 = c6 = c7 and µ̃ = c1 = c3 = c4 .
Again, a series of tedious computations leads to the fact that these equations are
fulfilled if and only if
k 2 − 3kµ + 2µ2
= 0.
µ
This equation has solutions {k = 2µ, k = µ}. The case k = µ can never occur
for non-trivial quasi-symmetric designs. Hence equation 9 is fulfilled if and only
if k = 2µ. Substituting this into the ci (0 ≤ i ≤ 7) leads to the desired result.
Finally, with Proposition 4.29 it becomes evident that A is the adjacency matrix
of a regular graph ((1/vr)J is the spectral projection belonging to the represen-
tation R1 and thus JA = AJ = k̃J).
:2
Acknowledgments
I am greatly indebted to Prof. M. Klin, who organized in 1995/1996 a one-year
teaching program on Algebraic Combinatorics at the Ben-Gurion University of
the Negev in Beer-Sheva Israel. The participants of this program were three
German students and I was one of them. During this year Prof. Klin introduced
us to the main principles of algebraic combinatorics. Moreover he involved us
into first research projects. I consider this year in Israel as the most valuable
experience of my whole studies.
I am also very obliged to Prof. R. Pöschel who pointed out the possibility to
study algebraic combinatorics in Beer-Sheva and who mediated the first contacts
of us three students to Prof. Klin.
Moreover I would like to thank Prof. Lazin for the opportunity to study in frames
of the Overseas Student Program.
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Technische Universität Dresden Diplomarbeit on Incidence Structures and Cellular Algebras

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Technische Universität Dresden

Incidence structures and cellular algebras

vorgelegt von: Christian Pech,

Tag der Einreichung: 15.01.98

3 Computations in cellular algebras 25

5 Applications of flag algebras 67

the terminology of cellular algebras.

Especially remarkable are therefore the flag minimal dihedral designs.

• Calculation of the structure constants and construction of the cellular sub-

• Search for directed strongly regular graphs.

2.1 Permutation groups

Definition 2.3 (Permutation Group) Let Ω be a finite set (|Ω| = n). A

1) the degree of U as deg(U ) := n and

2) the order of U as ord(U ) := |U |.

Definition 2.4 (Orbit) Let G ≤ S(Ω) be a permutation group. Let x ∈ Ω

Lemma 2.5 Let G ≤ S(Ω) be a permutation group. For x, y ∈ Ω define x ∼

Definition 2.6 (Action) Let G be a finite group (not necessarily a permuta-

The triple (G, Ω, Φ) is called action of G on Ω if:

1) ∀x ∈ Ω ϕ(e, x) = x (where e is the identity element of G),

2) ∀x ∈ Ω, ∀g, h ∈ G ϕ(gh, x) = ϕ(h, ϕ(g, x)).

xΦ(g) := Φ(g, x).

2) The image of G under Φ

3) Let K = ker(Φ)e := {g ∈ G | Φ(g)

4) If (G, Ω, Φ) is faithful then it will be identified with Φ(G).

Notation: Let U and G be groups such that U ≤ G. Then NG (U ) denotes the

2.2 Cellular algebras

Definition 2.7 (B-Algebra) Let V be a finite dimensional vector space over

1) The identity operator I is element of W ,

2) ∀A, B ∈ W : the sum A + B ∈ W ,

Definition 2.8 (Cellular Algebra) Let V be a finite dimensional vector

1) W contains the all-1 matrix J

Proposition 2.9 (Schur-Wielandt Principle) Let W be a cellular algebra.

Proposition 2.10 (Existence of the first standard basis) Let W be a

This basis is called first standard basis of W .

is still a (linearly) generating set of W . Repeating this procedure leads to a gen-

Suppose ai = 1 then Ai = A∗i (the number of non-zero entries of A∗i and of Ai

Definition 2.11 (Structure Constants) Let W be a cellular algebra with

Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra over Cn . Then:

1) r is called the rank of W — denoted as rank(W ),

2) n is called the degree of W — denoted as deg(W ).

The class of cellular algebras of a fixed degree n will be denoted as Wn .

1) In the sequel, when we write W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i for a cellular algebra,

3) The algebra of all n × n-matrices is cellular.

4) The number of cellular algebras of fixed degree n is bounded by the number

5) Wn can be ordered naturally using the usual inclusion.

Definition 2.12 (WL-Closure) Let M be a set of complex n × n matrices.

In more combinatorial definitions of cellular algebras often instead of the closeness

Now each Ati is in turn a linear combination of the Aj :

But this is of course an element of W .

Definition 2.14 (Cell) Let W be a cellular algebra and hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be

Definition 2.15 (Partition of a Cellular Algebra) Let W be a cellu-

For x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t} define the following n × n matrices:

P is called cellular partition if J (x,y) ∈ W for all x, y ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}.

Lemma 2.16 Let W be a cellular algebra of degree n and let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt }

Then P is cellular if and only if I (x) ∈ W for all x ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}.

Lemma 2.17 Let W = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i be a cellular algebra which is not a cell.

Lemma 2.18 Let W be a cellular algebra, let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be a cellular

If P is the main partition of W then this decomposition is tactical. This means

A(x,y) J (y,y) = rx,y J (x,y)

Lemma 2.19 Let W be a cellular algebra and let P = {P1 , P2 , . . . , Pt } be a

B. Symmetries of cellular algebras

Definition 2.21 (Isomorphism) Let W1 = hA1 , A2 , . . . , Ar i and