OFFSET
1,1
COMMENTS
Projective planes of order q can be seen as a set of v=q^2+q+1 subsets (the lines) of size q+1 of a set of v points with the property that any two distinct lines have exactly one point in common. Obviously, this also holds for any of the v! permutations of the points. However, some of these permutations map the points of a given line l of the plane to the points of another line l' thereby fixing the set of lines and consequently the whole projective plane. These permutations form a subgroup called the collineation group of the projective plane. The size of this group for classical projective planes is given by A373501. Therefore, a(q) is the index of the collineation subgroup in the symmetric group of the points where q=A246655(n).
REFERENCES
A. Beutelspacher and U. Rosenbaum, Projective Geometry: From Foundations to Applications, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pages 118-132.
LINKS
Paolo Xausa, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..12
IBM Research, Possible Dobble decks, Ponder This Challenge May 2024, asked for a(3) and a(6).
Wikipedia, Order of PGL(3,q) and PGammaL(3,q).
FORMULA
a(n) = (q^2+q+1)!/(Omega(q)*(q^3-1)*(q^3-q)*(q^3-q^2)/(q-1)) where q = A246655(n).
EXAMPLE
For the Fano plane (q=2) there are 7 points and 7 lines. Of the 7!=5040 permutations of the points 168 fix the set of lines and thereby the whole plane. Consequently, there are 5040/168=30 different such planes for any given set of points. See A373501 for a more elaborate discussion of this example.
MATHEMATICA
Map[(#^2+#-1)!/(PrimeOmega[#]*(#-1)^2*#^2) &, Select[Range[10], PrimePowerQ]] (* Paolo Xausa, Aug 01 2024 *)
PROG
(PARI) a=(q)->(q^2+q+1)!/(bigomega(q)*(q^3-1)*(q^3-q)*(q^3-q^2)/(q-1)) \\ q=A246655(n)
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn
AUTHOR
Ralf Goertz, Jun 08 2024
STATUS
approved