1. A class of projective planes
- Author
-
Donald E. Knuth
- Subjects
Combinatorics ,Discrete mathematics ,Multiplicative group ,Simple (abstract algebra) ,Applied Mathematics ,General Mathematics ,Order (group theory) ,Field (mathematics) ,Projective plane ,Algebraic number ,Commutative property ,Prime (order theory) ,Mathematics - Abstract
1. Introduction. Finite non-Desarguesian projective planes have been known for all orders pf, where p is prime, n _ 2, and pn_ 9, except when p = 2 and n is a prime ? 5. In this paper a new class of projective planes is defined, having the orders 2n where n > 5 is not a power of two, thus establishing, in particular, the existence of non-Desarguesian planes of the missing orders. The new planes are coordinatized by semifields (sometines called division algebras, non-associative division rings, or distributive quasifields), which are algebraic systems satisfying the axioms for a field except with a loop replacing the multiplicative group. It is easy to show that finite proper semifields, i.e., semifields which are not fields, must have the orders pn where p is prime, n _ 3, and pn > 16. Proper semifields of these orders have been known to exist except as above, when p = 2 and n is prime; therefore the new systems show that proper semifields do exist for any order not excluded by simple arguments. A detailed treatment of the general theory of semifields and their relation to projective planes may be found in [3]. The manner in which these planes where discovered is perhaps as interesting as the planes themselves, since computers played a key role in the discovery. The author had received copies of two tables prepared by R. J. Walker (see [4]), which listed all commutative semifields of order 32 for which, if x is a generating element, x(x(x(x2))) = x + 1 or x2 + 1, respectively. There were 24 solutions in each table, and so it seemed plausible that a rule could be found yielding a correspondence between one set of solutions -and the other. A few hours of "cryptanalysis" did, in fact, result in the discovery of such a rule; and, since one of the solutions for the table x(x(x(x2))) = x2 + 1 was the field GF(32), the corresponding system for the other table could be written in a simple algebraic form [2]. After this, there was little difficulty showing that the same construction could be generalized to the construction of proper semifields of all orders 22k+1 with k > 1, and subsequent generalizations yielded the systems described in this paper. Therefore, we have an example in which
- Published
- 1965