Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
The incidence matrices for the finite projective planes, for the so-called λ-planes (where two lines meet in λ points instead of the usual 1) and for some other configurations, including those of Pappus and Desargues, are all cases of what are defined below as (v, k, t, λ)-matrices. These are shown here to possess arithmetical properties which reduce, in the case of cyclic projective planes, to properties remarked on by Marshall Hall [3]. And if a certain group hypothesis (which suggests itself in a natural way) is satisfied by a matrix of this type, the matrix is shown to be equivalent (by rearranging the rows and columns) to a direct sum of incidence matrices for λ-planes, each of which satisfies the same group hypothesis.