====== Thomas Zaslavsky ======

====== Automorphism Groups of Dowling Lattices ======

===== Abstract for the Combinatorics and Number Theory and Algebra Seminars 2001 January 23 =====

A Dowling lattice, //Q<sub>n</sub>//(//G//), of a group //G// is a thin, graph-theoretic geometrical system which is analogous to a projective geometry over a field in that both are highly symmetrical ``universal'' geometries. Thus the automorphism groups of Dowling lattices are bound to be of some interest. I will discuss and, I hope, expound a paper that shows that the automorphism group of //Q<sub>n</sub>(G)// has no semidirect product decomposition except what it inherits from //G//.