Incidence structures near configurations of type $(n_3)$

Abstract

An $(n_3)$ configuration is an incidence structure equivalent to a linear hypergraph on $n$ vertices which is both 3-regular and 3-uniform. We investigate a variant in which one constraint, say 3-regularity, is present, and we allow exactly one line to have size four, exactly one line to have size two, and all other lines to have size three. In particular, we study planar (Euclidean or projective) representations, settling the existence question and adapting Steinitz' theorem for this setting.