English

An Evans-style result for block designs

Combinatorics 2023-11-23 v3

Abstract

For positive integers nn and kk with nkn \geq k, an (n,k,1)(n,k,1)-design is a pair (V,B)(V, \mathcal{B}) where VV is a set of nn points and B\mathcal{B} is a collection of kk-subsets of VV called blocks such that each pair of points occur together in exactly one block. If we weaken this condition to demand only that each pair of points occur together in at most one block, then the resulting object is a partial (n,k,1)(n,k,1)-design. A completion of a partial (n,k,1)(n,k,1)-design (V,A)(V,\mathcal{A}) is a (complete) (n,k,1)(n,k,1)-design (V,B)(V,\mathcal{B}) such that AB\mathcal{A} \subseteq \mathcal{B}. Here, for all sufficiently large nn, we determine exactly the minimum number of blocks in an uncompletable partial (n,k,1)(n,k,1)-design. This result is reminiscent of Evans' now-proved conjecture on completions of partial latin squares. We also prove some related results concerning edge decompositions of almost complete graphs into copies of KkK_k.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2006.00898,
  title  = {An Evans-style result for block designs},
  author = {Ajani De Vas Gunasekara and Daniel Horsley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.00898},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

17 pages, 0 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T15:57:37.765Z