English

The 3-way flower intersection problem for Steiner triple systems

Combinatorics 2023-06-22 v2

Abstract

The flower at a point x in a Steiner triple system (X; B) is the set of all triples containing x. Denote by J3F(r) the set of all integers k such that there exists a collection of three STS(2r+1) mutually intersecting in the same set of k + r triples, r of them being the triples of a common flower. In this article we determine the set J3F(r) for any positive integer r = 0, 1 (mod 3) (only some cases are left undecided for r = 6, 7, 9, 24), and establish that J3F(r) = I3F(r) for r = 0, 1 (mod 3) where I3F(r) = {0, 1,..., 2r(r-1)/3-8, 2r(r-1)/3-6, 2r(r-1)/3}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1908.06679,
  title  = {The 3-way flower intersection problem for Steiner triple systems},
  author = {H. Amjadi and N. Soltankhah},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.06679},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

14 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:50:42.573Z