Related papers: On disjoint $(v,k,k-1)$ difference families

We consider the problem of minimizing the size of a family of sets G such that every subset of 1,...,n can be written as a disjoint union of at most k members of G, where k and n are given numbers. This problem originates in a real-world…

We show that the bicovariant first order differential calculi on a factorisable semisimple quantum group are in 1-1 correspondence with irreducible representations $V$ of the quantum group enveloping algebra. The corresponding calculus is…

We study finite groups $G$ having a subgroup $H$ and $D \subset G \setminus H$ such that the multiset $\{ xy^{-1}:x,y \in D\}$ has every non-identity element occur the same number of times (such a $D$ is called a {\it difference set}). We…

We prove that for all positive integers $n$ and $k$, there exists an integer $N = N(n,k)$ satisfying the following. If $U$ is a set of $k$ direction vectors in the plane and $\mathcal{J}_U$ is the set of all line segments in direction $u$…

A family of $k$-subsets $A_1, A_2, ..., A_d$ on $[n]=\{1,2,..., n\}$ is called a $(d, c)$-cluster if the union $A_1\cup A_2 \cup ... \cup A_d$ contains at most $ck$ elements with $c<d$. Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a family of $k$-subsets of an…

A $(v,k,\lambda)$-BIBD $(X,\mathcal B)$ can be nested if there is a mapping $\phi:\mathcal B\rightarrow X$ such that $(X,\{B\cup\{\phi(B)\}\mid B\in\mathcal B\})$ is a $(v,k+1,\lambda+1)$-packing. A $(v,k,\lambda)$-BIBD has a (perfect)…

Given a subgroup $H$ of a group $(G,+)$, a $(G,H,k,1)$ difference family (DF) is a set $\mathcal F$ of $k$-subsets of $G$ such that $\{f-f':f,f'\in F, f\neq f',F\in \mathcal F\}=G\setminus H$. Let $g\mathbb Z_{gh}$ is the subgroup of order…

We give a new construction of difference families generalizing Szekeres's difference families \cite{Sze}. As an immediate consequence, we obtain some new examples of difference families with several blocks in multiplicative subgroups of…

Let $F_k$ be the set of graphs on $k$ vertices. For a graph $G$, a $k$-decomposition is a set of induced subgraphs of $G$, each isomorphic to an element of $F_k$, such that each pair of vertices of $G$ is in exactly one element of the set.…

Let $t\ge 1$ be a given integer. Let ${\cal F}$ be a family of subsets of $[m]=\{1,2,\ldots,m\}$. Assume that for every pair of disjoint sets $S,T\subset [m]$ with $|S|=|T|=k$, there do not exist $2t$ sets in ${\cal F}$ where $t$ subsets of…

We give two new constructions of almost difference sets. The first is a generic construction of $(q^{2}(q+1),q(q^{2}-1),q(q^{2}-q-1),q^{2}-1)$ almost difference sets in certain groups of order $q^{2}(q+1)$ ($q$ is an odd prime power) having…

We prove the existence and give constructions of a $(p(k)-1)$-fold perfect resolvable $(v, k, 1)$-Mendelsohn design for any integers $v > k \ge 2$ with $v \equiv 1 \mod k$ such that there exists a finite Frobenius group whose kernel $K$ has…

A difference set with parameters $(v, k, \lambda)$ is a subset $D$ of cardinality $k$ in a finite group $G$ of order $v$, such that the number $\lambda$ of occurrences of $g \in G$ as the ratio $d^{-1}d'$ in distinct pairs $(d, d')\in…

We consider families of $k$-subsets of $\{1, \dots, n\}$, where $n$ is a multiple of $k$, which have no perfect matching. An equivalent condition for a family $\mathcal{F}$ to have no perfect matching is for there to be a blocking set,…

A \textit{$k$-transversal} to family of sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is a $k$-dimensional affine subspace that intersects each set of the family. In 1957 Hadwiger provided a necessary and sufficient condition for a family of pairwise disjoint,…

The scalar difference equation $x_{n+1}=f_{n}(x_{n},x_{n-1},...,x_{n-k})$ may exhibit symmetries in its form that allow for reduction of order through substitution or a change of variables. Such form symmetries can be defined generally…

Inapproximability results for $\mathsf{Max\,k\,CSP\!-\!q}$ have been traditionally established using balanced $t$-wise independent distributions, which are closely related to orthogonal arrays, a famous family of combinatorial designs. In…

A subset $A$ of $[n] = \{1, \dots, n\}$ is $k$-separated if, when the elements of $[n]$ are considered on a circle, between any two elements of $A$ there are at least $k$ elements of $[n]$ that are not in $A$. A family $\mathcal{A}$ of sets…

We study and solve several problems in two closely related settings: set families in $2^{[n]}$ with many disjoint pairs of sets and low rank matrices with many zero entries. - More than 40 years ago, Daykin and Erd\H{o}s asked for the…

A finite group $G$ is called $k$-factorizable if for every ordered factorization $|G|=a_1\cdots a_k$ into integers each greater than $1$ there exist subsets $A_1,\dots,A_k\subseteq G$ such that $|A_i|=a_i$ for each $i$ and $G=A_1\cdots…