Related papers: An Update on the Existence of Kirkman Triple Syste…
The existence of large sets of Kirkman triple systems (LKTSs) is one of the best-known open problems in combinatorial design theory. Steiner quadruple systems with resolvable derived designs (RDSQSs) play an important role in the recursive…
Kirkman triple systems (KTSs) are among the most popular combinatorial designs and their existence has been settled a long time ago. Yet, in comparison with Steiner triple systems, little is known about their automorphism groups. In…
A Steiner triple system, STS$(v)$, is a family of $3$-subsets (blocks) of a set of $v$ elements such that any two elements occur together in precisely one block. A collection of triples consisting of two copies of each block of an STS is…
A partial Steiner triple system whose triples can be partitioned into $s$ partial parallel classes, each of size $m$, is a $signal$ $set$, denoted $\mbox{SS}(v,s,m)$. A $Kirkman$ $signal$ $set$ $\mbox{KSS}(v,m)$ is an $\mbox{SS}(v,s,m)$…
We initiate the study of extended bicolorings of Steiner triple systems (STS) which start with a $k$-bicoloring of an STS($v$) and end up with a $k$-bicoloring of an STS($2v+1$) obtained by a doubling construction, using only the original…
The smallest open case for classifying Steiner triple systems is order 21. A Steiner triple system of order 21, an STS(21), can have subsystems of orders 7 and 9, and it is known that there are 12,661,527,336 isomorphism classes of STS(21)s…
We initiate the study of extended bicolorings of Steiner triple systems (STS) which start with a $k$-bicoloring of an STS($v$) and end up with a $k$-bicoloring of an STS($2v+1$) obtained by a doubling construction, using only the original…
In a recent work, Jungnickel, Magliveras, Tonchev, and Wassermann derived an overexponential lower bound on the number of nonisomorphic resolvable Steiner triple systems (STS) of order $v$, where $v=3^k$, and $3$-rank $v-k$. We develop an…
The existence of Large sets of Kirkman Triple Systems (LKTS) is an old problem in combinatorics. Known results are very limited, and a lot of them are based on the works of Denniston \cite{MR0349416, MR0369086, MR535159, MR539718}. The only…
For $v\equiv 1$ or 3 (mod 6), maximum partial triple systems on $v$ points are Steiner triple systems, STS($v$)s. The 80 non-isomorphic STS(15)s were first enumerated around 100 years ago, but the next case for Steiner triple systems was…
Given an STS(v), we ask if there is a permutation of the points of the design such that no $\ell$ consecutive points in this permutation contain a block of the design. Results are obtained in the cases $\ell = 3,4$.
A partial Steiner triple system of order $u$ is a pair $(U,\mathcal{A})$ where $U$ is a set of $u$ elements and $\mathcal{A}$ is a set of triples of elements of $U$ such that any two elements of $U$ occur together in at most one triple. If…
A famous theorem of Kirkman says that there exists a Steiner triple system of order $n$ if and only if $n\equiv 1,3\mod{6}$. In 1973, Erd\H{o}s conjectured that one can find so-called `sparse' Steiner triple systems. Roughly speaking, the…
We prove several structural properties of Steiner triple systems (STS) of order 3w+3 that include one or more transversal subdesigns TD(3,w). Using an exhaustive search, we find that there are 2004720 isomorphism classes of STS(21)…
A Steiner triple system is a set $S$ together with a collection $\mathcal{B}$ of subsets of $S$ of size 3 such that any two elements of $S$ belong to exactly one element of $\mathcal{B}$. It is well known that the class of finite Steiner…
The existence of Steiner triple systems STS(n) of order n containing no nontrivial subsystem is well known for every admissible n. We generalize this result in two ways. First we define the expander property of 3-uniform hypergraphs and…
We propose a new approach to studies on partial Steiner triple systems consisting in determining complete graphs contained in them. We establish the structure which complete graphs yield in a minimal PSTS that contains them. As a by-product…
By a famous result of Doyen, Hubaut and Vandensavel \cite{DHV}, the 2-rank of a Steiner triple system on $2^n-1$ points is at least $2^n -1 -n$, and equality holds only for the classical point-line design in the projective geometry…
Steiner triple systems (STSs) have been classified up to order 19. Earlier estimations of the number of isomorphism classes of STSs of order 21, the smallest open case, are discouraging as for classification, so it is natural to focus on…
An $r$-block-coloring, simply $r$-coloring, of a Steiner triple system $\mathrm{STS}(v)$ is a partition of the block set into $r$ color classes, each color class being a partial parallel class. The chromatic index of $\mathrm{STS}(v)$,…