Piotrowski's Infinite Series of Steiner Quadruple SystemsRevisited

The construction of Bays and deWeck [1] of a SteinerQuadruple System SQS(14) was generalized by Piotrowskiin his dissertation ([7], p. 34) to an SQS(2p), p 7 mod 12 with a group transitive on thepoints. However he gave no proof of his construction and hispresesntation was open to misinterpretation. So Hanfried Lenzsuggested to analyse Piotrowski's construction and to supplyit with a proof. In the following we will present Piotrowski'sideas somewhat differently and will furnish a proof of the construction.     

The Fine Intersection Problem for Steiner Triple Systems

The intersection of two Steiner triple systems and is the set . The fine intersection problem for Steiner triple systems is to determine for each v, the set I(v), consisting of all possible pairs (m, n) such that there exist two Steiner triple systems of order v whose intersection satisfies and . We show that for v ≡ 1 or 3 (mod 6), |I(v)| = Θ(v ³), where previous results only imply that |I(v)| = Ω(v ²). Received: January 23, 2006. Final Version received: September 2, 2006     

Caps and Colouring Steiner Triple Systems

Hill [6] showed that the largest cap in PG(5,3) has cardinality 56. Using this cap it is easy to construct a cap of cardinality 45 in AG(5,3). Here we show that the size of a cap in AG(5,3) is bounded above by 48. We also give an example of three disjoint 45-caps in AG(5,3). Using these two results we are able to prove that the Steiner triple system AG(5,3) is 6-chromatic, and so we exhibit the first specific example of a 6-chromatic Steiner triple system.     

Equitable Specialized Block-Colourings for Steiner Triple Systems

We continue the study of specialized block-colourings of Steiner triple systems initiated in [2] in which the triples through any element are coloured according to a given partition π of the replication number. Such colourings are equitable if π is an equitable partition (i.e., the difference between any two parts of π is at most one). Our main results deal with colourings according to equitable partitions into two, and three parts, respectively.     

Colouring Steiner systems with specified block colour patterns

We consider colourings of Steiner systems S(2,3,v) and S(2,4,v) in which blocks have prescribed colour patterns, as a refinement of the classical weak colourings. The main question studied is, given an integer k, does there exist a colouring of given type using exactly k colours? For several types of colourings, a complete answer to this question is obtained while for other types, partial results are presented. We also discuss the question of the existence of uncolourable systems.     

Embedding Steiner triple systems in hexagon triple systems

A hexagon triple is the graph consisting of the three triangles (triples) {a,b,c},{c,d,e}, and {e,f,a}, where a,b,c,d,e, and f are distinct. The triple {a,c,e} is called an inside triple. A hexagon triple system of order n is a pair (X,H) where H is a collection of edge disjoint hexagon triples which partitions the edge set of K_n with vertex set X. The inside triples form a partial Steiner triple system. We show that any Steiner triple system of order n can be embedded in the inside triples of a hexagon triple system of order approximately 3n.     

Clique partitions of complements of forests and bounded degree graphs

In this paper, we prove that for any forest F⊂K_n, the edges of E(K_n)?E(F) can be partitioned into O(nlogn) cliques. This extends earlier results on clique partitions of the complement of a perfect matching and of a hamiltonian path in K_n.In the second part of the paper, we show that for n sufficiently large and any ε∈(0,1], if a graph G has maximum degree O(n^1-ε), then the edges of E(K_n)?E(G) can be partitioned into cliques provided there exist certain Steiner systems. Furthermore, we show that there are such graphs G for which Ω(ε²n^2-2ε) cliques are required in every clique partition of E(K_n)?E(G).     

On semi-planar Steiner quasigroups

A Steiner triple system (briefly ST) is in 1-1 correspondence with a Steiner quasigroup or squag (briefly SQ) [B. Ganter, H. Werner, Co-ordinatizing Steiner systems, Ann. Discrete Math. 7 (1980) 3-24; C.C. Lindner, A. Rosa, Steiner quadruple systems: A survey, Discrete Math. 21 (1979) 147-181]. It is well known that for each n≡1 or 3 (mod 6) there is a planar squag of cardinality n [J. Doyen, Sur la structure de certains systems triples de Steiner, Math. Z. 111 (1969) 289-300]. Quackenbush expected that there should also be semi-planar squags [R.W. Quackenbush, Varieties of Steiner loops and Steiner quasigroups, Canad. J. Math. 28 (1976) 1187-1198]. A simple squag is semi-planar if every triangle either generates the whole squag or the 9-element squag. The first author has constructed a semi-planar squag of cardinality 3n for all n>3 and n≡1 or 3 (mod 6) [M.H. Armanious, Semi-planar Steiner quasigroups of cardinality 3n, Australas. J. Combin. 27 (2003) 13-27]. In fact, this construction supplies us with semi-planar squags having only nontrivial subsquags of cardinality 9. Our aim in this article is to give a recursive construction as n→3n for semi-planar squags. This construction permits us to construct semi-planar squags having nontrivial subsquags of cardinality >9. Consequently, we may say that there are semi-planar (or semi-planar ) for each positive integer m and each n≡1 or 3 (mod 6) with n>3 having only medial subsquags at most of cardinality 3^ν (sub-) for each ν∈{1,2,…,m+1}.     

Linearly Derived Steiner Triple Systems

We attach a graph to every Steiner triple system. The chromatic number of this graph is related to the possibility of extending the triple system to a quadruple system. For example, the triple systems with chromatic number one are precisely the classical systems of points and lines of a projective geometry over the two-element field, the Hall triple systems have chromatic number three (and, as is well-known, are extendable) and all Steiner triple systems whose graph has chromatic number two are extendable. We also give a configurational characterization of the Hall triple systems in terms of mitres.     

On the chromatic numbers of Steiner triple systems

Geometric properties are used to determine the chromatic number of AG(4, 3) and to derive some important facts on the chromatic number of PG(n, 2). It is also shown that a 4-chromatic STS(v) exists for every admissible order v ≥ 21. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 7: 1–10, 1999     

Decomposing triples into cyclic designs

Motivated by constructing cyclic simple designs, we consider how to decomposing all the triples of Z_v into cyclic triple systems. Furthermore, we define a large set of cyclic triple systems to be a decomposition of triples of Z_v into indecomposable cyclic designs. Constructions of decompositions and large sets are given. Some infinite classes of decompositions and large sets are obtained. Large sets of small v with odd v<97 are also given. As an application, the results are used to construct cyclic simple triple systems.