Further results on irregular, critical perfect systems of difference sets II: systems without splits

An (m, n; u, v; c)-system is a collection of components, m of valency u−1 and n of valency v−1, whose difference sets form a perfect system with threshold c. If there is an (m, n; 3, 6; c)-system, then m2c−1; and if there is a (2c−1, n; 3, 6; c)-system, then 2c−1n. For all sufficiently large c, there are (2c−1, n; 3, 6; c)-systems with a split at 3c+6n−1 at least when n=1, 5, 6 and 7, but such systems do not exist for n=2, 3 or 4.

We describe here a general method of construction for (2c−1, n; 3, 6; c)-systems and use it to show that there are such systems for 2n4 and certain values of c depending on n. We also discuss the limitations of this method.