Existential closure of block intersection graphs of infinite designs having finite block size and index

In this article we study the n‐existential closure property of the block intersection graphs of infinite t‐(v, k, λ) designs for which the block size k and the index λ are both finite. We show that such block intersection graphs are 2‐e.c. when 2?t?k ? 1. When λ = 1 and 2?t?k, then a necessary and sufficient condition on n for the block intersection graph to be n‐e.c. is that n?min{t, ?(k ? 1)/(t ? 1)? + 1}. If λ?2 then we show that the block intersection graph is not n‐e.c. for any n?min{t + 1, ?k/t? + 1}, and that for 3?n?min{t, ?k/t?} the block intersection graph is potentially but not necessarily n‐e.c. The cases t = 1 and t = k are also discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 19: 85–94, 2011