Partitions with certain intersection properties

Partitions of the n ‐element set are considered. A family of m such partitions is called an ( n, m, k )‐pamily, if there are two classes for any pair of partitions whose intersection has at least k elements, and any pair of elements is in the same class for at most two partitions. Let f ( n, k ) denote the maximum of m for which an ( n, m, k )‐pamily exist. A constructive lower bound is given for f ( n, k ), which is compared with the trivial upper bound. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 19:345‐354, 2011