The maximum independence number of Steiner triple systems of order v is well‐known. Motivated by questions of access balancing in storage systems, we determine the maximum total cardinality of a pair of disjoint independent sets of Steiner triple systems of order v for all admissible orders.

Let X be a finite set with v elements, called points and β be a family of subsets of X , called blocks. A pair ( X , β ) is called λ ‐design whenever ∣ β ∣ = ∣ X ∣ and 1. for all B i , B j ∈ β , i ≠ j , ∣ B i ∩ B j ∣ = λ ; 2. for all B j ∈ β , ∣ B j ∣ = k j > λ , and not all k j are equal. The only known examples of λ ‐designs are so‐called type‐1 designs, which are obtained from symmetric designs

Group divisible designs (GDDs) with block size 4 and at most 30 points are known for all feasible group types except three, namely 2 3 5 4 , 3 5 6 2 , and 2 2 5 5 . In this paper we provide solutions for the first two of these three 4‐GDDs without assuming any automorphisms. We also construct several other 4‐GDDs. These include classes of 4‐GDDs of types ( 3 m ) 4 ( 6 m ) q ( 3 n ) 1 for 0 ≤ n ≤ (

Deep learning is a machine learning methodology using a multilayer neural network. Let V 1 , V 2 , … , V L be mutually disjoint node sets (layers). A multilayer neural network can be regarded as a union of the complete bipartite graphs K ∣ V i ∣ , ∣ V i + 1 ∣ on consecutive two node sets V i and V i + 1 for i = 1 , 2 , … , L − 1 . The edges of a bipartite graph function as weights which are represented

A Deza graph with parameters ( v , k , b , a ) is a k ‐regular graph on v vertices in which the number of common neighbors of two distinct vertices takes one of the following values: b or a , where b ≥ a . In the previous papers Deza graphs with b = k − 1 were characterized. In this paper, we characterize Deza graphs with b = k − 2 .

For positive integers n ≥ k ≥ t , a collection B of k ‐subsets of an n ‐set X is called a t ‐packing if every t ‐subset of X appears in at most one set in B . In this paper, we investigate the existence of the maximum 3‐packings whenever n is sufficiently larger than k . When n ≢ 2 ( mod k − 2 ) , the optimal value for the size of a 3‐packing is settled. In other cases, lower and upper bounds are obtained

A pair of orthogonal latin cubes of order q is equivalent to a maximum distance separable code with distance 3 or to an OA 1 ( 3 , 5 , q ) orthogonal array. We construct pairs of orthogonal latin cubes for sequences of previously unknown orders q i = 16 ( 18 i − 1 ) + 4 and q i ′ = 16 ( 18 i + 5 ) + 4 . The minimal new obtained parameters of orthogonal arrays are OA 1 ( 3 , 5 , 84 ) .

Several varieties of quasigroups obtained from perfect Mendelsohn designs with block size 4 are defined. One of these is obtained from the so‐called directed standard construction and satisfies the law x y ⋅ ( y ⋅ x y ) = x and another satisfies Stein's third law x y ⋅ y x = y . Such quasigroups which satisfy the flexible law x ⋅ y x = x y ⋅ x are investigated and characterized. Quasigroups which satisfy

An e ‐star is a complete bipartite graph K 1 , e . An e ‐star system of order n > 1 , S e ( n ) , is a partition of the edges of the complete graph K n into e ‐stars. An e ‐star system is said to be k ‐colourable if its vertex set can be partitioned into k sets (called colour classes) such that no e ‐star is monochromatic. The system S e ( n ) is k ‐chromatic if S e ( n ) is k ‐colourable but is not

A partial Steiner triple system of order u is a pair ( U , A ) , where U is a set of u elements and 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 each pair of elements occur together in exactly one triple it is a Steiner triple system. An embedding of a partial Steiner triple system ( U , A ) is a (complete) Steiner triple system ( V

Let D ( n ) be the number of pairwise disjoint Steiner quadruple systems (SQS) of order n . A simple counting argument shows that D ( n ) ≤ n − 3 and a set of n − 3 such systems is called a large set. No nontrivial large set was constructed yet, although it is known that they exist if n ≡ 2 or 4 ( mod 6 ) is large enough. When n ≥ 7 and n ≡ 1 or 5 ( mod 6 ) , we present a recursive construction and

We show that the necessary conditions are sufficient for the existence of two disjoint near (hooked) Rosa sequences, with all admissible orders n ≥ 6 and all possible defects. Further, we apply this result for the existence of new types of cyclic and simple GDDs.

An n ‐ary k ‐radius sequence is a finite sequence of elements taken from an alphabet of size n in which any two distinct elements occur within distance k of each other somewhere in the sequence. The study of constructing short k ‐radius sequences was motivated by some problems occurring in large data transfer. Let f k ( n ) be the shortest length of any n ‐ary k ‐radius sequence. We show that the conjecture

In this paper we relate t ‐designs to a forbidden configuration problem in extremal set theory. Let 1 t 0 ℓ denote a column of t 1's on top of ℓ 0's. Let q ⋅ 1 t 0 ℓ denote the ( t + ℓ ) × q matrix consisting of t rows of q 1's and ℓ rows of q 0's. We consider extremal problems for matrices avoiding certain submatrices. Let A be a (0, 1)‐matrix forbidding any ( t + ℓ ) × ( λ + 2 ) submatrix ( λ + 2

It is known that in any r‐coloring of the edges of a complete r‐uniform hypergraph, there exists a spanning monochromatic component. Given a Steiner triple system on n vertices, what is the largest monochromatic component one can guarantee in an arbitrary 3‐coloring of the edges? Gyárfás proved that ( 2 n + 3 ) / 3 is an absolute lower bound and that this lower bound is best possible for infinitely

Using a backtracking algorithm along with an essential change to the rows of representatives of known 13 710 027 equivalence classes of Hadamard matrices of order 32, we make an exhaustive computer search feasible and show that there are exactly 6662 inequivalent skew‐Hadamard matrices of order 32. Two skew‐Hadamard matrices are considered SH‐equivalent if they are similar by a signed permutation matrix