Steiner systems S(2, 4,v) - a survey Colin Reid,
[email protected] Alex Rosa,
[email protected] Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Submitted: Jan 21, 2009; Accepted: Jan 25, 2010; Published: Feb 1, 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 05B05 Abstract We survey the basic properties and results on Steiner systems S(2, 4, v), as well as open problems. 1 Introduction A Steiner system S(t, k, v) is a pair (V, ) where V is a v-element set and is a family of k-element subsets of V called blocks suchB that each t-element subset of V Bis contained in exactly one block. For basic properties and results on Steiner systems, see [51]. By far the most popular and most studied Steiner systems are those with t = 2 and k = 3, called Steiner triple systems (STS). There exists a very extensive literature on STSs (see, eg., [54] and the bibliography therein). Steiner systems with t = 3 and k =4 are known as Steiner quadruple systems and are commonly abbreviated as SQS; there exist (at least) two extensive surveys on SQSs (see [122], [95]); see also [51]). When t = 2, one often speaks of a Steiner 2-design. Quite a deal of attention has also been paid to the case of Steiner systems S(2, 4, v), but to the best of our knowledge, no survey of known results and problems on these Steiner 2-designs with block size 4 has been published. It is the purpose of this article to fill this gap by bringing together known results and problems on this quite interesting class of Steiner systems.