A new construction for µ-way Steiner trades

Document Type : Original paper

Authors

1 Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.

2 Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Alzahra University , Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

A $\mu$-way $(v,k,t)$ trade $T$ of volume $m$ consists of $\mu$ pairwise disjoint collections $T_1, \ldots ,T_{\mu}$, each of $m$ blocks of size $k$ such that for every $t$-subset of a $v$-set $V,$ the number of blocks containing this $t$-subset is the same in each $T_i$ for $1\leq i\leq \mu$. If any $t$-subset of the $v$-set $V$ occurs at most once in each $T_i$ for $1\leq i\leq \mu$, then $T$ is called a $\mu$-way $(v,k,t)$ Steiner trade. In 2016, it was proved that there exists a 3-way $(v,k,2)$ Steiner trade of volume $m$ when $12(k-1)\leq m$ for each $k$. Here we improve the lower bound to $8(k-1)$ for even $k$, by  using a recursive construction.

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