42 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Combinatorial design"
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chunk: 2/5
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorial_design"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:49:37.423591+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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A balanced incomplete block design or BIBD (usually called for short a block design) is a collection B of b subsets (called blocks) of a finite set X of v elements, such that any element of X is contained in the same number r of blocks, every block has the same number k of elements, and each pair of distinct elements appear together in the same number λ of blocks. BIBDs are also known as 2-designs and are often denoted as 2-(v,k,λ) designs. As an example, when λ = 1 and b = v, we have a projective plane: X is the point set of the plane and the blocks are the lines.
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A symmetric balanced incomplete block design or SBIBD is a BIBD in which v = b (the number of points equals the number of blocks). They are the single most important and well studied subclass of BIBDs. Projective planes, biplanes and Hadamard 2-designs are all SBIBDs. They are of particular interest since they are the extremal examples of Fisher's inequality (b ≥ v).
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A resolvable BIBD is a BIBD whose blocks can be partitioned into sets (called parallel classes), each of which forms a partition of the point set of the BIBD. The set of parallel classes is called a resolution of the design. A solution of the famous 15 schoolgirl problem is a resolution of a BIBD with v = 15, k = 3 and λ = 1.
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A Latin rectangle is an r × n matrix that has the numbers 1, 2, 3, ..., n as its entries (or any other set of n distinct symbols) with no number occurring more than once in any row or column where r ≤ n. An n × n Latin rectangle is called a Latin square. If r < n, then it is possible to append n − r rows to an r × n Latin rectangle to form a Latin square, using Hall's marriage theorem.
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Two Latin squares of order n are said to be orthogonal if the set of all ordered pairs consisting of the corresponding entries in the two squares has n2 distinct members (all possible ordered pairs occur). A set of Latin squares of the same order forms a set of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (MOLS) if every pair of Latin squares in the set are orthogonal. There can be at most n − 1 squares in a set of MOLS of order n. A set of n − 1 MOLS of order n can be used to construct a projective plane of order n (and conversely).
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A (v, k, λ) difference set is a subset D of a group G such that the order of G is v, the size of D is k, and every nonidentity element of G can be expressed as a product d1d2−1 of elements of D in exactly λ ways (when G is written with a multiplicative operation).
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If D is a difference set, and g in G, then g D = {gd: d in D} is also a difference set, and is called a translate of D. The set of all translates of a difference set D forms a symmetric BIBD. In such a design there are v elements and v blocks. Each block of the design consists of k points, each point is contained in k blocks. Any two blocks have exactly λ elements in common and any two points appear together in λ blocks. This SBIBD is called the development of D.
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In particular, if λ = 1, then the difference set gives rise to a projective plane. An example of a (7,3,1) difference set in the group
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Z
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7
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Z
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{\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} /7\mathbb {Z} }
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(an abelian group written additively) is the subset {1,2,4}. The development of this difference set gives the Fano plane.
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Since every difference set gives an SBIBD, the parameter set must satisfy the Bruck–Ryser–Chowla theorem, but not every SBIBD gives a difference set.
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An Hadamard matrix of order m is an m × m matrix H whose entries are ±1 such that HH⊤ = mIm, where H⊤ is the transpose of H and Im is the m × m identity matrix. An Hadamard matrix can be put into standardized form (that is, converted to an equivalent Hadamard matrix) where the first row and first column entries are all +1. If the order m > 2 then m must be a multiple of 4.
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Given an Hadamard matrix of order 4a in standardized form, remove the first row and first column and convert every −1 to a 0. The resulting 0–1 matrix M is the incidence matrix of a symmetric 2-(4a − 1, 2a − 1, a − 1) design called an Hadamard 2-design. This construction is reversible, and the incidence matrix of a symmetric 2-design with these parameters can be used to form an Hadamard matrix of order 4a. When a = 2 we obtain the, by now familiar, Fano plane as an Hadamard 2-design.
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A pairwise balanced design (or PBD) is a set X together with a family of subsets of X (which need not have the same size and may contain repeats) such that every pair of distinct elements of X is contained in exactly λ (a positive integer) subsets. The set X is allowed to be one of the subsets, and if all the subsets are copies of X, the PBD is called trivial. The size of X is v and the number of subsets in the family (counted with multiplicity) is b.
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Fisher's inequality holds for PBDs: For any non-trivial PBD, v ≤ b.
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This result also generalizes the famous Erdős–De Bruijn theorem: For a PBD with λ = 1 having no blocks of size 1 or size v, v ≤ b, with equality if and only if the PBD is a projective plane or a near-pencil. |