Existence of \((v,\{5,w^*\},1)\)-PBDs. (Q1428515)

Pairwise balanced designs on \(v\) elements having exactly one block of size \(w\) and all other blocks of size \(5\) are investigated. The necessary conditions are that \(v \equiv w \equiv 1 \pmod{4}\), \(v \geq 4w+1\) and either \(v \equiv w \pmod{20}\) or \(v+w \equiv 6 \pmod{20}\). In this paper, cases with \(37 \leq w \leq 97\) are treated and the necessary conditions are shown to be sufficient with 67 possible exceptions. In addition, three of the 8 previously remaining exceptions when \(w \leq 33\) are eliminated. Applications to the embedding of resolvable block designs with block size four, pairwise balanced designs with a block of size 5, and coverings with block size five, are discussed.