All 80 Steiner triple systems on 15 elements are derived (Q1057868)

The authors complete an open problem on Steiner triple systems of order 15. An \(S(t,t+1,v)\) Steiner system is a pair (S,T) where S is a finite set of v elements and T is a family of \((t+1)\)-subsets of S with the property that every t-subset of S is contained in exactly one element of T. For \(t=2\) an S(2,3,v) is an STS(v); for \(t=3\) an S(3,4,v) is an S(3,4,v). If (Q,q) is a given SQS(v), x an element of Q, \(q_ x=\{b\in q:\quad x\in b\}\) and \(t_ x=\{t\subset Q:\quad | t| =3,\quad t\cup \{x\}\in q_ x\},\) then \((Q-\{x\},t_ x)\) is an STS(v), which is called a Derived STS(v) (briefly DSTS) of the system SQS(v). It is known that there exist exactly 80 STS(15). Further it is known that 66 of these STS(15) are DSTS. In this paper the authors prove that all 80 STS(15) are DSTS.