Maximal arcs in designs (Q1070234)

An (\(\alpha\),n) arc in a design is defined as a nonempty set of n points of the design such that any block intersects this set in at most \(\alpha\) points. An (\(\alpha\),n) arc is said to be maximal if every block meets the arc in either 0 or \(\alpha\) points. A maximal block arc is dually defined. In this paper the infinite family of possibly extendable symmetric designs other than the Hadamard design family and their related designs are studied using maximal arcs. A correspondence between the extendability and the existence of a proper family of maximal arcs as well as a natural duality between point and block arcs are established.